written on 6 February 2012
As it is Sunday, Tita and I decided to go to Mass in the morning before going around town again. On our way there, Tita had to go back to the apartment because she left something there for her friend. I decided to wait for her at the bus stop which was only a block away from her gate. While I was waiting for her, I noticed that most of the cars are really small and when I asked Tita about it later, she said it's because of the parking space. People needed smaller cars to 'conserve' parking space. Hmmm... Also, while waiting for Tita to arrive, I was bitten by a mosquito at my left foot! My goodness, I thought I'd be able to escape from mosquitoes in Europe but apparently not.
Before heading to church, Tita and I went to meet up her friend and then buy a one whole chicken to share with the community for lunch. I was told that every Sunday after mass, the community has this little get-together.
The church we went to was a small one whose parishioners are Filipinos, except one - Paolo. Everybody was very welcoming and even the priest, who was also new to the church there, also commented on it. It was a very nice reminder of home, to be with a Filipino community. I also noticed some families there whose children already speak Italian, but whose parents always encouraged them to speak in their native tongue - Visayan. Most of these guys work as nurses, caretakers and house-helps. It was a privilege to meet people like them who work really hard away from home just so their family can have everything they need and want. When spoken to about their families, most of them would say that they haven't been back home for a long time and that they miss their family. What sacrifice these people make!
Anyways, the lunch was very good with food prepared the Filipino way, including the pancit and lumpia :)
After the service, Tita and I headed into town. On the bus though, I really got a bit of a panic attack when these two policemen were making their way through the bus checking out people's tickets. I know I didn't have to worry about anything because my pass was still valid but still, it's quite an experience being asked for your ticket when you don't really understand them. I just handed it to them and luckily, they didn't ask any question. Tita told me that they do that in random because, as I noticed before, people do not always flash their tickets on the ticket machines. They just hop on and hop off. And sometimes, many tourists take advantage of this and do not pay for their ride. There were already instances that passports were confiscated just because of this.
On the bus though, I saw a very, very long line going to the Veritas (a 'statue' of a man with an open mouth and it tells you your fortune - there's one like this in one amusement area in a mall before). Since it was a waste of time lining up for that, we decided to forego this tourist attraction. What we were really interested in was of course, the Vatican City and the walk towards the cupola! I also saw the Castel d'Angelo on our way there! :) Cool! :)
After the Vatican City, we headed out the main plaza to a Filipino souvenir shop a couple of meters away, where I bought Roma tshirts for Mama and Papa, rosaries for Mama and her friends, ref magnets for my collection and postcards. I just wonder how I'd be able to send these cards to my parents when I can't find any stamps for sale and the Vatican mobile post office was closed. Our next stop was the gelato shop a couple of shops down the street. The gelato here was almost a euro cheaper than the one we had at the Spanish Steps last night. We stayed for a while, enjoying our gelato and looking over their stuff for sale, then we noticed this cute little candies at their refrigerators. When asked about it, the owner told us that it was nut sweets that they don't really sell anymore because although it is still good to eat, it was a bit old already. We probably really looked curious because he then opened the refrigerator, opened the pack and gave us some to eat. LOL. Wow, free food :)
After our gelato break, we headed up towards the Filipino shop again and turned right towards the Red Line's Ottaviano station to head towards Barbarini Station, where we would hop off to walk towards the Trevi Fountain. The cobbled, narrow streets of Rome is really wonderful (but sometimes the unevenness of it all hurts my feet) and are flanked by what obviously are, very old buildings. The street leading to the fountain seemed to go on and on, with a lot of hawkers roaming around, some of which would call out to us -- "Sawadika" thinking that we might be Thais :)
So after walking for a while, we just sort of tumbled out to this very crowded plaza and after navigating through it, we finally saw the whole beauty of the Trevi fountain! We were even able to grab some seats on the benches. People said that you should throw three coins onto the fountain so that you might be able to find love and be able to go back to Rome. Tita opted to seat on the bench while I walked down towards the edge of the fountain (the place was kinda huge and designed like a mini-ampitheater). There, I asked a guy to take my picture. Apparently, this guy was a public photographer and he was really kind enough to take my pictures, even directing me on how to pose so that it would look like I'm throwing a coin. Actually, I only threw one, the smallest Euro denomination I could find in my purse. Next time I'm back there, I would not forget my peso coins so I can toss as many as I want, just to have cool photos of me tossing coins around. LOL.
When I had a fill of the Trevi, we then headed back to Barbarini going to Termini. We had dinner at this Italian fast food chain where they served a mass produced pasta that wasn't really mind-blowing. Going home, we changed to the Blue Line at Termini, got off at Garbatella and then took a bus (Ostiense stop) to Tita's place, which is about 10-12 minutes away.
Day 2 has ended!
But, unfortunately, I wasn't able to visit Sistine Chapel at the Vatican Museums so I insisted to go tomorrow before I leave for Germany in the afternoon. Tita decided to stay at home so tomorrow will be my "alone in Rome" day. Yipee! :)
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