The title of this post, in case that phrase doesn't immediately conjure it, is a reference to the theme song of Gilligan's Island, which has been stuck in my head all day. More on this later.
I woke up bright and early this morning, and headed out to the far northern outskirts of the city to pick up my unsuspecting victims. I mean, tourists. They were a family of Americans who live in Britain, because the father is in the Air Force. Today was their last day in Rome, and I was thrilled that they chose to spend it with me. They wanted to see the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, and I have been salivating at the chance to tell someone about these very things for ages. After paying our entrance fee with euros and one of my kidneys, we entered the Forum, and I launched into my description of the Basilica Fulvia Aemilia. Despite this being my first tour, I wasn't nervous at all. I was served well by all those Centro field trips, and derived great satisfaction from being able to produce that 'oooo' sound at various structures, from the Curia to the Temple of Venus and Roma. However, as it does on most days in Rome, the sun was beating down upon our little group, and the three small children began to suffer from it. Therefore, the central theme of the second half of my tour of the Forum was 'shade', or more specifically, 'see that pile of rubble over there? I will tell you about it from this shade here.' I also gave a 7 minute off the cuff talk on acqueducts, as we all stopped to drink out of (and spray each other from) one of the drinking fountains in the Forum.
After leaving the Forum, the Gilligan's Island theme song began to run in my head, and all I could think as we entered the Colosseum was 'so this is the tale of the castaways, they're here for a long long time, they'll have to make the best of things, its an uphill climb'. At this point, I wisely chose to take the elevator. The Colosseum went well, as it never really fails to impress (I have to do very little, in the face of such a magnificent building), but by the end of the whole thing, I looked at my watch and thought 'a three hour tour, a three hour tour...' We finished the tour significantly ruddier than we had begun it, and unanimously decided that I should be tipped not with money, but with gelato. Strangely enough, I had no qualms with this.
It was wonderful to feel like a real tour guide, and I get to repeat the experience again tomorrow, except in the Vatican. That means that this evening, I have to go over my notes so that I will be able to differentiate between which Pope excommunicated miniskirts, and which one is actually a Danish Lutheran broom cupboard. Should be an exciting evening.
More exciting is the fact that Roisin is here, and somehow, I managed to find us an apartment. More on this later, for now, I have to study.
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2 comments:
Congrats on the first tour! Glad to hear it went well! I'm sure it was the most idiosyncratic tour of the Forum ever. Seeing as I got that descriptive adjective from Eurotrip, it would be appropriate to say that your tour of the Vatican will be akin to Jamie's tomorrow: you will outdo Frommer's!!
Oddly enough the complaining kids from your tour sound oddly like the Centristi, except we had partied too hard the night before AND it was hot and sunny. Let those kids have a night in Testaccio before a tour, and then they can talk (/Mikey will give them a cigarette and tell them to quite their complaining because it's giving him a headache)!
Good luck again tomorrow! I feel like I had 80 other things to tell you, but I suppose better not to fill your head with nonsense when you're memorizing Popes. Never could get them straight myself.
As Mel said, congrats on the tour! I hope you told them about the coins melted into the basilica floor (one of my favorite facts about the forum). ;)
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