Weeknotes 2023 W34: Rome

I’m in Rome! This is a fairly impromptu trip: the stars aligned and I went to Rome. Thanks to T. for unintentionally making this happen. These week­notes will be shorter than usual because, well, I’m in Rome.

Random Rome bits:

• The drinking water fountains are amazing! It’s quite hot (up to 37 °C or 99 °F) and having drinking water fountains all over the place makes the heat quite bearable.

• The city is very walkable — much more so than I anticipated. Maybe I’m used to Berlin distances now. I walked from the train station to the Ludovisi district (where my hotel is), through the city center, through Trastevere, along the Janiculum hill, skipped the Vatican and walked back through the city center to the hotel, in just a few hours.

• My favorite parts are the less touristy ones, where you can walk around and still see a ton of interesting and beautiful architecture. The aforementioned Janiculum is one of those areas that had almost no people around, but still offered a breathtaking view (it’s one of the highest hills in Rome) on one side, and a monumental fountain, the Fontana dell’Acqua Paola, on the other. Gorgeous, yet with almost nobody around there.

• The terminating vistas! It’s a lost art.

• As I was walking near the top of the Spanish Steps, someone was setting up a proper telescope, and I got to see the moon and Saturn in close-up — amazing! (Also entirely not what I expected to do on this trip.) Thanks for the opportunity, Matteo!

Quick bits:

• I think I got my first grey hairs. I’m officially old now.

• The book giveaway is making progress, though a handful of people bailed out and now I’ve got about 15 books that no longer have a new home. I’ll continue with the giveaway once I’m back in Berlin.

• I plan to participate in Alphabet Superset. Theme: check. Twenty-six macabre short stories to follow in the next half year. It’ll be tough!

• After reducing my caffeine intake considerably, I accidentally had caffeine-heavy drinks on two nights this week, which screwed up my sleeping pattern. In Rome, I also had more caffeine than usual — they really like their coffee here, unsurprisingly. I suppose that not being used to caffeine anymore makes the effect of any caffeine considerably stronger.

• Every time I open the Apple TV app, the Web Inspector opens showing a bunch of errors. None of these errors (“Attempted to make a subscription transaction action without uts offers” and “Attempting to paint an empty string!”) have any Google results at all. Gremlins will keep chasing me.

Acting class has restarted, and oh I’m happy to be back into it. It’s mostly the same group of people — a group I get on with quite well.

I also did my first cold read: reading out loud a script that I’ve never seen, with a scene partner who hasn’t seen the script either. It’s a remarkably fun experience.

Entertainment:

• I rewatched Lola rennt (or Run Lola Run in English) as it’s the 25th anniversary of the film. It holds up surprisingly well. Though now that I know how big Berlin is, it is completely unrealistic how fast Lola run — my napkin math suggests an average running speed of 40–45km/h. Whew!

• I’ve been watching the second season of Foundation and it’s alright, I guess. Too much space magic for my liking.

Links:

• “We’re All Just Temporarily Abled” (Jim Nielsen)

• Everything Is Content Now (Patrick H. Willems)