Ethan's Map Privelages are Revoked but All Ends Well

A few things to add for yesterday.

We went to the Pantheon. It was cool and extremely old. When we first told our host Massimo that we wanted to go to the Pantheon he said, "Why do you want to go there? What is there to see at the Pantheon?" I said "I don't really know.. I heard there was really big dome." Massimo had no choice but to agree. "Well true, there is a big dome," he replied. So sure enough we went and there was a big dome and that was pretty much it. The whole thing took about 7 minutes. Apparently the dome used to be cooler, but sometime during the renaissance the pope stripped out all of the metal and decorations and used it to built St. Peter's Basicalla (which we saw today). One nice aspect of the dome was that it was REALLY old. Like 2000 years really old. Other than that there wasn't more to see, so we took our photos and went on our way.

After a fun evening exploring Trestevere (pronounced Treh-stev-r-eh), we wandered over to Michaelangelo's Piazza de Campidoglio for an evening stroll. At that point we were fairly tired because we basically had been crisscrossing all of Rome on foot, so we risked our lives crossing the busy traffic circle around Piazza Venezia and started looking for a bus to take home. ( I should note that crossing streets in Rome requires confidence, machismo, and a Machiavellion determination-- you have to basically stare down the oncoming traffic to get them to stop.) As we scoured the bus maps, I heard my name shouted out from nowhere, and there was Priscilla and her husband Plinio shouting from a window on a bus heading for their hotel! There is no better feeling than randomly bumping into friends thousands of miles from home!


And now a few brief notes for today before I leave Ethan and Tina to do the heavy lifting.

We started off the morning by heading to the Vatican. The Vatican is the only museum I have ever been to that has a strict dress code. Fortune was playing games with us because of course the one day that I was required to wear long pants was also the hottest day of our tirp. It was 35 celsius. I don't know what this is in Farheneheit.. but it is HOT! The Vatican was interesting, but more worthy of note is Ethan's map-leading antics. Despite skepticism from others (*ahem*), Ethan decided that St Paolo sounded close enough to St. Peter and thus led us on a wild excursion across the Rome metro system. The Vatican and St Peter's Basilica were in fact only two stops away from our apartment, but thanks to Ethan we got to see both metro lines and a number of stations well outside of Rome. Let's just say that Ethan's map privileges are now severely limited.

It all worked out in the end. We did the Vatican thing and then met up with Pri and Plinio for Trouffles at Tre Scilini. We saw Piazza Navona one last time and bought coffee for our hosts at La Tazzo D'Oro. The best part of all was in the the evening Giulia we hung out with Giulia and her friends for dinner in Trestevere and then explored the nightlife at the University and around Piazza Lorenzo. I've never seen so many students out and about relaxing and having a good time! I'm sold. I need to find a way to move to Rome. More to come on this later. But for now I must sleep and pack for Belgrade!

Ciao!