Rome is Burning

I don’t think I’ve ever been to Rome when it wasn’t sunny and blazing hot out. Our most recent experience was no exception.

We woke up this morning to our last day in Italy. Our flight to Copenhagen was scheduled to leave in the evening, and therefore the morning and afternoon were mine to carouse Rome any way I chose. I needed to claim as much b-footage for Marco’s piece as I could possibly film by 4pm. My solution: rent a scooter. There’s really nothing ground-breaking about this decision, except that I hadn’t given it any thought at all until shortly before walking toward the rental place.

By late morning Steph was on the back of a 100cc automatic rented scooter, and feeling every bump of the cobblestone streets just like I was.

Every time I’ve ever visited Thailand, I’ve rented scooters. I’ve done it so many times at this point that I’ve ended up in some sort of (dare I say minor) accident each trip. I hate telling the public that sort of thing, that I had a motorized bike accident. Makes me feel embarrassed, like I’ve really done something wrong. But since not many of you are reading, I'm going out on a limb for once.

I keep these facts clear as a summer day in Rome day every time now when I step onto a motorized 2 wheel vehicle and hit the streets. However, I’ve never experienced anything like today. A quick synapsis of our afternoon on the scooter looked like this:

Ride the scooter to an area near the Colosseum. Finding parking. Park, and heave the kick stand into position. Sweat balls. Grab the camera and tripod. Find a location to film. Set up the equipment. Film a few shots. Watch Steph snap still photos with the DSLR. Watch tourists with (mostly) little cameras attempt to snap perfect photos of their vacation. Break everything down quickly and head back to the scooter. Apply more sun screen. Finally get back on, start it (was having trouble starting it b/c it was so hot) and then head to a new location, like the Pantheon.

I’ve been to Rome 4 times now. From a scooter, it’s never looked prettier.

Keep the faith.