Awake in the small hours: reflections at 4am in Rome

It's 4:00 in the morning and I'm sitting by the window of my hotel room, watching Rome sleep under a cloudy sky. I should be sleeping too, but jet lag has never fully left me these past three months, and sometimes my body clock simply decides that 3:30am is a perfectly reasonable time to be wide awake.

The city looks different at this hour - the streets empty, the ancient buildings shrouded in darkness save for the occasional spotlight. Even the eternal city needs to rest, I suppose.

Day 101. The number feels significant somehow. Yesterday I reflected on reaching 100 days, but there's something about 101 that feels like truly moving forward. Like I've completed something and am now starting the next phase. 399 days remain before I return to Kristiansand. Almost exactly 13 months until I turn 50 while on this journey.

I've been checking the weather forecast on my phone. There's a yellow warning for thunderstorms until 6:59am, and rain expected throughout the day. I was planning to spend my last day in Rome visiting Villa Borghese gardens to find some impressive pine trees, but might need to adjust those plans. The thought of wandering among tall umbrella pines in pouring rain isn't particularly appealing.

Tomorrow I leave for Naples. My train ticket is booked for the afternoon, which gives me the morning to finish packing and perhaps visit one last Roman site if the weather permits. Five days in Rome feels both too long and too short - I've seen so much, yet there's still so much more to experience.

I read about the Olympic flame arriving in Rome yesterday. After seeing the ceremony from a distance, I learned it will be housed at the Quirinale Palace before the torch relay begins tomorrow. There's supposed to be a flypast by the Frecce Tricolori jets today between 11:00 and noon to mark the occasion. I might try to find a good vantage point to watch, though with the weather warning, I wonder if it will go ahead as planned.

I've been contemplating attending one of the opera performances tonight - either the open-air concert at 5:30pm or the opera dinner at 7:30pm at Palazzo Pamphilj. Both sound wonderful, but I'm hesitant to commit given the rain warning. The open-air option seems risky, while the dinner would be a nice final evening in Rome. I'll decide later today based on the weather and how I'm feeling.

It's strange how five days in a city can simultaneously feel like no time at all and like I've been here much longer. Rome has a way of making you feel both temporary and timeless - a speck in its long history yet somehow connected to all who've walked these streets before.

The coffee machine in my room is tempting me, but I know Roman hotel room coffee can't compare to what I'll find once cafés open. I'll wait. Maybe I'll try to sleep a bit more, though the sky is already beginning to lighten almost imperceptibly.

Tomorrow, Naples. Then who knows where? I still have 399 days to figure it out.

[Posted: Friday, December 5, 2025 - 4:00am]