adventure is out there!

The past couple days have been very exciting. Thursday I had class early and it was the first rainy day, so I decided to take the bus to school instead of walk. Note to self: never take the bus on a rainy day. I waited at the stop for 45 minutes and ended up being almost 30 minutes late to class. Uh oh! Luckily I had The Alchemist with me so I got some reading done while I waited, and I ended up dropping the class later in the day so it wasn't a big deal. Final schedule: Mondays I have a photo class in the midafternoon, Tuesday is Roma Aeterna and Oil Painting, and Wednesday is Northern Italian Renaissance Art and Fresco Painting. Weekends begin at 5pm on Wednesdays!! I'm excited because that gives me lots of travel time.

completely casual park job by the smart car.
way to squeeze in there.

I came home after I dropped the class and ran some errands and relaxed for the rest of the day. Exciting news! : on the walk home someone with a map in one hand and a cellphone in the other looking very confused stopped me and starting speaking in Italian, asking me how to get somewhere. Unfortunetly I panicked once again and didn't know how to respond (I had no idea what she was saying, I just knew she was lost), and said something like "I don't know do you speak English" in Italian. She understood and continued to the next person to get help. But she asked me first!! That means that I am starting to look like a local! WOO!! Next step: actually being able to give directions in Italian when asked.

Kaylie and Debbie left for Barcelona for the weekend and Tara headed to Switzerland, so Ashley and I have the apartment to ourselves. It's so quiet with just two of us! We researched travel plans, Ashley did some laundry, and planned an amazing dinner for the night. One of my saving graces here is www.supercook.com - a website where you put in the ingredients you have in your pantry/fridge and it gives you yummy recipes that you can make. It's awesome. We decided on chicken parmesan with grilled veggies and of course, vino.

view of Piazza Del Popolo from reaaally high steps!

We forgot one small problem: any time the washer is on, nothing else can be on. As soon as I turned on the oven, the power went out. Again. Twice in one week..we really need to work on remembering that! We tried to figure out what to do - Maria was going to be so upset! - and ended up calling API to get them to tell Maria. We waited it out for 30 minutes or so until Maria came by and flipped the switch. Hopefully that'll be the last power outage for the week. We let the laundry finish up before turning the oven back on, then finally could make our wonderfully planned dinner. It was so late by the time we finished - close to 10pm! But it was absolutely amazing. Who knew I was a cook?

Friday was deemed "Adventure Day" by Ashley and me. We got up, had a quick bite to eat, then headed out. First stop: Villa Borghese. We took the metro to Piazza del Popolo and headed up some ancient steps toward the park. It was a beautiful walk. Trees everywhere, bikers and runners abound.

We passed lots of pretty houses and mini parks along the way before reaching Borghese. WOW! I didn't realize how much I missed parks. Last fall before it got too cold I would spend two or three hours in parks every day - I liked to practice and plan out my yoga classes there. It was so nice to just wander around and enjoy the scenery. There was so much to see! We did a big loop around Villa Borhese which took about an hour. We passed the Galleria Borghese, lots of villas, Musea di Zoologica (ZOO!), and lots of interesting people along the way. One of my favorites: the typical pidgeon lady (see left). Classic.

After our big loop around the park, we walked back toward the Spanish Steps. We were craving a capuccino (mostly just to keep our hands warm, it was chilly today!). At the bottom of the steps there was a cute little place that we decided to try. We both got a nice drink and I tried a pre-lunch pastry. Yum! The barista decorated our capuccinos so beautifully:)

One of our main goals of the day was to go to the book store to get our books, but we realized that neither of us brought the directions. Oh well! We decided to just walk around instead. We knew the bookstore was between the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, so we decided to walk towards the fountain and if we happened to run in to the bookstore, so be it. If not, there was a yummy pizzeria (the best, according to our tour guide from the 1st day) right near the Trevi.

We walked down Via del Corso, a famous shopping street, to get to our destination. Stopped in a few stores (mostly to warm up), then continued on our way. We made it to the Fountain, checked out a creperia, decided we're DEFINTELY doing lunch there tomorrow, then looked around for the pizzeria. We found it, and it was obvious that it was the best one to go to because it was hopping with locals! Ashley and I squeezed our way in and ordered. Since it's too hard to figure out what's in each one (and even harder to understand them if you ask), I have recently decided to just point at one that looks yummy and say "Vorrei.." (I'd like..). It's worked out so far, the pizza I chose today was AMAZING! Ashley decided it was some sort of meat and mushrooms. Yum. They do the funniest thing here, instead of eating a slice of pizza it's more like a pizza sandwhich. They cut a rectangle piece off for you, cut that in half, fold it, then wrap the bottom in a napkin for you to hold. It's actually really good and easy to eat on the go. I may bring this tradition back home to the states...

I asked if I could take a picture of his doing his art
(it was really cool),
and he made me get in the pic. new bff?

It was getting dark (and colder ahhh) so we made our way back to the metro and headed home. The metro is sooo easy to use, I love it. It's also the most unsafe way to travel, though. You have to be careful of your bags at all times. We've gotten the system down, and as long as you're with someone else and it's day time, it's completely fine. But just a heads up for those of you planning on coming to Roma - keep a hand on your bag at all times when in the Metro!

We got back to the apartment ready for a little naptime. I did a nice yoga practice (i'm working on perfecting the full Natarajasana and Handstand, and today was a success for sure!), then relaxed for a few hours.

Tonight the plan is to try Gnocchi (Ashley is set on it), eat near the Trevi for dinner, then perhaps grab a gelato at a recommended gelateria near the Pantheon. I'm excited to see these amazing works of art at night, I'm sure they'll be beautifully lit up. Still need to throw my 3 coins in the fountain, but that's a story for another day..

ciao my loves, hope the states are treating you well!