Thursday, November 11, 2010

Gelato a Day

"Ciao, bella!"  This is how our gelato guy greated us every day when we came in for our fix.  He would follow it up by blowing us a kiss and then trying to convince me to go with the cup instead of the cone because he could put more in there for me.  Everyone should have gelato this way.  I wanted to ask him to adopt me.

This is a roundabout way of saying that Rome was awesome.

Some notes:

 - There are these drinking fountains all over town.  The water flows out of the bottom of the spigot but there is a hole at the top that if you plug the bottom with your finger the water shoots out.  I thought they were the cleverest thing.  (Random observation:  Is that sunlight or am I going bald in this picture?)


- We walked and walked and walked and then we walked some more. And then we napped.  And then we walked.  We had metro cards but sometimes it was just easier to walk to the next place instead of walking back to the metro stop.  Cynde had a pedometer and on two seperate days we walked 9+ miles.
  
- This more than justified my one-a-day gelato resolution (kept, by the way.)  And my nightly pasta and cheese consumption.  We called it carbo-loading.

- My favorite gelato combo:  pistachio and chocolate/hazenut (It's called The Italian Kiss.  Our other gelato guy winked at me when he said it.)

- I'm sorry to keep going on about the food but seriously, I had some of the best food I've ever eaten in my entire life.  Fresh gnocchi in gorgenzola sauce?  I'll take 5 plates please. 


 - We stayed in a really cute little apartment across the piazza from the Spanish Steps.  It's like the Beverly Hills of Rome.  We completely lucked into it.  We would go into other parts of the city where we had also looked for places and realized that we would have been murdered in our beds there.

- How sweet that they monogrammed the toilet paper for me.


- John Keats died of consumption in a pensione right next to the Spanish Steps.  We went to the museum there.  It was raining.  I sighed a lot and fought off the urge to write poetry.

- If you want to look Italian you wear the following:  dress shorts/short dress/long sweater/tunic with leggings/tights with boots (preferably over the knees) and a puffy coat even when it's 70 degrees outside.  All in black.  This is what 90% of the women were wearing.

- If you want to look like a tourist you wear the following:


- We climbed to the top of the St. Peter's.  320 steps after the elevator takes you high above the center of the cathedral.  It drops you off on a walkway inside the dome so you can look down.  There was a funeral going on in Latin.  There were lots of guys in robes and funny hats.  After you climb up a series of treacherous stairs in both spiral and switch-back form.  The view was worth it.

- We were almost run over by a yellow Ferrari being chased by the police.  How very Italiano!

- Also very Italiano:  Strike!  Strike!  Strike!  The firefighters of the city put on a protest march that we viewed from the top of the capitol building.  There was flag waving and whistle blowing and lots of singing and chanting.  How do you say si se puede in Italian?

- The next time you see me ask to see my postcard of the crypt decorated entirely in the bones of the friars who ran it.  It will creep you out for days.

-  I cried when I saw the Pieta.


- If I had not, just 4 days earlier, been in a bathroom in the middle of the Sahara that was literally a cement slab with a plastic grocery bag to pee in (which I did not.  I have standards...and a bladder of steel), I would have said the bathroom at the Coliseum was the nastiest one on earth.  But the graffiti was sure fun to read.


- The Mouth of Truth did not bite off my hand.  But I was nervous.

- We went to mass at the Santa Maria Maggiore.  It was in Italian and there were incense and I think several members of the mafia.  Which means it was everything I had hoped for and more.



- You should go to Rome with your best friend.  It's fun.  She will not judge you when the wind at the top of St. Peter's gives you Farrah Fawcet bangs.

10 comments:

Andrea said...

It looks like you are having so much fun. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous of you. :)

Camille said...

First of all...I need those leopard pants. Christmas is coming. Second...I can't wait to hear about your trip in person. Less than 2 weeks. So excited for you that you just went to Rome.

The Katzbox said...

I recently discovered gelato. I'm not an ice-cream fan (I usually whisper that because it's some kind of sacrilege) and I fell in love it. Your pictures made me salivate.

Stunning pictures...again!

I hope you took a measuring tape because you must have lost some inches this trip with all of the walking you've done.

This post was fabulous!!!!

Chris said...

Great post! Great pics. I'm glad you had such an amazing time.

Stephanie said...

Wow - great post. I hope there are more stories!

Ginger said...

I'm so glad you and Cynde had a fabulous time. I can't wait to hear all your stories and see all your pictures when you get home. Enjoy your last 2 weeks. I love you!

ps. Can you bring some of that gelatto home? Impossible, I know, but maybe we can find some here that I can try. I've never had it before.

Rach said...

First of all, how awesome was that toilet paper? Second, you know I'm absolutely green with envy after reading your fab post. Also, grazie mille for trying the pistachio gelato. Molto buono, no? I'm craving some right now. And all I have to eat is some stale candy corns. Back to Rome. I remember seeing the Pieta when I was 12 and wanting to weep, it's so amazing. I also remember climbing up all those steps in St. Peters, and when we were there it was some kind of General Conference for Catholics, and we were peering down on the Pope and a lot of funny hats. I'm glad you ate good Italian food. You will never be the same again. One more thing--you look fantastic. I'm glad you weren't losing your spleen in Rome. It would have been tragic.

samandholly said...

At the gelato place in Chino, over off Roswell and Schaeffer, I would get the cup with half pistachio, half chocolate/hazelnut. Excellent choice.

There is not enough brain bleach in the world to get the leopard print out of my head. That was uncool!

Anonymous said...

I cried at The Pieta too. And inside the Sistine. This post makes me Rome-sick. Seriously it's like someone's sewing on my heart, and not in the pleasant way.

teresa p said...

Now I want gnocchi. At 10:30 in the morning. Thanks Rach.

Doing my monthly blog catch-up and loving it like always. :)