Eruzione Vulcanica

Roma Roma ma che bella Roma!

Got back not very long ago. Mixed feelings about the whole trip, really.

Exhausted because of volcano eruption and delays...endelessays... I did not know a free night in a rather nice hotel would not fill me with joy but...it didn't. Not knowing when I'd get home was not a great sensation, especially because the hotel told us we'd have the one free night with breakfast included and that was it so...

veni vidi spenti twenti houri on a busi backi to Parigi

Yesterday morning they told us we'd be riding a bus back... I could hardly believe it but at the time it seemed better than waiting indefinitely for a plane or a train. At the time.

The bus was supposed to leave at 8pm but in fact left at 9:30pm; by that time, I'd read the whole of L'Étranger, had about 32 cappuccinos and 13 espressos, ate an orange, and walked around the hotel like one of the twins from The Shining. The staff took pity on us and by 11am announced they'd give us lunch. I wasn't hungry but for free I'll even take the wrong bus. I mean in general, but definitely not yesterday!

Long story short, by 7am today we finally arrived at the Alps where we took a break. As I got off the bus I looked at those huge mountains covered with snow and the sun rising just behind one of them ... the Mont Blanc ... and I had such a weird feeling of ... joy! How absolutely stunning and majestic. It was cold, I was tired- no, that's an understatement-- and yet this landscape blew me away. I couldn't remember the appalling end of the trip anymore, at least during the moments I was standing there, being slightly blinded by the sun. Unfortunately my camera was in the suitcase in the hold so I couldn't take any photos, but I suspect it is better this way, that somehow I had to focus more because I knew I wouldn't see it again soon. Now I get why so many Romantic poets were so keen to cross the French Alps. Endless inspiration.

Inspirazione Senza fine.

More on the actual trip later.