My favourite hour of the day is 5 PM. At that hour, the sun shines through the corner of my window, beyond the trees of an almost-plastic green. That's the hour when the noisy neighbours seem to be exhausted of all their commotion and retire back into their house. That's the hour when I put on my shoes and a dress and leave the house, to wander around the streets before buying some salad for dinner and giving up on productivity.

I have a brand new bottle of Fragolino. I thought it would be a good idea, since I enjoyed it so much in Rome, when Alex and I drank it in a very dignified manner that did not end up some policemen telling us off for public drinking after 9 PM and something about getting lost and trying to pretend the bottle was closed, until we finally made our way back to the safety of the hostel's kitchen. It's different here in Florence, though, and I have nobody here to drink it with.

I've been craving good, fresh things. Everything else feels quite dusty here. I'm eating strawberries.

I might check out the Biblioteca delle Oblate today. I miss Rome. I wish I could go home.

Rome

Rome is lovely. I got to go back to the Non-Catholic Cemetery - twice. It is such a beautiful place. I wish I could work there one day, but while it is possible to volunteer, I was told that there will "never" be a job opening since there are no funds so they have about 5 people working there.

It was amazing to see how loved some of my favourite people are. Today was better than Sunday, too, since there were fewer people around. There was an old man who took off his hat and gave Shelley a man-nod (I don't know how to describe a man-nod. It's that nod men give to each other). There were flowers on Wilmouse's grave - flowers that someone else (as in, people who aren't A., J., or myself) left there. There were cats.

The Borghese gardens are also excellent. They smell very strongly of dry pine needles. There are gigantic turtles near the entrance of the zoo (we did not go to the zoo, I hate zoos). There are dogs everywhere, and I got to hear my favourite busker!song. I also really loved a random eerie park. I have no idea where it is or what it's called, I'll have to ask A. We messed about in boats (and didn't drown).

We went to a few churches, as well, mostly Catholic churches that lack the unpleasant vibe I usually get from Catholic churches and which made me hate going to Mass as a child. We caught a glimpse of one that was closed. We saw paintings by Caravaggio and a totally not-sexual-at-all-seriously sculpture of the ecstasy of St. Theresa. It rained in the Vatican. I did not see much of St. Sebastian, alas.

We saw some eccentric buskers, like this busker that was so random and insane and politically incorrect that everyone had to give him money. There was another one in the same vein, just slightly more PC.

The food is amazing. We had lots of great food, Fragolino, and gelatto (my favourite: orange and caramelized fig). We saw a place that sold sandwiches such as "Oscar Wilde", "Berlusconi", "Sean Connery", "Lady Gaga", "John Donne".

We walked around a lot. I was quite excited to see the Ara Pacis Augustae (and I saw a Christian priest go in). I saw the foundations of the Ara Maxima.

Honestly, these were amazing days. I'm quite disappointed to be back in Florence. I miss Rome already, and I miss being that content (and full of Fragolino) before falling asleep.

I'm taking a break from updating about the Poetic Pilgrimage Tour! I will still update about it, but I'm getting sort of bored of writing less interesting versions of what I have already written down on my travel journal and told my closest friends a million times before. I'm sorry! Meanwhile, I will keep you entertained with other cool stuff.

EDIT: I just made all of the travel posts private. I'm going to rewrite them and post them again soon! The only one that is still up is the one I managed to make while away, the August one that is all silly and random.