Rome- Mustafa's Perspective

"All things atrocious and shameless flock from all parts to Rome."-Tacitus


When blogging, for whatever reason, I prefer using bullet points and questionable grammar. I apologize in advance.
1. Arrived in Rome. Airport, (uses Rorschach voice), "Stinks of corruption, stained by the greed of corporations and evil". Haha. No, seriously, the customs here was hilarious. They took my passport, flipped through it like a stack of money, and handed it back. 
2. Randomly Selected twice in the Rome airport to show our passports, where we were going, etc. At that point, I was willing to accept that hey, it's an airport, I'm sure the people are cool. But sadly, racism is a serious problem in Rome. I think I've heard more racist/Islamophobic slurs/comments in the last 2 days in Rome than in my entire life in Canada. Quite sad, really. But makes you really grateful to live in a country like Canada- and all the more reason to protect it from the tendencies of certain administrations and movements (Stephen Harper, I'm looking at you"
3. In Rome, I noticed, (and forgive me for Occidentalizing/etic perspective ranting) people aren't wearing enough clothes. No, seriously. I'm used to people wearing "summer" clothes in Edmonton, but seriously people. Put some clothes on. It's not appropriate to walk in the Vatican wearing undergarments. 
4. I love Italian. The feel of my halting attempts in it feel wonderful. I'd love to try to learn more of the language when I return.
5. Top moment- seeing Rafael's "School of Athens". LEGENDARY.
6. Top moment 2: Seeing the dude on the right in Trevi Fountain and realizing he was actually eating a donair. Also, the decently ripped guy in the middle is clearly falling.http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/21864/photos/PHOTO_8373645_21864_8153193_ap.jpg. I can't believe I was the first to notice this. I will be writing my archaeological study on this later. 
7. Tell the statues to put on some clothes. I don't like seeing people without their clothes in real life. I don't like to see the mimesis of that in art.
8. Colosseum was amazing.
9. Roman Forum was amazing.
10. Whatever was left of Circus Maximus was amazing.
11. I liked St Peter's Basilica. What an amazing place- yet i felt that the sense of the sacred had really been stripped away from it. That was actually rather sad. 


Okay, done now.


Take care,


Mustafa