#and i want to see kaliya's floor

[mkstrigidae]

I'm late to the party, but heard that Gabby scratched the meet and Konnor was injured- is classics still worth watching? I need someone else to gossip with about it who knows more about gymnastics than me lmao

[greenbagjosh]

Day 13 - sorry horror film fans, the Bocca della Verità thought I was too honest, Sophie Ellis Bextor kitchen disco in Città Studi, and great nighttime view of Piazza del Duomo

Monday, 18 September 2000

Buongiorno!  Grüß Gott!  Bonjour!  

Hello and welcome to the 17 day journey of September 2000.  

Today is Monday the 18th September 2000.  I am still in Rome, and there is really only one thing I want to see before taking the train north to Rome.  Namely the Bocca della Verità.

I woke up about 7:55 AM to Roberto Benigni as Gino from "Night on Earth".  I had to take my black sling bag to Roma Termini to put it in a locker until I was ready to take the train to Milano Centrale.  Pension Kristi did not have breakfast so I had to buy it myself.  I took bus 62 from the Via Venti Settembre (Piave) bus stop to Roma Termini, pay the luggage storage fee, then get breakfast.  For breakfast I found a standup cafe, asked for a coffee and a pastry, paid it and received it a minute later.  Then I took the bus back to the Pension Kristi, took a shower and checked out by 9:55 AM.  Then I walked back to Via Venti Settembre, took the bus to Termini and rode the metro line B to Circo Massimo.  That was a site of the chariot riding stadium during the time of the Roman Empire.  A few bus stops away was the Bocca della Verità.  

Taking the 51 bus to the Bocca della Verità took five minutes.  The bus passed by the ruins of the Circo Massimo, on the eponymous street.  There was not much to see, and the grass had long since grown back.  I was at the Bocca della Verità about 10:45 AM.  There were two people in front of me, so I had to wait my turn.  At 10:48 AM was my turn.  I stuck my hand in the mouth, and panicked a bit.  My hand was okay, nothing really happened.  I had no material to make a horror film, sadly.

At 10:52 AM I took the line 51 bus back to Circo Massimo and boarded the line B metro train to San Paolo Basilica to look around.  The line B metro exits its tunnel around Piramide / Porta San Paolo and Ostiense rail stations, and is at grade until EUR Magliana and goes back into tunnel and ends at Laurentina.  About 11:10 AM I walked around the Basilica San Paolo neighborhood, and had a snack at Hostaria Pizzería, Via Gaspare Gozzi, 45.  They had pizza sauce bread, which they cut with what I thought were fabric scissors.  I might have bought about $5.00 worth.  It was delicious.

At 11:40 AM I took the line B metro to Termini, collected my black sling bag, and boarded the 12:11 PM train for Milano Centrale.  I had a seat in the first class compartment with two or three others.  The train would make a counterclockwise turn before heading north to Florence SMN.  

The train arrived 2:20 PM at Firenze Santa Maria Novella.  It would make a direction change before going north to Bologna and Milano.  The train left at 2:30 PM.  The train passed by Prato and Pistoia about 2:45 PM before going into tunnel and arriving at Bologna Centrale at 3:27 PM.  Riding in the train, sure beat sitting in the back seat of a 1987 Opel Kadett without air conditioning and a crummy radio.  The train went on to Modena and arrived at 4 PM.  I saw many corn fields, and remembered the song by Fabrizio di André "Spritual" the lyric "Dio de cielo, se mi cercherai, nel campo del granturco mi troverai".  I learned that song in second-semester Italian class at university.  The train arrived at Milano Centrale about 5:50 PM.  I bought a 48 hour ticket for about 9,000 Lire, about US $4.25.  I took the tram line 33 from Duca D'Aosta which was half a block away from the rail station.  I had to alight at Loreto because it was being rerouted and this morning, engineerings work to restore the tracks had started.  So I had to walk three blocks along Via Giuseppe Pecchio, to Hotel Aspromonte on the east side of the eponymous square.  

I checked in to Hotel Aspromonte at 7 PM.  I had a single room, with a shower and toilet, as well as a TV, radio and telephone.  Breakfast was complimentary and served from 7 AM to 9:30 AM.  However there was no elevator, and in September 2000, there was no air conditioning in the rooms, except for the third floor rooms and at a charge of about $20 per night extra.  Instead I had a ceiling fan.  All in all the room was good.  At 7:10 PM I had turned my radio to Tam Tam Network, and "Groovejet (If this ain't love)" by DJ Spiller with Sophie Ellis-Bextor was playing.  I also had my video camera running, with the radio feed plugged into the camera's external microphone jack.  That was my first "Kitchen Disco" recording, made long before even Sophie Ellis-Bextor did her own.  At 7:16 PM the song "Qualcosa di grande" by Lùnapop was playing after that.  I looked out my hotel room and it was a view of the hotel's garden.  The air conditioning unit that was on my balcony was for the ductless air conditioner that was for the room one floor above my room.  

About 7:25 PM I left Hotel Aspromonte for dinner.  I went to Via Fillipo Lippi and Via Francesco Lomonaco in the Città Studi district of Milan.  I wanted to take the trolleybus line 90, 91, 92 or 93 and catch the M3 and take it to Duomo.  I know that I could have walked down Via Giuseppe Pecchio to Loreto and catch the M1 to Duomo, but I wanted to see what Milan was like if I were to go a different direction.  Somehow I ended up at Loreto and took the M1 and took it to Duomo.  At 8:19 I positioned my video camera in a way that I was not looking into it, and got an interesting view of the Duomo cathedral, and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.  I even remarked about that Saturday 25 July 1998 incident at Piazza del Duomo when I fed the pigeons.  About 8:20 PM Roberto Benigni wanted to go for dinner.  I walked through the Galeria, avoiding the Ristorante Biffi due to its outrageous prices.  Instead I went up to the Bistrot Duomo, which was a cafeteria and you would pick out what was already being cooked.  I went with the risotto and beefsteak.  I had planned to have spaghetti alla carbonara, but decided for another day.  Risotto was basically rice with carrots and whatever green vegetables were in season.  I had a tartufo for dessert, which was ice cream with a powdered surface and a sauce center, tasting faintly of truffles.  It was good.

About 10 PM I went to the M1 platform of the Duomo metro station.  I took the M1 to the Cadorna station where there is an interchange to the M2, which would require climbing up and down of stairs.  The journey took less thant ten minutes.  I made it to the southbound M2 platform for Famagosta but I rode it only as far as Sant'Agostino.  What is special about Sant'Agostino?  It is a station that has one platform on top of the other.  The southbound platform is below the northbound platform.  When the train left for Famagosta, I noticed the left tail light was flashing like a strobe light, where the right tail light was constantly lit.  I had not ever noticed that on any other metro line.  I exited the station and walked to Sant'Ambrogio.  I passed by a grocery store that closed at 9 PM.  They open about 7 AM Mondays to Saturdays.  

At 10:36 PM I boarded an M2 train for Loreto.  The M2 stopped at Cadorna, Lanza, Moscova, Garibaldi, Gioia, and Centrale FS.  I alighted at Centrale FS and at the west end of the M2 platform there is a passageway to the M3.  I took the M3 just one stop down and one stop back before taking the M2 to Loreto before going back to the hotel.  I rode to Repubblica specifically so that I could see the service track junction between Centrale FS and Repubblica.  The M3 station has a quiet electric hum when there is no train in the station.  The train can be heard for the two minutes prior to its arrival.  Once it arrives, the doors open, there is a three second horn sound before the doors close and then the train departs.  I watched the M2 tracks come up from the tunnel south of Centrale FS and they joined with the M3 tracks, just before pulling into Repubblica.  It was 11 PM by then.  I went through the passageway to the northbound platform for Zara, the then-northern terminus of the M3.  I returned to the hotel just after midnight.  I went to bed just after watching the ceiling fan spin.  I turned on the radio to listen to Tam Tam Network and I heard the following songs.

"Another Way" by Gigi D'Agostino "Komodo" by Mauro Picotto "On the Sun" by Peepol "Turn Around" by Paps 'N Skar "Downtown" by Sals8 (Salsotto) "You can't Stop It" DJ Spinnas Extended Mix by Kojak "Ritual Tibetan" by Kaliya "Super DJ" by Carolina Marquez "No more turning back" by Gitta "Bang" by Robbie Rivera and several by Floorfilla

I woke up the next morning at 7:40 AM, well in time for breakfast.

Tomorrow I will see the Last Supper and hope I do not lose the way there from the castle that I had difficulty pronouncing its name properly.  Sf-co-something, Sforza related, I think.  Anyway it's close to the Cadorna rail station.

Buona notte!  Gute Nacht!  Bonne nuit!  Good night!