DAY 39: Fourth Day in Rome

Slacked off. The heat and humidity were factors in my decision making. Still wasn’t sleeping much. Remained cautious of overexerting myself in this scorching weather, especially if I wasn’t getting proper rest. Too restless to entirely squander the day though. Napped later in the afternoon and left “home” by nightfall.

I stopped off near the Vatican. Met a cute short-haired blonde girl. Black-rimmed reading glasses. We met outside the Castel St. Angelo, which was a stoned castle with a dome-shaped roof. We were both sweating bullets and in need of water. Once we were properly hydrated, we stopped for real drinks. The bars were tented and ran along the river. Tricky finding somewhere to relax that wasn’t bombarded by loud music and multi-color seizure inducing LEDs.

We settled in the back corner near the river and traded stories. We were approached on no less than 15 separate occasions to purchase flowers. Sometimes it was the same guy that approached us more than five times and he never recognized that he’d already stopped by. That or he was exceedingly good at acting clueless.

This blonde girl was from Baltimore. Attending the University of Rome with a focus on Archeology. She was working on her thesis, focusing on women in Jordan. There’s a suppressed mentality the women have there obviously, like most middle-eastern countries. She was attempting to utilize archeology to empower the women of Jordan with a common goal, to instill a strong communal gathering. Men were involved with this project as well but her goal was to stir the women of Jordan’s intellectual interest by using her knowledge of Archeology as a driving force for the women to gain interest in something outside of their survival. Most women in Jordan, if not all, cover themselves head-to-toe in black robes to keep potential rapists and attackers at bay. The blonde girl said it was worse than usual. If a woman is raped in Jordan, it’s deemed her fault for tempting the man into attacking her and she can be killed by her family for losing her virginity. Surreal.

The blonde girl was intelligent and geeky. Interesting insights. She went on to explain that she was polyamorous, and currently in five separate active relationships. I had enough trouble maintaining one relationship at a time…