Exploring!

Hey y'all!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday.  Today was one of my most fun days in Rome.  My friend Kat doesn't have class on Mondays, and I have night class, so we are taking Mondays as our "explore Rome" days.  We started by taking the bus from Monte Mario (our neighborhood), to downtown Rome this morning.  We got off at the wrong stop (my bad) and ending up walking around the Vatican.  I am going to the Vatican about 50 bazillion times for class this semester, so y'all will hopefully feel like you live there, but it was nonetheless beautiful to walk around.  I liked walking around with my schoolbooks in my hand so everyone thought I was a local.  We'll see if that works.

We wandered away from the Vatican through some street vendors and across the river.  We walked through Piazza Navona and through the streets to find where the locals were.  We found ourselves in the middle of a great market in one of the piazzas.  They were selling wine, olive oils, spaghetti, fruits and vegetables, limoncello....it was fabulous.  We kept walking to find somewhere to eat until we finally found a place where the waiters didn't speak English.  I'm really trying to work on my Italian, y'all.  It's coming along quite nicely, my specialty is yelling at persistent vendors and creepy men.  We sat down and ordered and decided it's going to be one of our Monday spots to go and lunch.  I am in LOVE with the neighborhood.  I would tell you where we were, but I have no idea.

I think we walked the equivalent of 3-5 marathons today.  I really don't mind it though, everywhere you go and everything you see is so spectacular and old and unique and I just adore it.  We were walking down a street in a very non-touristy part of Rome and we walked down an alley into this church square.  It was so beautiful.  No clue what it's called.  There are more than 900 churches in Rome so your guess is as good as mine.

We eventually found a cafe.  I just wanted to sit and drink water and work on my reading for class.  It's pretty hard to complain about doing homework when you are reading while overlooking the hustle and bustle of a city square in Rome.  The waiter loved us.  I'm not sure whose boyfriend he is at the moment; maybe we are sharing him.  He left us our number.  We had to flirt to get the secret Wifi password because they didn't offer free Wifi at the cafe.  We like to stay connected, and he brought us free cookies.  He loved us.  We may go back there but we won't be calling him, don't y'all worry.  

We had to leave around 4:45 so that I could get to class on time.  I was sad because the afternoon sun was starting to go down.  I really want to make it to a vista point to watch the sunset over the city one of these days.  It'll happen!

Right now I am off to go call my little parents.  I miss them!  I also miss SR.  (If you're reading this, text me!)

Y'all should go read mom's comment on my last post.  SOOOO sassy.  I can't even handle it.  I'm bringing her abroad next time.  I had to email her in the middle of the night to tell her about all the poorly dressed people I was seeing.  I couldn't do it alone.  I've tried to represent the states and the South well, but sometimes you gotta wear workout pants.  I did that to class this evening.  It's my trick. If you put on running shoes with your comfy workout clothes and messy hair, everyone assumes you've been running through Rome....girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do....

Buona Notte!