Forced to rush, we cut shopping short to tour the Domus Aurea - Nero's Golden House. It was a letdown since most of the rooms are under renovation. Wait a few years to go. Still, we wore hardhats.
Fun fact: after Nero's death, Trajan filled in the rooms of the golden house with dirt and built public baths above it. In this room they found the only statue not removed to decorate the baths, probably left behind since it was broken and faceless already.
After that, some of us went back to my neighborhood to share a bottle of white wine before their class. I came home and chatted online with Nihad and Melissa for a long time. I'm strangely torn between excitement about going home and knowing I'll miss Rome. But either way I miss my friends and can't wait to see you all in August.
I met Pat up at his class and we went with Martin to check out the Villa Medici's outdoor cinema series. The theme is Dark Side of Hollywood this week and tonight's movie was David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. We took a roundabout route to get there, including our first walk down the via Veneto. George - we'll be going to Harry's Bar some time soon I hope.
We entered the Villa Borghese park and tried to cut through to the French Academy but ended up having to go through the subway station which let us out at the bottom of the Spanish Steps. Bizarre. Anyway, it worked out since we got delicious pizza.
We ran up the steps and into the Villa then up more stairs out to the gorgeous courtyard/roof-terrace in the back where they were screening the movie.
The film looked amazing on projected film (not video) and there was a packed house. And hooray for a non-dubbed movie! Plus we had an amazing view of the park at sunset.
After the movie (creepy, confusing and cool as when I first saw it), we admired the view of the city before heading home on the always exciting night bus.
