Una Bella Giornata

Ma non era una bella giornata veramente..it rained all day...

BUT this morning, I went down to Amalia's and met up with Deborah (current au pair) and her friend Vera, who had just come in from Germany to visit! We walked across the street (haha) to see La Basilica San Pietro. Deborah told me, "Ok, now don't look to your right until I tell you to." So we're walking and she goes, "ok." and I look, and THERE IT IS. Wow. Gorgeous. So we wait in line (only for an hour!!!) and tour the basilica..how gorgeous and ornate!!! The girls are really really nice, too, and I had fun hanging out with people my age!

After, I went back to my humble home on Via Muggia and took out my trusty City Walks: Rome. I decided to conquer the Linea A of the metro and go see the La Fontana Trevi!!! So I DID, and it was amazing. That fountain was probably the thing I was most looking forward to, and it did NOT let me down!!! W.O.W.

THENNNN I thought, why not conquer Linea B too?! SO I DID! Haha..I decided to see Il Colosseo!! So I got off at the stop called "Colosseo" and walked up the stairs...and BAM, there it was, in all it's glory. It was fantastic. So I walked around and around and finally found the entrance, haha, which I didn't know had a fee! Totally worth it, anyhow. Really amazing.

On my way back to Amalia's it started POURING! I stopped in this TIIIINNNY little pizzeria for some pizza and, I couldn't resist, una cotoletta. There were only two chairs inside (both taken) and all the ones outside were sopping wet, but I went to sit there anyway. But this nice woman gave up her seat for me, so I got to eat inside (even though I was already sopping wet, haha.)

When I got to Amalia's, she gave me a few books..one that she wrote, the first three chapters of which she'd like me to translate (yey!), another an english dictionary of law terms, HAHA! boyyy do I need that!

Amalia and I went to pick up Chiara from ballet and she was SO CUTE, telling her little friend in Italian, "This is Kimberly" ("Che bella nome!" her friend said, aww!!!) "Kimberly parla inglese." HAHA. And she'd make me do my "mmmm" to the girl and her mom HAHA and ask them "What's your name?" in English. She's adorable. On our way home, Amalia went into detail about the 5 diferent types of pizzas there are, haaha, and we picked up one of them at this ADORABLE little place that was so quintessential Italian..awww! The au pair Amalia had before Deborah, Blanca, came over for dinner..it was so nice, just the girls! Amalia made amazing pasta with pomodori and mozzarella (yes, in addition to the pizza!) and Chiara was being hysterical at the table, saying "Deborah piu Kimberly fa Amalia." HAHAH and "Gli occhi di Deborah piu i capelli di Vera fa Blanca."

After dinner, the kids went down and Blanca, Federico and I talked for a while, it was really nice! Then, I came back to Veronica's house, and she'd told me that her boyfriend Ivan would be here, so I went and said hi, but he doesn't speak English at all and I wanted to ask him when Veronica would be home, so I tried in English..and it didn't work. So I was like "Tu parles francais?" And he was like, "oui!" So I just went on in French, haha!

So then Veronica comes home and we have some great leftovers of food her aunt had made..mmm! And the conversation was great practice for me, because Veronica said I had to speak only in Italian! And her boyfriend talks really fast and I was understanding him..AND I was somewhat able to respond!! YEY! But the conversation at one point turned to the different regions of Italy and it was so amazing to hear what they had to say! We started talking about accents and they asked me which American accent is the ugliest, because they can't differentiate. I said, definitely Boston "perche lasciano le r" hahah. And Ivan starts imitating all the accents of Italy and for one of them he goes, "WAGLIO!" (!!!) I was cracking up..I told them my nonno says that ALL the time!!! We also talked about the different mafias all over italy, the three different kind of proscuitto, and the countless varieties of cheese!! oh how i love italian food!!!!

Oh, and also an important side note..Veronica and her boyfriend are LOST fans..! HAHA.

Overall, una bella giornata!!