Ciao, Roma!

One of the cool things we see out our apartment windows. We have a large lantern too; we named him Draco. Draco is very bright until he turns himself off at 5:30 am... I found this out last night when I couldn't sleep.

a Madonna and Child painting right outside of our apartment door.

LeAnne, Miss Ananas, and I have all finally made it to Roma together. LeAnne and I are still trying to get over our jet lag a little bit (better today than yesterday's sleeping in till four p.m.) Our small appartamento is just off the main Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Campo de Fiori. We're a minutes walk away from Trastevere (where the young and beautiful live), the Pantheon, Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (and about ten bajillion other Bernini sculptures) and the Fontana di Trevi (a pretty famous fountain scene from the film 'La Dolce Vita' takes place there), and practically a million other incredibly famous sites. Its completely central in Rome. The furthest walk is to the Spanish Steps, which is only about twenty minutes. Perfetto.

libri dell'prima edizione

This morning LeAnne and I walked around the corner to the bar (not a bar like in the states; a bar here is where you get un caffè) and had our daily espressos, then walked around a bit and found an amaaaaaazing bookshop in Campo where we each got about five or six prints of sword-fighters and birds and little cherubs and things, and first edition (prima edizione) books (in Italian of course) on Jan Van Eyck, Caravaggio, and Botticelli. The bookshop owner really liked us; we were looking through the prints in front of the shop for probably twenty minutes before he brought us to the back where there were a stack of prints about as high as me. [I decided before coming to Roma that I only wanted to buy one really nice bag and maybe shoes, preferably no clothes... but unique jewelry and any books are pretty much no holds barred.] After making LeAnne jealous with my Van Eyck find (I "owe her one" which I think means find something that I want and let her have it instead, although she DID find sixty-year old postcards in her Caravaggio book which I think evens the score), we headed back to have some "euro" pizza, which is quite frankly the best pizza (with the best fresh mozzarella) I have EVER had. They call it euro pizza because its one euro for a Coke, and its pretty cheap, like, under 5 euro for an entire huge lunch worth's of food. Then we ventured to find the one and only Anna P coming in from Fiumicino airport. Not having phones that work very well is actually much harder than I remember (you know, back when I was like fifteen and had no need to call anyone anyway).

statuary at la Chiesa del Gesù

A section of la Fontana di Trevi. LJ and I are totally going in some early morning when no one is around, Dolce Vita-style. We are even going to wear black dresses. Just don't tell the carabinieri.

After we found Anna, we went and took some photos at the Chiesa del Gesù and the Fontana de Trevi before it started to pour down rain. The church smelled like frankincense, I think... I was raised Catholic so it just smelled like something I knew when I was very young and would go to the old churches in Little Italy. The fontana was packed with people until the downpour began... to avoid it, we bought some groceries at Despar but ended up walking a mile or so home in the rain. Unfortunately, LeAnne hasn't gotten her luggage from United yet; they are taking their sweet Italian time getting it to our apartment. She asked the woman on the customer service line if she could come to the airport and wear her clothes instead. She agreed. More adventures on that tomorrow.