mi scusi!

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Ciao! From Roma, Italia..

We arrived in Roma yesterday afternoon. I flew in from London to meet up with my friend Jake Vail, who I went to school with and occasionally work with in Chicago. He has been working in London for the past month and flew into Rome from a conference in Dusseldorf, Germany. Not having a cellphone/easy communication makes it interesting to try and meet up with someone.. luckily FCO is a smaller airport and I found a meeting spot (the Chef Express) online from someones blog.

Last night, we went out to dinner with a friend of Jake's, Livia. They met in Chicago over the summer while she was visiting other friends. He kept in contact with her since and now we have a friend here. She took us to a delicious Italian Pizza restaurant. Her English is very good. A lot of the people we talk to, we ask 'Do you speak English?' and most of them say 'A little bit', but end up speaking very good English. We met up with 14 of Livia's friends for dinner (a big group of us), some of them spoke English. They are all friends from school (still in school) studying medicine.. some Dermatology, Gastrology, Cardiology, Nuerology, Orthopedics.. smart people 😉

We ordered appetizers and then 16 pizzas (wowzerz!) and a couple beers (still need to try the vino here). I had a Nastro Azzurro (an italian blond ale) and a dark Peroni. Then for dessert, we had the classic Limoncello- yum. Afterwards we went to a pub that was called "Down Under" and was Australian-themed as you might imagine.

It was a lot of fun interacting with her friends who could kinda speak English- they started a game to see who could speak better English and Jake and I were to decide the winner.. haha. It's great to see how friendly friends are here.. just with the greetings, kiss on the cheeks, hugs and whatnot, even among guys.. just real genuine friendship and no bs. It's nice to see.. you don't find that as easily in the US.

We are staying in an apartment (or Bed and Breakfast) called Campanella3.. We are not far the Vatican and Sistene Chapel. Our hosts are Ivan and Antonella. Very nice people, spent 20 minutes with us on the map showing us places to go and sites to see and how to do all that.

Today, Jake, Livia and I went to the Vatican Museum and Sistene Chapel.. got to see a lot of what we learned in Art History in school. The day started out nice and then the rain picked up. We had some umbrellas luckily. After doing a lot of walking and picture taking, we took shelter in a local pizza cafe. Finally had some vino and some more pizza. On the way back, as we were pretty drenched, we went to a supermarket and bought some things for the apartment and I took some pictures for work.

Now we're going to relax for a bit then back to more eating! I need to take more pictures of the food!!

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Photos

Ceiling in Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo's 'Creation of Adam' among other ones (no photos allowed here....)

Cappella Sistina
Jake and I in the courtyard

Jake and Livia
Just outside the Vatican

St. Peters Square
very nice, would be nicer without the rain

the little red book
(Thanks Livia)

Comments

[Steffi X Marty]

What a wonderful idea to do a blog like this!!! You are making me very jealous! One of the things I really enjoy about Rome, probably surprisingly, is the ruin of the roman bath - I love imagining how ancient people used to bath there:') Keep the stories coming Kyle!

[Craig]

So it's all about food, friends and vino. Oh yes - and art.