Metro genius

In addition to the colorful interpretation of Raphael above, what I loved about the metro in Rome was the music. Not that I really dug the bad '80s tunes, but that was the first subway I'd taken where music was actually played. In Budapest, the yellow line (there are two others, red and blue) hits two melodic, xylophone-like notes when the doors open, but that doesn't count. The Roman subway also provides TV screens while you wait.

I hear the best metros are in Japan, but Budapest and Rome both have at least one bragging right over New York, and that is the clock at each station announcing ETA, except that it's not estimated, it's quite precise. I've always wanted that, the only downside being that there's no room for hope. In Manhattan, the train could come at any second, whereas here, if the clock says you must wait four minutes, then you must wait four minutes.

Strangely, the red line in Rome has no doors in between the cars. It was actually kind of cool to get on the train and look up and down other cars as they snaked through the tunnels. There's just one other line (blue), which makes the metro system very simple, as it is in Budapest. Except of course that limits the routes and forces you to learn the slightly more complicated bus and tram system, not that I really learned much from sitting alone on a bus for an hour as it passed the same piazzas and rested at a dark and deserted station before reaching something I recognized.

At least, for the most part, the MTA doesn't sleep, unlike Rome and Budapest, so for that you can't beat Manhattan.

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Watching: Black Hawk Down (assessment: disappointing)