Rome and Too Much Caffeine

Too much caffeine this morning. I am almost done drinking an entire pot, and my eyeballs are jittering and my palms are sweaty. Instead of helping me focus on writing my Classics paper, it has me scrolling through Facebook pictures and becoming intensely interested in current world events. And now blogging. Which is writing. So it's a step closer to my paper, I guess.
Gotta stay positive.
Look on the bright side of life.
Very Life of Brian, non?
But anyway, the result of all this internet searching, scanning, reading, etc., is that I am craving Rome. The dirty streets and the crush of people getting off the train station at Termini. Want to know a fun fact? I have been to Rome over 10 different instances. I lived there for the month of August a couple of years ago. We would drink too much caffeine then too. An espresso at every break. Every new sight or stop we would find a cafe and drop a euro on a coffee. Except at lunch time. Then, Linds and I would make a big pasta lunch with fresh produce picked up on our way back to the convent, and then we would crack open a bottle of red and drink a glass or two with our food. Sometimes we would make a salad instead of pasta. A crunchy, fresh salad of rucola full of tuna or little fish, and chickpeas, and we would free- hand pour olive oil and balsamic over the top. Then it was nap time. Or more like I would sleep and she would watch South Park stolen from Duncan on Tristan's laptop. We would gather in the late afternoons for a final few churches to explore, sweat dripping down our backs.
Rome in August is hot.
So is Rome in July.
Rome in January is rainy and cool.
Rome in February can be warmish, but it still is rainy and windy.
Rome in March is usually quite pleasant.
And by April, Rome is wonderful. Maybe my favourite time there.
Gosh, I sound pretentious, don't I? Sorry. But honestly, it's probably my favourite city.

When I was there with K, we would take the metro out to the Vatican JUST to get Old Bridge gelato. It was cheap, huge helpings, in a tiny crack in the new part of the city. Plus, the gelato was served up the cutest Roman guys. So smiley, and charming. Sometimes we would go twice a day.

And when I was there with Dani, I showed her the donair pizza place I found in the basement of an internet cafe by the Santa Maria Majjore. We would make an effort to stop there every time we were in Rome for a day or two, or even just passing through on our way to somewhere else. I wonder if I could find it again...
Just ran up to the attic and pulled out an old map of Rome. The street names are only vaguely familiar, but if I was there in person, I'm sure I could figure it out.
One of the last times I was at that pizza place, it was with Dani and Sonja. We had spent the whole day wandering around the Tiber, and exploring around the Ponte Fabricio, eating bread and cheese and salami cut up with my Swiss army knife. For dinner we made our way to the pizza place, Dani and I promising Sonja that it would be the best donair pizza she had ever tasted. It really was, too. We sat at one of the 3 tables to munch, and watched the tiny little tv that was switched to the Italian news station, and that was when we first saw footage of the Japanese tsunami. I remember we were shocked, almost crying, using our rudimentary Italian to try and understand what was happening. It was scary.