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I exactly one week I will be on a plane half way back to Canada, so I am trying to cram as much in as I can over my last few days in Rome!


Monday was crazy - I took the boys to the Zoo for the morning. It's a small little zoo in the middle of Villa Borghese (about 1/10th the size of the Toronto Zoo), but still it had enough to keep the boys interested over our 2 hour walk. The boys love the Reptile house (of course!) and the butterfly exhibit.



 



But, to me, the most interesting exhibit was the Guinea Pigs. Yup - Guinea Pigs... in a zoo. Didn't make any sense to me, but Adriano and Pietro loved them!





On Tuesday I took the bus to Termini Station and wandered the main downtown core. Inside the station is an underground shopping centre, with a few small restaurants (and of course, 2 McDonalds).

Outside the station is Piazza di Repulica - a huge open square with fountains, indoor shopping and a series of outdoor markets. A 5 minute walk down the street and you get to a series of stores, gelaterias and tourist shops. A little farther down the street and you arrive at S. Maria Maggiore Basilica, a wonderfully large church right in the centre of town.

 Today I returned to Termini Station to explore the other side of the station and do some shopping (found an amazing 3-floor bookstore so that took a little while to go through!) I wandered for hours, eventually ending up back down Via De Corso and near the Colloseum. An incredibly long and hot day, was topped of by some wonderful Gelato (chocolate and straccaitella) before catching the bus back home! Now for a rest before I begin another adventure tomorrow! Ciao!

And then there were 10 ...

Only 10 days left in my Roman adventure!!

It's a little bitter sweet... I'm loving Rome and loving all of my adventures, but I'm exhausted! Every day I hop on a bus to travel somewhere new, or just start walking and see where I end up! In the last few days I've visited Vatican City (though only the outside - waaaay to long of a line up for the museums) gone back down towards the Colosseum, caught a bus the wrong way and ended up at a really cool outdoor market (I even bought a new purse!), and found a small little grocery store that sells maple syrup - so I was able to make pancakes for my Italian family! Oh yeah - and I went bowling and to a dance club (guess which one I had more fun at)... that's been the last 3 days of my life!!!

 

Though that has all been fun - I'm looking forward to coming back home and sleeping in my own bed! I'm also looking forward to eating something other than pasta! Seriously - it's pasta almost every day... pasta and mozzarella!

Despite all that I have seen, the Colosseum is still one of the most amazing sights for me. I don't know if it's the size, or the history... but I just can't see it enough. Every time I wander downtown I see it in the distance. This day was very busy - the line to get inside was over an hour wait, and yet people were waiting just to get a glimpse inside.

It's also one of the most tourist heavy areas... everywhere you walk people are trying to sell you tacky souvenirs, bottled water and flowers. Then there are all of the people trying to make money by getting you to take your picture with them ... every few feet there is someone ready to pose - fake statues, roman gladiators, normal people with birds they want to put on your shoulders. It's hard to walk down the street without them coming up to  you!

Sunday was a little quieter ... there are not a lot of buses running in our area, and they were calling for rain later in the day, so I just went out for a quick wander in my neighbourhood. This is the view of the north part of the city from the top of the hill. Such a beautiful view - hard to believe that about an hour after this picture we were in the midst of a very heavy thunderstorm!
I still can't get over how much green space there is in Rome - so many trees and parks everywhere you look!

And of course - because you all complain that there are never pics of me, here is the obligatory self pic from the top of the hill!

Tomorrow is a nice relaxing day - I'm taking the boys to the Zoo in Villa Borghese :)  Then, as always, a few more hours of wandering somewhere in the city! Not sure where I'll end up - but that's half the fun!

buona notte amici miei!
(Good night my friends!)

A Day of Art!

Today was an especially hot day for Rome, so I finally decided to visit Romes Museum of Modern Art. A beautiful place inside and out (though I do miss the AGO!). It had a nice mix of modern works, roman sculptures and classic pieces.

There is not much to say about the art ... I will let the art speak for itself.

(Though the nerd in me needs to say that I thought this piece looked like Giles ...)

And finally, when one has spent hours looking at some of the most beautiful art in the world, what does one do to relax? Practice drawing cartoon version of 'One Direction' with an almost 8 year old boy ... yup, that happened.

Tuscany!

I just spent the weekend at a house in Tuscany... how was your weekend??

Let me start by saying that Tuscany is beautiful. So peaceful and quiet - I never new there were so may stars in the sky! Such a different experience than city living.

Mi familia italiano have friends that own a house up in Tuscany that they are working on restoring and let us use it for the weekend. The first thing I notice on the way in were the fields of sunflowers ... just stretching on forever!

A nice small little place out in the country  ...

The second floor was just for me - my own sitting room, bedroom and bathroom!

 The view from my room ...

Mi famila italiano had friends with houses near by, so out first day was spent having a wonderful lunch at their home, followed by a trip to the Mediterranean Sea! We went late in the afternoon, so that it wasn't as bad for my very white skin, and I'm proud to say that, with the use of sunscreen, a hat, long sleeved shirt and skirt, I did not get sunburned!! 

In the evening, we went back to their friends house for a bbq ... home made bruscetta and bbq'd chicken. We didn't finish eating till almost 11 pm - but wow was everything wonderful! Al of the adults spoke a little English, but they kept asking me to translate words for them... their favourites? Crumble and hail. No idea why, but both words made them laugh like crazy!

Day two was as wonderful repeat of the first day! I feel like I could stay there forever, but alas, back to Roma we came. Now for a short rest and back to work for tomorrow! I will leave you with a picture of the sunset over Tuscany ... Ciao!

 

A short little walk...

So finally today it didn't rain in Rome until after dinner, which means I was able to wander for hours today! I started heading right through Villa Borghese again, amazed by how big it really is - I still haven't seen the whole place!

The end point of Villa Borghese

One of many, many fountains!

My first stop was Piazza del Popolo - a huge open piazza with fountains and statues. There were hundreds of people milling around watching different performers (clowns, dancers, violin players etc).







 After strolling down Via del Corso and admiring all the shops that I couldn't even afford to walk into (Prada, Dolce and Gabana etc) and doing a little bit of shopping in the minor stores of the main drag, I landed at my final stop for the day Piazza di Spanga! This place was incredibly busy, but such an amazing site!

After a looong walk up to the top of the steps I turn and see the city of Roma stretched out in front of me... the long narrow street mixing cars and people on their way to hit the end of season sales (if a Prada bag on for 3000 euros can count as a sale!).

I even managed to ask, in VERY broken italian, for a stranger to take my photo, so I come back with a few regular shots of me, to remind myself in 50 years that I actually was in Rome!

You can't tell in this pic, but I have been wearing skirts every day ... my legs no longer glow in the dark! They are no where near tan, but at least they are not pure white!

After this I made the 7 Km trip back home (total of over 15Km today) as the sky got darker and darker... I made it inside just as the first big clap of thunder hit and the rain came down!

Now to rest for another adventure tomorrow - Ciao!

Rain rain go away ...

I was going to start by complaining about the rain here, but after seeing pictures and video of the storm in Toronto, I realize I have nothing to complain about!

The rain seems to show up every day, just went I'm done staying with the kids and on my way out the door! Oh well. Today I braved the rain and caught a bus for the downtown shopping area for their big sale. Wow - romans LOVE to shop! Every store is crazy busy with everything on sale between 30-70% off. I few stores I went to I ran right out of - no way I can afford to buy a 400 euro purse! I did, however pick up a fun pair of blue sunglasses! 

I am definitely getting used to the city - it is so easy to take a bus just about anywhere, and really, it is a lot smaller than I originally thought. I've been walking just about everywhere and have yet to get lost (and that's without using any GPS on my phone!)

A lot of people have been asking about where I am staying - so here here goes... I am staying with a young family (2 boys - Adriano (4) and Pietro(7)). They live in a condo in a small gated community overlooking Villa Ada, about a 15 min bus ride to the downtown core.The family is amazing - everyday they have new maps and bus routes of places for me to check out, making sure that this is a vacation for me, not a job. Really, I couldn't ask for more!

The kitchen

My bedroom - a full wall of books and a keyboard... I'm set!

The beautiful living room - so many windows!

The view from the balcony

View from the top of the hill

Villa Borghese!

I have found my new favourite place in the world - Villa Borghese!
After about a 15 minute walk I arrived at Villa Borghese, not sure what to expect other than a really big park with a few museums. Wow was I wrong! It is the most amazing place I have visited so far! I spent about 3 hours there and only managed to wander less than half of it (and that doesn't include going in any of the MANY musums and galleries).

I entered near the zoo, so one of the first things I heard were all the animals! This was a busy entrance, with lots of children and gift carts and balloons - I will definitely visit some time this summer! Then imediately I was in a green space with lots of trees and benches - plenty of place to sit and cool off in the shade (it was around 36 at this point!). After that I chose a path and began exploring ...

One of the first big buildings I found was the Museum of Modern Art! Definitely on my list of places to come back and visit! Not today though, today I was simply wandering the park.

One of my favourite spots - a corridor of trees leading to a small pond where you can rent row boats to explore!

There are so many amazing places here, the museums, the fountains (with cool clean drinking water - yay!) I truly could have spent the entire day here and not seen everything. Luckily it is close enough to visit as often as I want! Which is good, because around hour 3 of wandering, the sky started to look like this ...

So after stopping for some gelato (because I was told I have too!) I started the short trip home. After about 5 minutes the skies opened up and it POURED rain my entire walk home. Soaked, but happy, I returned home, ready to head out again as soon as it clears up. Oh - and a big shout out to my mom -  my camera bag is amazingly waterproof!!! THANK YOU!!!  Looking forward to tomorrows adventure!

Ciao!

Baking cakes Roma style!

Day 4!

Today was very hot. Not a 'Pam and her white skin are melting' kind of hot. But an actual 'my italian family wants to stay inside' kind of hot! It also was the first day I was alone with the boys, and they are VERY energetic so needless to say I am a little tired today. So what do you do when you can't go outside? Bake a cake of course!

Monday is the birthday of Damino (the father of the family I am with) and their housekeeper Sonia has never made a cake - so she asked me for help! Turns out they don't do a lot of baking - as you can see, they had no regular cake pans, so I improvised and made 'practice cake' while Sonia watched to took notes (I didn't mention to her that it has been YEARS since I made a cake from scratch!). So, we have a Spanish speaking housekeper who knows some Italian, and me, who speaks English and even less Italian, trying to make a cake from a recipe on an English website and having to convert all of the measurements and translate all of the ingredients! Yup - that was fun! Did I mention Adriano (4) insisted on helping crak the eggs?? Eggs everywhere, the counter, floor, his hair, his shoes ... just not in the bowl!

In the end it turned out ok - Add a little fresh appricots to the top and we were set ... Everyone loved it!

Thats it for today! Off to sleep and rest up for my weekend off. A trip to the sea and some more touring of Rome! Stay tuned for more pictures!

Ciao!

Greetings from the Colosseum!

My second day in Roma has been quite the adventure! It was my first day watching Pietro and Adriano, and WOW are they energetic! Games, crafts, soccer and lunch all mixed around trying to build the worlds largest house of cards (we are at 2 levels, so we have a looong way to go!).

Once I was done for the day, I was thrown on a bus (with some simple instructions) and off I went to downtown Rome! A 20 min bus ride took me right the the Colosseum, which was just as incredible as I imagined, and I only walked the outside! I strolled through the down town core, stopping to look in a bunch of different stores, and even managed to find the Trevi Fountain!

 

 The Trevi Fountain is beautiful, but it was incredibly crowded! 

All in all, a great first day of wandering! I can not wait to head back downtown!

(And here is a self pic, because I know you will ask for one! )

I have arrived!

I am in Rome!

I arrived safe and sound this afternoon (well, it was about 5 am Ontario time... yikes I need to get used to the time difference!) The plane ride was smooth- I slept as much as I could and watched "Oz: The Great and Powerful". My travel companions were fantasico (Thanks Claudine for getting me through the airport!!).

Rome is beautiful so far... though a little warm! My first real italian meal was amazing tomatoes and mozzarella of course! The boys (Pietra and Adriano) are adorable and even made me a welcome sign for my room :)

I still have to settle in and get the internet on my computer up and running, but when I do I will start posting pictures of my adventures!

Ciao!

A few thoughts as I head off on my Roman Adventure ...

Holy crap - I leave in 48 hours!!!

I am going over my final checklist for packing and I've only had 1 major freakout (when I couldn't find my camera battery charger!!) and one minor freakout (when I couldn't find my perscription sunglasses!). Luckily both have been found and I am about finished, both mentally and physically!

I think it's finally starting to hit me that I will be spending an entire month in Rome, hanging out with two adorable little boys and exploring everything the city has to offer, from the historic sites, amazing art and delicious cannoli's :) I'm a little nervous about not knowing the language well, but I'm hopeful that between my little phrase book and my google translate app that I will survive.

That's it for now - thanks for reading! I will post again once I arrive!