November 29, 2010: It's Business Time

Well, it's over. We flew back from Italy last Friday and spent way too many hours sitting on airplanes. We arrived back in New York Friday evening and were welcomed back to our "new" home with a full-house ready to celebrate a delayed Thanksgiving. We managed to stay awake for about three hours before crashing, but if you know us, you know that it didn't take much for us to get unpacked, moved in, organized, and ready for real life.

By the end of today we've already went to the DMV to get Mike a New York State driver's license, went to the dry cleaner, transfered our renter's insurance policy, bought some good winter boots, got New York library cards, I've mailed in my application for a new passport, we've paid all the bills, started getting our New York engineering licenses, and I've found an Italian conversation group that meets once a week in the city.

It still doesn't feel like we "live" here, but it's slowly setting in that this is going to be home and its not just a short vacation before returning to California. I think once we have jobs and our own apartment it will make it more official. In the meantime, we're taking care of all the mundane yet necessary tasks that always seem harder to do once you have a job.

Now that the vacation is over, we won't be doing daily blog posts any more (in case you haven't noticed). But feel free to check in once in a while as we may be posting general updates on how things are going. Thanks to everyone that followed us on our trip and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

November 25, 2010: Ringraziamento - Thanksgiving in Italy

Today we had our last full day of Italy although we're not quite ready to admit it, its going to be over by 6:30 EST tomorrow. Even though we've been in Rome for a month there are still new places to see, so we took advantage of the sun this morning and did what we've done for the last 84 days. We walked.

First, we decided to start our last day with a celebratory cappuccino. High on caffine and sugar we were ready to walk. Aware that our time was limited, we wanted to take the bus to our first destination. However there was some sort of event/important person/unknown thing going on that closed down several main streets in the center of town - and by closed down I mean that streets were completely blocked off by military personel/personal and trucks. Even pedestrians were prohibited on certain streets. And naturally, these were the streets where all the buses (and the one we wanted) ran. So we revised our plans and walked past the Villa Borgese near the Villa Ada. We walked along the wide, tree-lined avenues and navigated our way though areas that seemed like tourists never visited. Eventually we found the national library, which was a bit of a disappointment (we're not sure what we were expecting, but it was a pretty bland building).

We made our way to the Termini Station and then caught the subway across the river, near the Vatican. There was a gothic church we had seen from the top of the Vittorio Emanuel II monument yesterday that we wanted to see. It wouldn't be open for a few hours so we got some lunch, walked home to get a head start on packing, and then returned a few hours later. Then we took a stroll before dinner seeing things that have now become commonplace monuments, like the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Campi di Fiori, etc.

Finally it was time to eat and we ended up coincidentally at the same place that we had our last dinner in Rome two years ago. There were more American's this time around, which made for mixed feelings. To one side, we had the abnoxious Americans who drank too much, talked way to loudly, and had too much money to appreciate the little things (I can't really sympathize with complaints about how bad first class is...). To our other side was an older couple who travel twice a year to places all over the world. While they definitely stood out as Americans with their sweatshirts and non-existant Italian (even a "grazie" or a "ciao" would score major points in my book), it was great to hear about the places they've been and see how they really try to get as much out of the places they visit.

After a tasty last meal we walked across town to have our last tartufo. And then we meandered home for a last glance at the Colosseum and other sites, and then stopped in Trastevere for the last gelato of the trip. We don't want to leave!!

Arrivederci Italia!

Arrivederci Sorrento

Arrivederci Meta

Arrivederci Naples

Arrivederci Pompeii

Arrivederci Herculaneum

Arrivederci Castellammare

Arrivederci Mt. Vesuvius

Arrivederci Capri

Arrivederci Amalfi

Arrivederci Positano

Arrivederci Ravello

Arrivederci Salerno

Arrivederci Paestum

Arrivederci Milazzo

Arrivederci Lipari

Arrivederci Salina

Arrivederci Panarea

Arrivederci Stromboli

Arrivederci Alicudi

Arrivederci Filicudi

Arrivederci Vulcano

Arrivederci Messina

Arrivederci Taormina

Arrivederci Mt. Etna

Arrivederci Catania

Arrivederci Syracuse

Arrivederci Palermo

Arrivederci Erice

Arrivederci Tripani

Arrivederci Mondello

Arrivederci Monte Pellegrino

Arrivederci Monreale

Arrivederci Cagliari

Arrivederci Pula

Arrivederci Chia

Arrivederci Fontanamare

Arrivederci Fluminimaggiore

Arrivederci Iglesias

Arrivederci Guspini

Arrivederci Cabras

Arrivederci San Salvatore

Arrivederci Oristano

Arrivederci Dorgali

Arrivederci Cala Gonone

Arrivederci Volterra

Arrivederci Monterosso al Mare

Arrivederci Sestri Levante

Arrivederci Santa Margherita Ligure

Arrivederci Corniglia

Arrivederci Manarola

Arrivederci Riomaggiore

Arrivederci Genova

Arrivederci Siena

Arrivederci Florence

Arrivederci Lucca

Arrivederci Volterra

Arrivederci Fiesole

Arrivederci Perugia

Arrivederci Rome

Arrivederci Genazzanno

Arrivederci Tivoli

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Mike - Pistacchio e Creme Caramel, Mini Tartufo, Clementina e Banana

Aviva - Cotogna (quince) e Pera Caramel, Mini Tartufo, Clementina e Cioccolato con Chili

To view pictures from our last day in Italy, click here.

November 24, 2010: Trying To Get Our Fill

This morning we started out with the list of the last couple of places we want to see/things we want to do/gelaterias we want to visit one last time before the end of our trip. Luckily the list isn't too long and we don't have to feel rushed to squeeze everything in.

We started off on our way towards a recommended gelateria that was closed last night when we tried to go. Since it was such a beautiful day, we quickly got side-tracked. First, by the students marching through town protesting something and causing all sorts of traffic problems. Then by the Victorio Emanuele monument. We've wanted to take the elevator up to the top of the monument and we finally had our chance. Amazingly enough it wasn't busy at all and we had great views of all the sites we're getting pretty good at recognizing. The best was being able to get a bird's eye view of the Forum and Palatine Hill - from above the Imperial Palace is unbelievebly large.

From the terrace of the monument we made a quick stop into the Santa Maria in Aracoeli church and then walked down the 124 steps to street level. Now we were hungry and the idea of gelato was sounding even more appealing. To be sensible, we stopped to have a quick take-away lunch for the walk over to the gelateria (only so that we wouldn't be so hungry that we would inhale the gelato). Finally we found the place, Rivareno. They served up what is probably the creamiest, smoothest gelato we've ever had.

With our sugar fix satiated, we began what would end up being a long walk around the city walls. From the San Giovanni area, we walked through a surprising large clothing market, and then walked along the city walls all the way to the Pyramid area. There wasn't much to see except the walls, but it was a nice quiet walk without a lot of cars. The only interruption was the short-lived storm that passed over us, soaking us as the rain fell horizontally.

Back in the Pyramid/Testaccio neighborhood we stopped for a quick cassata and then made our way over to one of our favorite gelaterias for round two of the day. We had the seemingly brilliant idea to take the train to Florence to have one more dinner at our favorite restaurant so while we ate our gelato we made the walk back home to check out the train schedule. Once we realized the cost to benefit ratio was way out of whack we dropped that idea, which was really too bad.

Instead, we walked back to Testaccio to have a fantastic dinner at Tutti Fruitti, a restaurant where we had dinner with some friends last time we were in Rome. After dinner we decided to do a night tour of Rome, starting at the Spanish Steps and going to the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, etc. As luck would have it, it started to pour as we arrived - but the benefit was that the rest of the tourists had run for cover and we practically had the monuments to ourselves.

Its hard to believe, but tomorrow is our last day here so we'll do our best to savor the last day of our Italian Extravaganza. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back in the states!

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Mike - Cioccolato con Arachidi e Cioccolato Bianco con Riso Soffiato Croccante and Banana e Cheese Cake

Aviva - Cioccolato e Vaniglia, Cioccolato con Banana e Latte e Cannella, and Fragola e Pera e Noce e Castagna

To view pictures from today, click here.

November 23, 2010: A Stroll Through Some Parks

Today we took advantage of some nice weather and went exploring the parks up in the hills above our neighborhood. First we checked out the river and the water has receeded about halfway - we can now see the walking/biking path, but its still high compared to a few days ago. Then, we took two buses up the hill and started our walk from the middle of the Villa Doria Pamphilj, which is now a public park. We visited the Pamphilj palace a few days ago, and we'd have to guess that this park was the backyard of the villa they had for when the family needed to get out of the city.

The park is located beyond the extents of any maps we have and they don't have any maps posted to let you know where you are (which you might think is important when the park is 450 acres), but luckily we had plenty of time to meander our way through the park. There were many nice walking paths, a few fountains, a couple mansions / churches with manicured gardens, and a big lake. Many people were out running or riding their bikes and we just had a good time soaking up the sun. Occaisionally we would stop and test our skills on the various exercise equipment located throughout the park. The big lesson we learned is that we are no longer monkey-bar champions. Apparently we've been neglecting whatever muscle group is responsible for making monkey-bars easy.

Mike somehow managed to navigate us to the exact exit of the park that we wanted and we walked around the surrounding neighborhood until we found a good spot for a quick lunch. Then we continued down the hill through the Gianicolo park that we saw the other day on the bus to St. Peters. We found a terrace with great views of Rome (and the looming clouds in the distance). We snapped a few shots and then continued on the road that eventually made it's way into Trastevere.

We made a quick stop at home to rest our legs and then went out for a drink and to read our books for a while. Then we went for a walk down Viale Trastevere before meeting up with Layla and Giulio for dinner one last time before the end of our trip. We went back to the "Morgue" tonight and had some more delicious pizza. Our Roman guides then took us to the oldest gelateria in Rome (and possibly Italy). In operation since 1880, the Palazzo del Freddo is still dishing out some tasty gelato. Back in the day they even delivered all over Europe - to France, Spain, etc.

For our last stop of the night, we went up the hill behind the soccer stadium for a great view of the entire city. A soccer match had just gotten out so we also had a great view of the traffic - much more fun to see from above than from within. Winter seems to be settling in here, and since it was much chillier tonight we didn't need much coaxing back in the car to our apartment. We have a couple more recommended sites to visit over the next two (!) days.

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Mike - Cassata e Pistacchio

Aviva - Cioccolato Bianco e Menta

To view pictures from today, click here.

November 22, 2010: R.O.U.S's - Not Just In the Movies Anymore

Finally today we were able to get in to climb the dome at St. Peter's Basilica - and it wasn't raining either. We walked over and got in the line which was not as bad as yesterday, but still worse than we saw last week. Luckily the line moved pretty quickly. When we were about 50 feet from the metal detectors we realized we were carrying my Swiss army knife - the ONLY thing they explicitly tell you is not permitted in St. Peter's. We thought that yet again, we would not be able to see the dome. We decided we would just go through the security check-point and take our chances. Its not easy to say if its a "good" or a "bad" thing, but the woman watching the metal detector got a phone call and was smoking a cigarette as we put our bags through. Needless to say, she was distracted and didn't notice what was in our bags. It was lucky for us, but made us a little worried about what else gets past security guards...

We climbed up the 500 or so steps to the top of the dome, with a stop halfway to walk around the inside of the dome. Up at the top there were some great views of the city, as we fought through the crowds to get some pictures. Once we had seen it all, we started our climb down and went in search of some lunch. We made our way across the river towards the area around Piazza Navona. As we were walking across the bridge, we both noticed that the adjacent bridge looked a little funny. It took us a moment to realize that due to all the rain, the water level of the river had risen (after we got home and compared pictures from a few days ago, it seems the water level is now about 10-15 feet higher!) It's a little crazy because the running path that we were just on three days ago is completely submerged - and more heavy rain is anticipated through the end of the week.

If that wasn't enough, that is when we noticed the R.O.U.S. For those who haven't seen or read "The Princess Bride", R.O.U.S is the acronym for Rats Of Unusual Size. There was an enormous rat at the foot of the stairs, getting in and out of the water. We had seen some large animal swimming in the river a few days ago, and we thought it was an otter. Nope. It was a rat. This thing was ridiculous. We had to take out the telephoto lens to get a good picture of it - you might want to skip those photos from today's album if you'd rather maintain a different image of Rome in your head.

We walked for enough time get the rat-image out of our head so we could each lunch, and then proceeded to walk throughout Rome just enjoying one of our last few days here. We stopped at home to start organzing our things to make sure everything will fit in our bags, and then went back across the river for some dinner at a recommended pizzeria. We made it home after dinner just as the clouds opened up and it started to pour. Since it's supposed to rain through the night, we're curious how high the river will be tomorrow.

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Mike - Oreo e Caramel and Mela Cannella e Pera Carmel

Aviva - Fiori di Lavanda con Pesce (Lavendar flavored gelato with pieces of peaches) e Zenzero

To view pictures from today, click here.

November 21, 2010: Markets, Churches, and Treats

This morning it was absolutely beautiful out - blue skies and a nice breeze - a relief from yesterday. Luckily the weather held out and gave us a few hours to actually enjoy being outside before all hell broke loose (more on that later). Andrea and Khuzema met us at our apartment to drop off their luggage and then we started our day at the Porta Portese Sunday market.

Only 10 minutes from our house, the Porta Portese market is the main flea market in Rome and while there isn't too much exciting stuff for sale (clothes, housewares, jewelery, shoes), it's the sheer size of the market that is worth seeing. We entered through the main gate and we saw a long line of stalls on either side of a walkway. Every time we thought we were close to the end of the market, we realized the walkway just curved and the market actually went past what we could see. At some point, we were satisfied that we had "experienced" the market - and we guessed we saw between 400 and 500 stalls. It wasn't immediately clear how to get out of the market though - so when we found a path that seemed like it would lead us to a main street, we took it. Instead, we found ourselves in the midst of an entire different section of the market - much bigger than what we had seen before. I would easily double our estimate - there was probably 1,000 stalls there! Finally we made our way to the main street and walked back towards our apartment.

Our next stop was back at St. Peter's Basilica - hoping for more success than yesterday. Instead of walking there we took a bus to get more of a scenic tour. The bus got off the major streets and took a route over the Gianicolo hill above Trastevere - there were great views of the city and no traffic. Once we arrived in the Vatican City, we grabbed some lunch and then were forced to re-evaluate. Apparently, Sunday is not a good day to go to the Vatican, especially when all the tourists who, like us, returned because they were turned away yesterday. The line to get into the basilica/climb the dome wrapped all the way around the piazza. You would have thought it was the middle of August! We decided it wasn't worth spending the whole day on line so we revised our plans, but at least we got to see what other cultures in the world consider their "Sunday Best".

Our new plan was to take our friends to Testaccio to see St. Paul's Basilica (If you can't have Peter, you might as well take Paul). Since we didn't have a lot of time, we caught the subway and got off just a block from the basilica. After a quick visit we got back on the subway to the Pyramid stop and paid a visit to our favorite Testaccio pastry shop. We sat down for a sampling, followed by gelato from the shop down the street. Then we made the walk home. At this point, the rain started but it wasn't too bad until we were just five mintues from the apartment. Seems that five minutes is all you need to get soaked.

Andrea and Khuzema gathered their things, we walked them to the bus, and said our goodbyes. We got home just in time. It started to rain so hard that water started leaking from our window and we could barely see across the street the rain was so thick. After about 90 minutes it settled down enough to run out to get some dinner and then back home before the next round of storms started. Yowsers!

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Mike - Mandorla e Biscotti and Aranchide e Stracciatella

Aviva - Cioccolato con zenzero e limone (chocolate with ginger and lemon) e Cannella and Clementina e Cioccolato con Chili

To view pictures from today, click here.

November 20, 2010: Did We Mention That It's Been Raining A Lot?

Ugh. Around 10:30 this morning it started pouring and it didn't stop until nearly 4 PM. Between those times we did the best we could to keep occupied (and dry, but that was Epic Fail #1). First we walked to St. Peter's Basilica to climb the dome and to give Andrea and Khuzema a chance to see inside. But everything was closed due to some sort of Pope-related event (who does this guy think he is?), leaving hundreds of people huddled under the colonnade to get out of the rain and resulting in Epic Fail #2. Instead of standing around trying to figure out what was going on, we decided to move along and took public transit to our next destination, the MAXXI.

The MAXXI (Museum of Architecture for the 21st Century) is a fairly new building with exhibitions in architecture, photography, and art. The building itself is a piece of art, with a complex combination of curved walls, open spaces and great lighting. The main gallery showcased the history of architecture, including the doodles and sketches of some architects and how they evolved to the final design. The remaining galleries had some hit-and-miss modern art pieces.

After grabbing a late lunch, the rain finally stopped (the sun actually came out to help dry up some of the small urban rivers and lakes that had formed), and we decided to walk around. We visited the Spanish Steps, Pantheon, two gelatarias (Mike and Khuzema were happy), and the Gesu church for the 5:30 PM show we talked about in this post.

We went home to relax and change into some dry clothes and met back up with our friends for some drinks, briscola, and dinner. Tonight there was a special event going on called Musei in Musica, where between 40 and 50 museums all throughout Rome were opening their doors for free, letting people in to visit various musical performances. The idea of visiting the planetarium intrigued the four of us, so after dinner we took the subway to the E.U.R. (an area of Rome full of Fascist architecture built in the 1930's), thinking it will be some cool music with a young crowd. We walked around the eerily desolate E.U.R. and finally found the planetarium (even some Roman locals stopped us to ask for directions). While we were waiting to get into to the midnight show, we noticed a television showing four people dressed up in Renaissance costumes dancing in front of a four-person orchestra. We soon realized that this was a live feed and what we were waiting to see (Epic Fail #3)! While it might have been a good show, none of us were capable of sitting through a midnight performance of Renaissance dances, so we (as well as other Italians who were also coming to the same conclusions) made our way to the nearest exit, headed back to Trastevere for gelato and a walk, and called it a day.

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Mike - Banana e Mandorla and Clementina and Cioccolato Bianco e Aranchide

Aviva - Zenzero/Cannella/Pera and Clementina e Cioccolato con Chili

To view pictures from today, click here.

November 19, 2010: Money Can't Buy Everything, But It Can Buy A Lot

Today we took a day trip outside of the city, but this time on our old friend, public transit. A subway and two buses later, we arrived at Hadrian's Villa outside of Tivoli, a medieval town 18 miles east of Rome. True-to-form, it was a beautiful sunny day except for the two intense storms that passed by during the day. Luckily there were still some structures with roofs at Hadrian's Villa and we avoided complete saturation.

Hadrian, a Roman Emperor, had the villa built and lived here for part of the time that he ruled Rome. Although the complex is mostly ruins at this point (we have some serious bones to pick with the Barbarians), it is clear that he spared no expense - it is still an amazing site. And even more amazing was that we were among a handful of visitors today so it felt like we had the place to ourselves!

We basically walked through the entire place - the various palazzo's, the "hospitality" area (for guests), the various baths, the mulitple libraries, gardens, etc. When we got to the last stop on our "tour", we caught a glimpse of how impressive this place must have been - there was still some complete marble floor covering and it gave us a better idea of how things used to look. The one thing we can't understand is why most sites we visit don't provide maps/guides. Hadrian's Villa is really, really big and without a map in our hands it wasn't so easy to make sure we hit all the highlights.

When we were spent, we went and had a quick pizza lunch and then took the bus back to Tivoli to see another villa. Our second villa for the day, Villa d'Este. The man with the plan, Ippolito d'Este, had a grandfather who was a pope. Religion was clearly important in this family, and Ippolito became a cardinal when he grew up. He built this villa as his "pleasure palace", and it ended up being his permanent home after he was exiled from Rome due to a political falling-out.

He could have done worse for himself. This villa, while not as large as Hadrian's, is amazing in its own right. First off, nearly every room is frescoed to death. But the most impressive thing about this villa is the backyard. There are hundreds of fountains - and not your run-of-the-mill fountains either. They're ornate, interesting, and really well designed. And, all but two are solely gravity powered. D'Este took a river (the Aniene), diverted it through his backyard through all the fountains, and then merged all the small streams back into one river at the bottom. We were really impressed.

Then we caught the bus/trains back into Rome, dropped off our things at home and went to meet up with Andrea and Khuzema who arrived tonight. Its nice to see some familiar faces after spending nearly every waking hour with each other over the past three months. We had a great dinner catching up and then walked around part of the city to see some sites.

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Mike - Mandorla e Pistacchio

Aviva - Amaretto e Menta

To view pictures from today, click here.

November 18, 2010: Getting Our Feet (etc.) Wet

Literally. We've clearly spent too much time living in a part of the world where it only rains for three months of the year. I know we really shouldn't complain, I mean, its not like we're in Portland, Seattle, or London, but its just starting to feel like it rains for some portion of the day, every day. This morning was pretty nice, but around 1 PM it started to rain consistently until about 7 or 8 PM. Some of the time it drizzled, but a lot of the time it poured, accompanied by some threatening sounding thunder and lightning.

Generally I don't think we would really mind so much - we've got umbrellas, rain jackets, Mike's got Gortex shoes, etc. But there appears to be a slight problem with drainage in Rome. Large (and hard to see) puddles quickly appear on most sidewalks made of the small, square, basalt stones. On smoother sidewalks, it looks like there are shallow rivers running by your feet. Sometimes, the solid looking sidewalk isn't so solid - and if you step the wrong way you end up flipping up part of the pavement and splashing a mini tidal wave onto yourself. And then there are the gutters. Ok, so its Fall, and the gutters are probably jammed with leaves. But drivers don't seem to consider the fact that when they drive quickly through the large puddles that have accumulated along the curbs - pedestrians get SOAKED. We've both been victims of not-so-mini-tidal waves recently, and ended up with pants wet past the knees and wet shoes. Needless to say, its not so fun to walk around like this.

So, we had somewhat of a limited day but still tried to make the most of it and visit some places we haven't been before. We walked up to where Italy's president lives (not Berlusconi) on the top of a hill near the Trevi Fountain. We walked along the street adjacent to the Palazzo Quirinale to the four-corners intersection where there are four fountains very similar to those we found at a similarly named intersection in Palermo. From there, we walked to another large fountain (Fontane dell'Acqua Felice) where we saw a large statue of Moses. Then we went up to see what the Palazzo Margherita was all about, and it was all about high levels of security and guards around the perimeter, so we moved on.

We ventured over to the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II where we found a mini-Chinatown, clothing market, large sidewalks covered by porticos, and a large park with some ruins. The explanation wasn't completely clear, but the ruins seemed to be called the Porta Alchemica and were part of what used to be a large palace. There was some magic/mystery about these ruins but now they are just overrun by cats.

We found refuge from the rain for a little while we ate lunch, and then did some backtracking to visit the churches we had passed earlier in the day. We saw three churches - the San Bernardo (which looked sort of like the Pantheon inside), the San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, and the St. Andrea al Quirinale. Without knowing any Italian you might be able to guess where these churches were located...

At this point, Mike got soaked as a bus drove by, so we gave up on walking for a while and went to get some tartufo to boost our spirits. Then we made our way home, cooked dinner, and did our last load of laundry. Tomorrow we plan for another day-trip, and then we have our friends Andrea and Khuzema visiting for the weekend from London!

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Both: Tartufo

To view our pictures from today, click here.

November 17, 2010: Li-Villa-ing It and Lo-Villa-ing It

This morning our new friend Layla picked us up, navigated through the typical crazy morning traffic of Rome, and took us outside the city to the town of Genazzanno, up in the hills. Her family (and my Aunt Toni's) is from this town and we were the lucky recipients of a very personalized tour.

We started off at the family villa, up in the hills. Overlooking the valley, you could never believe we were only 45 minutes away from the bustling city of Rome. We got a tour of the villa, met some of Layla's cousins, and then took a walk around the grounds to admire the view. The villa is just beautiful inside, and the multitude of olive trees, persimmon trees, grape vines, and fig trees made us consider saving up to get one of our own villas one day...

After some tea and a short walk, we got in the car and drove into the center of town to check it out. We walked around the town's castle, the adjacent public park, and along the main street through the town. Genazzanno is a great town, and it was really nice to finally visit somewhere that didn't show any signs of being a tourist-destination. On our walk we caught a glimpse of what its like to live in a small town in Italy. I compared it to being Norm on Cheers. Here are the people that we ran into that knew Layla during our 10-minute walk through town in the middle of the day when there was almost no one out:

• the woman who pulled-out the parking space that we took
• the woman standing in front of a grocery store
• a guy that was just getting out of his car, who's mom happened to have some dried herbs for Layla's mom

Then we went to have lunch at a great restaurant with views of the valley. Any restaurant that serves homemade pasta is hard to beat. With wine, pasta, salad, cookies, and amaretto - you can conclude without a doubt that we had a tasty and relaxing lunch. You can also conclude without a doubt that we are not so sure about how we're going to adjust to this "work" thing.

After lunch we visited the Ninfeo di D. Bramante (a sacred place built near a natural spring). At this point its basically a ruin but is perfectly situated in the grass and brush. We walked around and took some pictures, which was nice because we were able to walk around freely (nothing was blocked off like they are at many other sites we've visited on this trip).

Then we took a small detour through an industrial town to drop off Layla's cousin, and then started back on the road to Rome (here, most actually do lead there). On the way we stopped off at the Fashion District, which is actually a large outdoor factory outlet mall. (East Coasters: think Woodbury Commons). We walked around a bit feeling a little like we were back in the US - except for the large roller coaster that was being assembled across the street (for the new amusement park "Rainbow Fairy Land" which is rumored to be the biggest amusement park in Europe when its completed).

We made it back to Trastevere, tried to resist eating too much of the kilo of cookies that Layla surprised us with, and then went out for some dinner. We walked around some, bought some gelato, and called it a night.

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Mike - Biscotti e Stracciatella

Aviva - Just worked on the cookies

To view pictures from our day, click here.

November 16, 2010: Holy City!

Today we got up pretty early to make it over to the Vatican before it got too crazy. Seems we forgot it's November which makes it seem that there are almost no tourists in Rome. There was no line outside the Vatican Museum, there was no line to get into St. Peter's Basilica, and most impressively, there was actually room to breathe in the Sistine Chapel.

We visited the museum first, and I won't really go into too much detail about it. I think I read somewhere that there are nearly 1,500 rooms in this museum and we saw most of the rooms that were open: the Egyptian rooms, the Greek/Etruscan rooms, the animal statues rooms, the tapestry rooms, the map rooms, Rafael's rooms, the courtyards, the painting gallery, the ethnographic rooms, the stamps/coins rooms, the modern art rooms, etc. Its mind-boggling how much art the Pope's have collected over the years! My only complaint is that my favorite room was closed...the micro-mosaic room. According to the guards, its almost always closed. I guess I just have to consider myself lucky that I saw it last time I was here.

Nearly the last room we visited was the Sistine Chapel (we forgot to bring a mirror so we have some seriously cramped necks), and it was great to see, as always. Our guidebook provided a lot of good information that we read before we entered, and it really helped get more out of seeing all the amazing painting Michelangelo did in such a short time.

What we decided after we left the Sistine Chapel is that we sort of want to be museum guards when we grow up. When the sign says "No Pictures" it means NO PICTURES. At this point, giving people dirty looks has not worked in the least. Therefore, we've come up with some new strategies. For me, I'd like to tackle all the morons that can't seem to follow the rules (in nearly every museum we go to). Mike's preferred strategy is to let them sneak in all the pictures they can, and then grab their cameras before they leave and delete them all.

After four hours we were pretty exhausted so we wrapped it up, left the museum and refueled. Then we walked over to St. Peter's square and went inside to check out St. Peter's Basilica. While we both know that its the biggest Christian church (and they even mark on the floor where other big churches in the world would end if they were placed inside St. Peter's), it's hard to really believe it when you see it. Ok, yes, it's huge, but it seems that it was designed to seem smaller than it is. For example, the bronze canopy that is over the main alter (that weighs something like seven tons) is seven stories high! It doesn't seem that can be possible. Just about everything in the basilica is like that: there are no paintings - everything is a mosaic, the letters that wrap around the ceiling are seven-feet high, and the nave is two football fields long.

We were pretty much exhausted by this point. We found a very generous gelateria (aka enormous portions) near the Vatican museum and walked home along Via Giulia, one of the oldest streets in Rome. We stopped by the grocery, walked home, cooked dinner, and then went out to grab a drink and some dessert before calling it a day.

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Mike - Cassata e Creme Caramel and Biscotti e Amarana

Aviva - Fragole e Cioccolato,

To view our pictures from today, click here.

November 15, 2010: Vacation is Hard

The countdown to the real world has started for us - we've only got ten days left to pretend we don't have any responsibilities. In some ways we're excited to have more of a routine and get back to our real lives, but then, who are we kidding? Gelato every day, no need to get up when the alarm goes off, doing whatever we want - we'd much rather just stay here. But to be honest, walking around every day is a little tiring. For nearly 80 days now we've pretty much been on our feet for six to ten hours a day, and sometimes we just need a day to relax. I know, get out the violins...

So, after sleeping in a little, we got ourselves out of the house and did some sightseeing in Trastevere. First, we went to see the Villa Farnesina, a villa built for one of the richest men from the Renaissance period. There were only a few rooms to see, but several of them had amazing frescoes painted by Rafael. Our guidebook provided some history about the family and Rafael's love life.

From the villa, we walked over the main piazza in Trastevere where we've found ourselves nearly every day. But finally we visited the Santa Maria in Trastevere church located in the square, one of the first churches built for Mary. Its a heavily gilded church and for some reason one that I can remember pretty vividly from the last time I was here.

Then we walked across the river to the Campo di Fiori where we found a large market that filled the square. There were vendors selling food, jewelry, clothes, candy, you-name-it. We perused and then went to several vendors and compiled a picnic lunch for ourselves. After lunch we walked over to the pantheon and stopped by a snazzy gelateria for some really good (but pricier) gelato made with all-natural ingredients.

We stopped by the apartment to drop some things off and then went out to walk around for a while before making dinner. We walked back to the hill with the keyhole (for the third time) and after making many attempts at a good photograph of St. Peter's we got a few that passed the "good enough" test. We went to the adjecent park for some easier pictures and then, after a much-needed gelato stop, walked along the river to St. Peters for some up-close-and-personal pictures before making it home to cook up some dinner and actually try to make it to bed at a reasonable hour.

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Shared - Zenzero/Cannella e Mele (Ginger/Cinnamon and Apple)

Mike - Cioccolato e Mandorla

Aviva - Cachi (or Kaki) (Persimmon. SO GOOD!)

To view our pictures from today, click here.

November 14, 2010: Where the Ladies At?

After a late night yesterday, we slept in a little and then made our way to the stadium to see the Lazio vs. Napoli game. We walked over and even though it took a little more than an hour, it was worth it to see some new parts of the city. We arrived at the stadium just as they were announcing the players and almost everyone was running (not jogging) to get into the stadium. Security doesn't seem tight, but its pretty impressive - to enter the park area where the stadium is, you need to show your ID (our passports) and your tickets - and the name on the ID has to match the name on the ticket. Then to enter the arena, you have to scan your ticket and then someone checks it again against your ID. And then your bags and body are searched (they have women to search the women). I guess they really have a thing against scalping tickets.

Even before we got into the stadium we knew it was going to be crazy. Everyone was singing songs for the Lazio team (not cheers - actual entire songs), and the volume, clarity, and unity of the fans (from outside the stadium) was amazing. We found our seats, which were not used for sitting during any part of the game (we stood on the seats for the entire game). Some observations:

1. The fans are like a family. Everyone seems to know one another, and when the Lazio team scored a goal (which they did twice), our area erupted. Everyone was hugging, kissing, cheering - they were even hugging Mike. I think they were more excited when Lazio scored than they would be if they found out they won the lottery.
2. The fans are here to do two things: watch the game and smoke cigarettes. For the entire game they were singing cheers for Lazio or yelling at the ref/other team, and during both of these activities they were chain smoking. What they were not doing was chit-chatting, eating or heavy drinking. There were people drinking some beer, but the point of coming to the game was not to have a beer with friends.
3. I think I saw ten women at the game today. It was worse than being in engineering school. The only time the men weren't watching the game was when a woman walked by.

In summary, we had a great time. Clearly, it helped that Lazio won, but it was still really fun and we would consider going to another game while we're here. The only other thing I'll say is that it was apparent throughout the game that Lazio seemed to be a much better team than Napoli - they had control of the ball for most of the time.

After the game we made a short visit to the adjacent Stadio dei Marmi, a racetrack surrounded by 60 large statues commissioned by Mussolini in the 1930's. Near the racetrack, my aunt's cousin Layla and her boyfriend Guilio picked us up. We had so much fun with them at dinner last night, we met up with them again to see some sights outside of Rome and to have a culinary sampling of more dangerously tasty things.

We drove through the city passing many of the sites we've seen over the last two weeks, and some other places we visited last time we were here, such as the EUR. About an hour outside Rome we arrived in the town of Ariccia. Here we had a late lunch of porchetta paninis - Ariccia is famous for their porchetta, which we have to admit was really delicious. After satisfying our bellies, we walked around the town a little getting a sneak peak at the town's castle, church, main piazza, and bridge.

We got back in the car and drove a bit longer to another town of Castel Gandolfo where we saw a natural lake surrounded by old volcanoes (all the volcanic rocks that were used to build ancient Rome had to come from somewhere!). Castel Gandolfo also happens to be the summer residence of the Pope and I have to say the Pope's summer house is no cottage. It was already dark at this point, so we just drove through the town and then made our way back to Rome.

Once back in the city, we stopped for a quick refresher to hold us off before dinner. We've tried granitas before, but tonight we tried cremolata. Its sort of like a granita but its more like a treat made with whole pieces of fruit, frozen with a little bit of water, and then warmed up enough so that you can eat it like a granita. You could even say this is pretty healthy! Then we went back to Layla's and Giulio's apartment to relax, play some Wii, have a great home-cooked dinner, and get a better understanding about Italian vs American culture.

After dinner we went out for the third and final treat of the day - maritozzi. These are sweet brioche cut in half and filled with whipped cream. For such a simple concept, its really a delicious dessert. We are so happy to know people in Rome who can show us the best places in Rome to find all of these new foods!

After another long day we are back at the apartment to blog it up and go to bed!

Gelato Gusto per il Giorno:

We ate too many other snacks for gelato!

To view pictures from today, click here.

November 13, 2010: Sweet Teeth

Today we slept in a little, although the daily street-cleaner who drives by our apartment two to three times every morning at 7 AM didn't make that an easy feat. After our first scrambled egg breakfast in Italy (interesting observation: eggs here don't seem to be sold by the dozen, rather, they are sold by the "10"), we set out for the day.

Our first stop was the daily market in Testaccio, a neighborhood that is near the Pyramid we saw a few days ago. The market is smaller than most of the ones we saw in Florence, but had an interesting variety of things: fish, produce, baked goods, shoes, clothes, pots/pans, and meat. And the random guy who came up to us (twice) trying to sell us garlic. For some reason, he didn't seem to understand that shoving a bag of garlic in my face (or telling Mike that I'm beautiful) doesn't make us any more likely to buy it from him.

After the market we stopped at a pastry shop for some morning sweets. We got two cassatte, a Sicilian pastry - all you need to know is that it is made with copious amounts of sugar and that it is amazing. We also got a small pastry similar to an eclair, except filled with chocolate , and a small chocolate cup filled with cream and topped with a raspberry. Don't judge us when I tell you that we finished everything within 10 minutes.

Running on a serious sugar high, we made our way back towards the Circus Maximus and attempted to find that keyhole that Mike mentioned a few days ago. Turns out there is a benefit to having more tourists around - given that its the weekend, there are more tourists out and about, and there was a line of them to see the keyhole. This made it much easier to find. We waited our turn - and it is actually a pretty amazing sight. Through a small keyhole we saw St. Peters dome perfectly outlined by a row of trees. Exactly how everyone describes it. Unfortunately it was really bright out, so our camera just white-washed the dome, so we'll have to go back yet again to actually get a good picture.

We made our way from the keyhole down to the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, a palace (where the original family still lives) that is basically a large gallery full of paintings and statues, some by very famous artists. The palace was unbelievably large, and was actually worthwhile because included with our tickets was an audioguide that explained some of the art, some history of the family, and some of the family scandals. One of the interesting things we learned was that the one of the family members who became the Pope (which in that time was also the "president" of Italy) hired his nephew to be the main Cardinal (essentially the Secretary of State). The word for nephew in Italian is "nipote", and from this event, we have the word "nepotism".

After our tour, it was time for lunch. We walked back to the street where we first looked for soccer tickets and had more good sandwiches for lunch. But the real interest in coming back to this neighborhood was to get some of the amazing tartufo that we had the other day. This time we each got one and enjoyed 15 minutes of bliss.

We walked back home, did some grocery shopping and some straightening up around the apartment, and then met up with my aunt's cousin and her boyfriend, who live in Rome. They took us to a great typical Roman restaurant for dinner and we had a great time and ate like kings. Olives, fennel, fried rice balls, salame, and lentils for the appetizer. Two kinds of pasta for the first course. Meat, vegetables, cheese and potato chips for the second course. Fresh squeezed tangerine juice and cake for dessert. And wine. And then we went out for gelato and had the some of the biggest cones we've ever had. Can you say FULL??

We staggered home, finished up the blog and called it a day!

Gelato Gusti per di Giorno:

Mike - Cassata e Stracciatella

Aviva - Limoncello e Fragola

To see pictures from today, click here.

November 12, 2010: School's Out For Winter

It's me, Aviva and I'm back at the wheel. Today was the last day of school and I feel a bit more relaxed - no homework to do, no grammar to learn, no need to go to sleep early so my brain can function. That being said, going to school was good for me - a chance to learn some new things, have conversations that revolve around things other than food and directions, and experience learning Italian in a new setting (although I miss everyone from Italingua, Jeff, and Joel!). I think the most amazing part of the class is that people from all over the world (Russia, Algeria, Ireland, Germany, Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Spain) were able to communicate in a language foreign to all of us.

Here is a summary of the interesting things that happened/I learned this week:

1. First of all, the most amazing coicidence. When I introduced myself to the class, I explained that I just moved from San Francisco to New York. My teacher asked where I studied Italian in San Francisco - not just the name of the school, the street it was located on. I assumed she knew something about the Bay Area based on that question, and it turns out I was correct. The next day before class we were talking about where I was living in Oakland, and she mentioned she lived in the Bay Area for 20 years and moved back to Italy several years ago. She lived in the Marina, in Marin, and in Oakland. In Rockridge. On Chabot Street. Across from the Zen Center. Which means that she lived in an apartment that must have been within five seconds of my old apartment. Incredible.
2. Every day we had a 90-minute grammer lesson, a short break, and then a 90-minute session dedicated to converstation. I learned some new grammer rules and then we reviewed the subjuntive tense. All I have to say is that it was a good thing that I did some review before starting the class. For those who know - I needed to know all the tenses - even passato remoto. Era pazzo!
3. During the conversation sessions, topics ranged from how Americans are unique in that they just quit their jobs (like Mike and I did, and the other guy in my class from Brooklyn), age and gender discrimination, how youth today has a hard time finding work that earns them enough money to move out on their own, and the pros and cons of being a celebrity. I learned several other random things: about the school system in other countries, why there are so many kinds of pasta in Italy, that women who are pregnant in Italy are treated like celebrities, and about future excavations planned in Rome and the idea to close down a lot of Central Rome to traffic (future job opportunity??).

Mike on the other hand, had his last day of his morning routine. Just as he had hoped, the barista recognized him this morning and started making his cappuccino without having to be asked.

We met for lunch and then started the tour for the day. The first stop was at the Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth) where you stick your hand into the mouth of a stone face in the wall. Supposedly if you are a liar you hand will be chomped on by the stone face! Luckily no liars have ever stuck their hands in there yet.

Next we went back at the church near the Colosseum we had tried to visit a few days ago - the San Clemente Church. From inside the 12th century church, we climbed down a set of stairs, where there was a whole other church (really large) from the 4th century. After we toured this church, we walked down yet another flight of stairs where we found a 2nd century Roman temple. At this lowest level, we also saw several rooms from Roman houses and alleyways between the houses - this used to be the level of the street and future generations literally built right on top of it. While its amazing to see these things I have a hard time immagining how one can build on top of an existing city. Can you immagine the street being at the level of your roof? Its just nuts!

From the church, walked over to the Fondazione Roma Museo where they are having a special exhibit on costumes for operas and ballets designed by famous designers. Even though I'm no fashionista, and Mike, well, he's a "dude", there were some pretty amazing pieces here (and some that were totally nuts). I just wish they provided more stats - how much did the pieces cost to make, how much did they weigh, how much material did they use, how many man-hours did it take to make them, etc. It would have added another dimension to the exhibit.

After the museum we took a quick detour and bought some gear for the soccer game on Sunday. Just buying the Lazio jerseys (or "kits" as they are called here) incited a Roma versus Lazio discussion between the store staff. We continued on, taking a walking tour around the neighborhoods near the Pantheon. Some of the sights we've seen already on our trip, but we did get to see some new things. One was the remains of the Temple of Adriano, whose columns are now the facade of a modern day building. Other stops on the route gave us more information about the history of some of the piazzas, monuments, and churches in the area.

It was finally time for dinner and we found a pretty decent place near Piazza Navona. After dinner we had some really good gelato at the recommendation of a friend who lived in Rome for about two years (thanks Sonya!). We made our way home and called it a day!

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Mike - Cooky e Cannolli and Cioccolato Bianco e Pistacchio

Aviva - Mente e Fragola (strawberry) and Pera/Caramel e Zenzero (ginger)

To view pictures from today, click here.