HIGH ON LIFE

...and vino.

The last few days have been glorious temperature wise, locals and tourists are all grateful for the break. One of our tour guides said that they've had lots of tourists fainting on them. It was 95 in our room at night one night, and 82 last night. Fabulous. There is drinkable water all throughout the city constantly running out of taps and fountains. The infrastructure is pretty amazing I think.

One thing I didn't know is that the Vaticano is its own country. That tour was amazing, to see all of the images that I learned about in art history classes. We walked through the Vatican museums, then through the Sistine Chapel which was PACKED, and then the tour ended at St. Peter's Basilica. All was breath-taking. Our tour-guide, Jeannette, was from Orlando, FL. She's been living in Rome for 6 years, she was quite great and learned all 27 of our names in the short time with her. The one thing that upset me during this tour was - you are allowed to take photos everywhere except for in the Sistine Chapel. We walked in to a sea of photo-takers and flashes. I asked our guide why they weren't getting yelled at. Apparently they usually have more security on staff but in the summer months with so many on vacation, they just can't control it all. Rude rude photo-takers. Once we said ciao to our guide, we took the elevator up to the lower roof of St. Peter's where you could walk around the mosaics. A mass had just started which we could observe from I don't know how high up, but pretty high! That was one of my favorite parts, both being next to all of those mosaics, as well as listening to the mass.

Then we walked up several flights of tiny stairwells with curved walls. Was neat. At the top you go outside and get to look out at Rome. We were able to spot quite a few attractions and our hotel area. I definitely feel like I have a good sense of where everything is which has been really nice. Jenna and I can walk around a bit without the map in hand. The tons of tiny cobblestone streets not on a grid are what get us all turned around, in a fun way.

The next day we went to the Borghese Gallery, which was very impressive. It has lots of sculptures by Bernini and paintings by Carravaggio. Then we walked back to the hotel, slapped on some more sunscreen and headed to the pool on the river! Was so nice and relaxing. Our feet definitely needed the break.

Yesterday was the Old and Ancient Rome tour. We met at Piazza Navona, then headed to the Pantheon which was closed to tourists for Sunday mass. Which was ok because I had been in a few days before. Next stop was the Trevi Fountain - legend is to throw coins with your right hand over your left shoulder. If you throw in one coin - you'll return to Rome, if you throw in two coins - you'll fall in love in Rome, and if you throw in three coins - you'll get married in Rome. I'll leave it up to your imagination how many I threw in. ;) Apparently it worked for Jenna, she threw in one coin 14 years ago. Then we went to the Piazza Venezia. The locals call the building there a wedding cake, it's white, huge, and doesn't really fit in with the rest of the structures nearby, mainly ancient ruins. Next and highlight of the tour was the Roman Forum and Colosseum. First we went to the Roman Forum, then the Colosseum, and then once our guide left us we snuck back in a secret way (that the guide told us about) to head up to the Palatine Hill, which has a great view of the Forum and is where the emperors used to live.

After a short break at the hotel to rest our feet & shower & read a few chapters of my book I can't put down (The girl with the dragon tattoo), we headed down to Trastevere, a local neighborhood with no tourist attractions. Felt like a completely different Rome, which was nice to experience. Then we went to the Isola Tiberina, the island in the middle of the river, for another glass of wine. We layed on bean bags gazing up at the almost full moon, was really nice and romantic. We have what we've termed a "sismance" going on (female version of bromance).

Little anecdotes:

1) One morning as Jenna and I were hunched over the air conditioner trying to fix it, I looked out the window, and to my surprise there was a naked older Italian man just peering out the window. He had no tan lines and the windowsill was to his knees... I almost waved but decided not to.

2) Every time we tell an Italian that we are from California, they start singing the Tupac song "California Love", clearly a hit here too.

3) I meant to get an international student card for discounts, but apparently it wouldn't have worked because you need to be a youngster student, under 26.

4) There are havaianas everywhere! Quite popular, which is one thing, but I can't believe how many people are wearing them all day long walking like this. The havaianas are worn by everyone - Italians, Brasilians, and plenty of other tourists. Back in the day you could tell when someone was from Brasil if they were wearing them. Not so much anymore.

5) Regarding sandals, for all of those who know about my broken-ness, my hip & feet are holding up nicely! Knock on wood.

6) Speaking of Brasilians - I think these two countries have a little love affair
going on. Brasilian flags on shirts, hats, bags everywhere. Most of them are Brasilian, but lots are American or European as well. Defintely not seeing any other flags worn so proudly. We also stopped at Bar Brasile for lunch after our Ancient Rome tour. None of the men that worked there spoke Portuguese.

7) I got to witness a woman get escorted away from the Trevi fountain after she hopped in it to cool off. I don't know where the Polizia were standing, but they started whistling and rushing over quite quickly. Apparently I need to watch the movie La Dolce Vita.

8) While we are both very aware of our bags at all times and both pretty well traveled, Jenna didn't get her credit card back after lunch one day. She only realized it later in the evening. We rushed out to ask our friendliest hotelier (Bart) to call the restaurant which he happily did. SO lucky that they had it. We went & picked it up the next day, which was fun because we got to visit our friend Antonio at the tourist office and ask a few more questions. That definitely made us even more aware of pretty much everything. Good reminder at the beginning of the trip.

Headed off to Tuscany tomorrow. We are going to stay in Florence, and take day trips to Siena, Cortona, and Pisa. I can't believe that a week has already gone by. Brings a little frown to my face, cause I think the next 4 weeks are going to fly by way too quickly. I will have two days at the end of my trip in Rome to do last minute shopping and site-seeing of anything I missed. But for now I think we've seen everything that we wanted to, so are headed back to the pool!

Ciao!