Coffee and Gladiators

Yo yo, one last one about Rome.

For the final day I hit the 2 famous coffee spots there immediately when they opened, Sant Eustacchio and Tazza D’oro. Sant Eustacchio was the real famous one and it was some crusty old mean-mugging man tossing out some subpar coffee. I liked the other one better (pic below). I guess Rome is about the old coffee culture which is unique with the stand-at-the-bar ordering. I got used to getting bullied by people that spoke Italian and yelled louder and started laughing about it.

Paris and Barcelona both had great coffee scenes that were more my type and it sounds like Munich and London do as well. This place called Bar Del Cappuccino was one of them and you know I had to stop on my crawl with that name. It looked more like a local hole-in-the-wall but they were very friendly, had a daughter that went to college in America and gave me a free pastry as well. Enough about about coffee I'm the fakest hipster there is.

On to food.

Ate an early lunch at the famous Tonnarello and the food was outstanding. I tried the focaccia and I lied I went back to meatballs, cacio e Pepe meatballs, phew they were tasty. So filling though.

I walked it off through the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill before my colosseum tour. Can't believe they built this all in a single day. People were just trying to survive out there in the heat but the sights were worth the journey. Luckily they got the Nasonis all over the place in there so there’s plenty of water otherwise people would’ve been passing out (more than they were).

The sheer amount of time that has passed since some of those, now ruins, were created is unfathomable. Had a sweet guide from Eritrea for the Colosseum tour and he was spitting some facts. The entrances of the gladiators from the movies is pretty realistic and the bloodsport that happened there is wild. When it first opened (the first century), the public would vote for nearly every loser to be slaughtered by their competitor. Over time most of the gladiators survived. There was one early in the deadly first century, called Flama (la flame blanca shout out Kenny Powers), who won his freedom by winning 7 times but chose to keep fighting with his life at stake to get to 21 wins. What a gangsta. The crowd loved him of course and he was one that was saved the few times he lost. Nearly half a million people died in there, crazy to think about.

His tombstone, found near Sicily, still survives and reads:

“Flama, Syrian by nationality, lived 30 years, fought 34 times, won 21, defeated 9, was defeated 4 times. A hero even in defeat. He was offered his freedom four times but refused it."

Gladiator entrance:

Finished my stay in Trastevere with a walk around the cobblestones one last time with this guy:

I don't know who he is but I like him. The solo travel concludes and it's nice to have someone other than a dude on a beer bottle to share the experience with. Welcome Debar, on to the next one.

The train ride up to Florence through wine country was sweet and seeing the olive trees on every estate was different. First impressions of Florence are that it is a whole lot more chill than Rome, and a lot nicer and cleaner. There are places to stop and take a breath and not feel like you're fighting for your life body to body. We cruised around town with aperol spritz's in hand and got our bearings.

Saw a disgusting act at the wine window down by the water. They look like this:

And I guess they are some kind of tourist attraction where everyone is getting a glass for the picture, but there was also a ton of people just splitting bottles on the street. One lady had the guy who was handing wine out take a video of her getting it from inside as her husband took photos outside. She then proceeded to immediately dump the wine in the sewer. Tough look.

Alright that's all for now it's Forza Viola today at the futbol match. Ciao Ciao now I'll check back in feel like it.