Tue
04-Oct-2005

holiday in rome with michal

Just got back from two days in Rome with Michal M. He had headed over for a birthday weekend, and I joined him. It was lovely to be back in the Eternal City. As soon as I arrived on Saturday night, we went out to a gay club on Via Monte Testaccio, this cool clubbing street lined with bars and clubs and packed with people and cars all night. The club was called Alibi, and was fun. Upstairs and downstairs, performances on a stage involving two shirtless men dressed as firemen, two girls in fiery fairy costumes, and a big fat dragged up woman in black leading the show. We took speed and K, and bopped around till late.

An interesting thing about the club was that despite being one of Rome's premier gay clubs, everyone there acted in a very heterosexual manner. You didn't really see many guys dancing with other guys, or kissing each other - instead they danced and gyrated with the girls, like they hadn't worked out how to break the old sexual models yet.

Around 4am, we headed off to an after-hours club, meeting some nice people outside Alibi who had a spliff with us and drove us there. It was quite strange when we got there though. There was no orderly queue to get in; instead you had to crowd at the door and hope that the man standing behind the bouncers scanning the crowd would pick you out and let you in! Insanely unprofessional. We were amazed, but ready to play the game since we did really want to get in. We weren't sure how to behave though - pleadingly and emploringly at the man? Smiling as if you hadn't a care in the world? Cool and laid back as if you didn't give a shit about what he thought? It was quite enough just trying not to gurn, at the time.

After about forty minutes, which seemed about the average waiting time, he let us both in. It was quite a nice club actually; cosy and dark, but with enough room to dance. We randomly bumped into Letizia, who of course we hadn't seen since she stayed in our house at Finsbury Park having her sex change operation done. She seemed well - she couldn't speak a word of English though and we could speak Italian - so we all hugged each other and smiled a lot.

We left around 8am and went into central Rome, to the Forum, where we sat on some steps on the Via Sacra and chatted in the sunlight. The Forum was so quiet and empty of tourists - I really felt the ghost of ancient Rome around us. After that we headed further into town, to the Pantheon. Always an inspiring building, its singular spherical perfection was made more intense and acute in our post-clubbing and drugs tripping state. Each time I looked up, I could feel my soul rushing up from my feet planted so firmly and solidly on the ground, up through my head into the heavenly circle of the oculus up above. It's amazing how the Pantheon does not seek to draw you upwards towards the heavens in the way that the dome in a Christian church does, but instead you feel simultaneously on the ground and up in the sky, heaven and earth brought together, just as inside and outside are so perfectly united by the oculus with its view of the passing clouds.

We sat for a few hours with coffees, visited another building or two, and finally made our way to Tiber Island and as it started to rain sat ourselves down by the river under a big bridge. After a while we were joined in our dry space under the bridge by a trio of homeless people along with a cat who began to gather together their dinner, and nearby a young man joined us under the bridge, sitting sullenly to write in a small notebook he was carrying. I really enjoyed the idea of our three groups, all gathered under the dry bridge to shelter from the Roman drizzle, all of us aware of our shared purpose but also separate from each other with our own tasks and conversations. After an hour or so though, one of the homeless people, the lady with the cat, came over and offered me and Michal a biscuit, and also offered one to the sullen young writer who snarled at her. We gave her a few cigarettes in thanks, and sat and nibbled on our biscuits.

Later, we headed back to the flat, and broke our drug-fast with a midnight pizza out at a local restaurant.