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Published: March 3rd 2011
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On Top of St. Peter's Basilica
Hanging out above St. Peter's Square Another day in Rome!
We started off heading back to
St. Peter's Basilica. This time we went up the Capula. We took some stairs spiraling up several stories for 5€ versus the 7€ elevator. Finally we got to what we thought was the top, inside the church looking down the people looking super small. Then we find out there are
320 more steps to take to get to the top! We had to walk down these narrow stairways and another spiraling staircase. Jake was getting sort of clausteraphobic. From the top, it was awesome.. out of breath of course though. We had a 360° view of Rome. I got some pretty cool pictures.
The rain started to pick up as we headed for the
Pantheon, so we decided to stop for some lunch. I had some gnocchi e pomodoro- delicious (like all the food). I keep forgetting to take pictures of my food.. and Jake reminds me halfway through.. that's why the dishes look small in my pics.. hah. Afterwards, we had some gelato..mmm. I had
Amaretto and
Cioccolato Biana (white chocolate).
Finally, we arrived at the Pantheon, the oldest structure in Rome, originally built in 27 BC.
Mozzarella and Tomatoes
ohh.. Italian food, I'm going to miss you. That is so old. They have the sarcophogus of Raphael there and the first King of Rome. As I was looking at the sarcophogus this old woman starts showing me a picture on her camera of the tomb.. I was little confused.. then she turned around and was surprised to see I was not who she thought I was. She apologized, then I said "Oh.. well, it looks good though!" She started laughing.. it was entertaining.
After the Pantheon, it was still raining and we had done a lot of walking so we started to head back to the apartment. We went the wrong way at first.. oops.. only like 10 minutes out of the way. On the way back we decided to hit the
Piazza del Popolo.. which was like a big open area with an obelisk in the center. Then we walked up some stairs in this very green and wooded area and found a huge park at the top. It would be nice to go back there if we get a nice day.
Once we finally returned to the apartment, we took it easy for a few hours. I've been searching to find a flat
Jake up the spiral staircase
A rope hung down the center of this sprial staircase as a rail since it was so narrow to climb. to share for my time in London. Currently, I'm planning to stay on a friend's brother's couch for 4 weeks.. but that might a be little much. Hopefully something works out.
Around 8pm or so, Livia came and picked us up to take us to dinner. It's so great to have someone who knows the area and where to go. Also, she provides fun people to hang out with. Anyway, the 3 of us went to this one Italian restuarant (of course it was Italian!).. She asked us where we wanted to go for dinner and we were like "Let's get some Italian food.."
I had some
pecchari e broccoli something something.. .it was good of course. Oh, also I learned that Fettacine Alfredo doesn't exist in Italy.. sorry Alfredo. Jake had some salmon pizza.. it looked really good.
I wouldn't say I'm starting to learn Italian, but I am learning more about the language and some words that I hear frequently, like
Pronto! that Livia says when she answers the phone.. It's means
Ready! or
Go!. Also, when you pronounce a written word, you pronounce
every letter. There are a few sort of exceptions such as
Gnocchi e pomodoro
One of the delicous pasta dishes I've been able to enjoy over here. when you see GN (as in gnocchi, espagna, or bologna), it's pronounced like
nyo like an
ñ in Spanish.
After dinner, we picked up Livia's cousin and went to get Gelato again.. mmm. It's strange to see some of these shops.. for example in this one little store, they sell Gelato, cold beer, hard booze, cigarettes, gum, chips, and sandwiches... just an odd combination that we've seen more than once. This time I had Nutella gelato and a sort of vanilla and chocolate chips gelato.
After gelato, they took us to this pub. It was kinda like Murphy's from school (etched wooden tables), but was cross between that and the bar we were at the other night 'Down Under'. I had a
Lulupus (an excellent Tripel, a Belgian blond bier) and a
Weihenstephaner Hell (a German wiess bier). There were a couple other interesting mixed drinks that Livia had.
It got pretty late and we headed back to our apartment and passed out. Another day full of activities tomorrow!
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