"Don't focus on beauty because it will leave leaves and dust in your hands"

Today was such a long, eventful, beautiful day. We all woke up at 9 am... but since Mariel and I are basically living in a dungeon (it has one tiny window that leads to a back alley... creepy as heck) I thought my alarm clock was on Virginia time. Nope, it wasn't. Katie, Lauren, Mariel, and I went to the market up the street and bought so many fruits and vegetables... so f r e s h and delicious. Italian kiddos were taking a field trip to the market and we looked more lost than four year old kids. But, all in all, we did pretty well for our first trip considering not one worker spoke English. The market is about 1/8 the size of Wegmans. Italians go to the market every day and get fresh fruits/veggies/meat/etc. so when we (Americans) were checking out and had half a grocery cart full of food we were getting angry stares. Oh, and little did we know, we had to weigh our fruit and put a tag on it. Hopefully the same woman cashier will not be working tomorrow cause she isn't a fan of us. Also, these Italians wear long pants and shirts on an 80 degree day... and we're walking the streets in tank tops and shorts...

the market! 

On our way back we stopped at a coffee shop and got tre cappucci (slowly learning my Italian.) So delicious. I'm getting spoiled.

The entire group met Max (owner of where we are staying and our very own beautiful Italian tour guide ;)) and we walked about a mile through Rome to get to lunch. We went to a small little restaurant called "Da Vito e Dina" and had no idea what we were in for. Max ordered everything for us... and everyone got a different pasta dish. Kelly, Kara, Kate, Dana, Daniela, and I were all at a table and decided to share all of our dishes. Red AND white wine was brought out in a giant pitcher, one for each table. It's almost bizarre not to drink wine with meals here (thanks Mom and Pops for making me a wino early on.) Then... desserts... which we all split again. Heavenly. Max was explaining the Italian life to us and we were attempting to explain college life to him... he didn't quite grasp the dorm experience. All of the bathrooms here are men and women... you walk into the toilette and then there is a sink and a women's door and men's door... except they are the exact same so I just used the men's. I decided I would just say "mi scusi!" if a man walked in...

After lunch.. and feeling a little tipsy from too much wine... we walked another mile to the Lady of the Lake. Max almost got us all hit from walking in front of vespa's. I think he'd forget we are not Italian and do not trust these crazy drivers.

(Touring Rome in 7 hours was information overload... so I wish I had more to say about each place we visited.) Next stop: Borghese museum. The entire time I kept thinking how my Pops (and Sisa, but I think you saw this, right?) should be here and not me. He would have appreciated it SO much more... but I think since I come from a family of artists I enjoyed it so much more than some. I just kept smiling and nodding as our tour guide (cutest Italian woman) was talking. As she was talking about one sculpture she said Michelangelo said, "Painting is for people who don't know art." I laughed cause I don't understand these sculptures one bit. The post title is from another sculpture... the bodies were completely naked except for leaves covering the private parts ;) As we were leaving the Borghese these Italian men kept saying prostitutes in Italian... hm... maybe it's cause we weren't dressed for winter like everyone else.

We walked, walked, and walked some more... seeing way too many things to keep track of. The buildings and architecture are simply stunning. (Mom and Dad... when I become a rich teacher.. more like marry a rich man (kidding)... I am sending you here because it's something you must see) We start approaching the Trevi Fountain and Asians are appearing more and more. Our tour guide goes "you know you're getting close to the Trevi Fountain when you start seeing Asians." We all laughed cause we thought she was joking... but nope, no where else did we see Asians except the Trevi Fountain. It was so crowded, but one of my favorite places. Dana and I said we need to go back to toss another coin in the fountain and find our Italian man :)

The last big place we saw was the Pantheon/Basilica and it was too much to take in. So many statues and things to see. It is now a church... imagine going to church in the Pantheon... unreal.

We passed through the Piazza Novena (Fountain of Four Rivers) and I listened to some stories about a church and fountain... wish I had more to say about that.

As we were walking through the streets, some cars stopped on the pedestrian cross walk and our tour guide said, "you must look at them in the eye... stare at them ferociously." So that's exactly what we did. On our way to our last stop.. our Italian mama (tour guide) decided we should stop in a church for Mary.... but she said the Italians don't like when Americans go in showing their knees so half of us had to wrap scarves or sweaters are our knees.

And finally, we ended at a gelato shop (two for two... this could get dangerous.) But after walking what felt like 10 miles... it was well deserved. Max informed us the gelato shop right across the street from us isn't real Italian gelato so that will hopefully help us not eat it every single day.

best friends in Roma :)