Bella Italia

The proportion of time one has to blog and interesting experiences one has to blog about is inversely proportional. In the last two weeks, during which I have rarely been able to find time to update here, I've been hired by Japan's biggest software publisher, spent a week translating brochures twelve hours a day, and gone to Hannover for three days to interpret for my new boss at the CeBIT tech conference. Finally, I left CeBIT, packed, slept five hours, and got on a plane to Rome.

Fortunately, my trip here was not motivated by business. Rose and I have talked about coming here together one day since shortly after we met in Kyoto more than five years ago, and at some point last year, she just decided it was time to go.

My first impressions of Rome have been of age, and of chaos, and of wonderful food. Turning a corner to suddenly be confronted by The Colosseum is a truly awe-inspiring experience, and one that makes you aware of the inevitable mortality of all things. Crossing a Roman street similarly fills one with deep emotion - in this case fear - and makes one aware of one's suddenly imminent-seeming mortality. The correct way to cross a street in Rome, it has been explained to me, is simply to step into traffic. Mostly the cars stop. And we see ambulances every few minutes as we walk through the city, so when the cars don't stop the Romans will get you to a hospital right quick.

The food is my favorite part. As I have been told a million times, the pizza here is like nothing you can get anywhere else in the world. The crust is even thinner and crisper than anything I've found at even authentic Italian places in Germany. There is much less cheese on most pizza, and on some there is no cheese at all. Today I had pizza marinara for lunch, and it was a very thin layer of very spicy marinara sauce spread over a paper-thin crust, baked until the edges had begun to blacken and drizzled with olive oil. I'm already excited about lunch tomorrow.