da sola

Mom left this morning, I was pretty bummed. Sublimated by getting down to work, albeit in my pajamas at home over too many cups of coffee.

Yesterday we had a big day, out to the massive cathedral, San Giovanni in Laterano and then to my favorite favorite church in Rome, San Clemente. Under the 'modern' church (16th c.?) are the archeological sites of the previous early church and an ancient Roman Mithras cult site underneath that. It is labyrinthine and cold and damp, 40 feet under the earth. We wandered around down there, feeling more and more uneasy, though I told Mom not to be a wimp. Then, completely silently, a couple popped out of a dark doorway and scared the beejeesus out of me, I jumped and yelled, Mom startled, and the two just stared at me without any evincing of humor at all. We of course, giggled and clutched each other's arms until we escaped the spookiness.

We had an incredible dinner at Ferrara, an enoteca and restaurant here in Trastevere. We had to sit in the piazza with glasses of wine and plates of antipasti until the restaurant opened at 8, which was fine with me but struck Mom as slightly dangerous, considering the traffic still stuttering through. The absurd Trastevere bus made a cameo appearance as we waited - this tiny little bus has a mysterious route that we've not been able to figure out, we've never seen any stops but it keeps appearing randomly in a piazza when we're having coffee, running us down on a narrow street. It is like the paperboy character in "Better Off Dead"...

I'm trying to figure out how to get to Turkey at the height of the season in August. Too expensive. Tomorrow I'll make a stop at the student travel agency, but I'm worrying I may have to take the 30 hour ferry.