Around Town

With my sister in town this weekend, we explored some of the local neighborhoods and discovered some funny Chinese crackers along the way.  Best of all, I now have a new way of tormenting my sister.  I can hear you screaming from here!

Rome Uploaded

Rome, Day 6

The conference finally ended today a little after lunch, so I decided to use my remaining time to run through the city and check out the Roman monuments in the glow of twilight.  While I've been to most of the sites in Rome before, there's something very beautiful about how they look in the setting sun.  Also, ever since my first trip to Rome, I've been drooling over the thought of gelato from San Crispino - hands down the best gelato I've ever had.  While I was in the area the other day, the shop hadn't opened for business yet, so today was my last day to get some gelato, cold as it is.  This place only uses fresh, seasonal ingredients, so every visit could very well be different!

Walking around by myself at night (with a camera, no less) always makes me a bit paranoid, but somewhere between gawking at the ruins and sending text messages to people back home made me lose my focus, and I looked up to find this guy standing in front of me, just staring.  After introducing himself, he kept volunteering to give me a tour of Rome, take me to dinner, and also kept asking what hotel I was staying at.  On the one hand, he wasn't completely creepy about it, but at the same time, it just seemed like something out of those educational videos about travel safety.  Don't talk to strangers!  Beware of seemingly nice men who want to take you places! 

In any case, here's my favorite picture from the night.  There's nothing quite like the Roman Colisseum bathed in moonlight, and seeing it literally stopped me in my tracks; it's simply breathtaking.

Rome, Day 4

Nothing exciting to report today, except this amazing view that I woke up to.  It's been raining a little (wouldn't know, I'm mostly indoors), so it's been a bit hazy.  I wish I knew how to properly capture the amazing light breaking through the clouds.

Rome, Day 3

Woke up early today to take full advantage of the half-day before the 1pm start of the conference.  Unfortunately, I didn't wake up as early as I wanted, so I only managed to make it down to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.  After this, I'll most likely be inside the hotel working for the next few days, networking and feigning excitement about my work.  Boring, boring, and even more boring.  At least there will be plenty of food and alcohol to ease the pain.  I should probably also mention that this hotel serves the world's best coffee, so at least there's that to look forward to.

Rome, Day 2

I'm not going to have much time to myself during this trip, so with today's free day before the conference, I decided to head to Vatican City, even though I've previously been.  I may not be Catholic, but I can certainly appreciate the religious and historical significance of St Peter's Cathedral, as well as admire the beauty of the architecture and sculptures within.  I realize it makes for a cheesy post, but I challenge you to step inside and not be taken aback.  If you do visit, don't forget to make the climb to the top of the dome.  Besides the much needed exercise, the views are spectacular.

Unfortunately, my excursion was cut short due to a conference call I had to take back in my room, but at least the panoramic view from my balcony is nothing short of breath taking, which made concentrating even harder.  The front desk was right to suggest that I switch from street view to city view, even if the beds are smaller.  This is just a part of my view - the domed building to the right is St. Peter's Cathedral.  If I can ever figure out how to stitch my photos together, I'll post the panoramic.

Rome, Day 1

After all the trips through Frankfurt, my upgrade for today's flight finally went through, and I got to enjoy United's new international business class, and in a rear facing seat, no less!  With the lay flat beds and 15" TV with over a hundred hours of movie and TV programming, who wants to get out of their seat?  The only weird thing is that when the curtain isn't drawn, you sometimes wind up staring straight at the people facing forward.  Also of note is that one of my flight attendants was Lois Lane, and I was wearing my Superman shirt, so everyone had a little fun with that.  "Would you like some dessert, Superman?  Why, that'd be lovely, Ms. Lane!"  Unfortunately, SFO has the highest concentration of elite frequent flyers, making these upgrades harder to come by, which makes this upgrade even more painful, since I now know what I'm missing.

My connecting flight to Rome was rather uneventful, except for this little gem, which after last time, has made me a fan of the Lufthansa in-flight magazine. Seriously, who would buy used aircraft seats?  Who is the target market here?  Would someone sitting in an airplane seat actually see this ad and want to place an order?  I wouldn't even want a new one!