Roma, Day #2

Today we had an early start, with breakfast! It was very interesting and delicious. We ate at our hotel for breakfast, they had quite the spread. The best item I ate was a verdure frittata. Then we were out the door just after 8 am. We walked to the Galleria Borghese by way of the Villa Borghese (park), and it was a really lovely walk, but it was not yet 9 am and we were already a bit on the warm side. The Galleria was very lovely. Two floors of works, they are especially proud of the Caravaggio's they have. I gave my mom some background to about 5 pieces in the gallery. Okay so you want to know which ones:

Correggio, Danäe, 1531

Raphael, Deposition, 1507

Rubens, Deposition, 1602

Caravaggio, Madonna of the Palafrenieri, 1605

Caravaggio, David with the Head of Goliath, 1609-1610

We, of course, looked at the whole gallery, and enjoyed our time there. Mom really isn't into the 16th-18th century, but I find it pretty fascinating. Of course then we walked to the Galleria Nazionale D'Arte Moderna which was full of 19th century works (which I am not particularly fond of) but my Mom seemed to enjoy. Their permanent collection was sort of closed off for renovation, so we really only saw the modern Italian artists, very interesting, their one Klimt piece (The Three Ages), and a lovely Modigliani. They also had two Cy Twombly pieces up, but I can only suspect that is because of his recent passing.

We then had a very long lunch at the museum café, Café dell'arte, or something along those lines. The food was delicious, and the smokers all arrived when we left.

Then we walked back to our hotel for a breather, but on the way we crossed a public fountain that everyone else was bathing in, so we joined them. Well just really waded in. Here is a photo:

After showering and resting we went out to the Spanish Steps, a few blocks from our hotel. We took some photos and then decided to have dinner before going up. We had a lovely dinner at a family-owned restaurant that was recommended in the guidebook, but wasn't really "inexpensive" as it was listed there. The food was great, we were both full.

After dinner we walked up the Spanish Steps and we made it to the top easily, well it was easy to climb but it was hard to combat all of the men trying to sell us roses and fake handbags. We took some photos up there and then walked down.

Kind of a relaxed first day, which ended with Gelato (Banana for me, Melon for mom).

Goodnight!!!!

London, Day #30 // Roma, Day #1

Today was my last day in London. I will miss it greatly. I feel that I have really acclimated to the London environment/way, and I am very proud of myself for that. I think my mom was a bit surprised when I could just walk to the correct tube line without looking at a map. Well I don't know it like the back of my hand, and there is still a ton to explore in London, but the month did me some good in thinking about future ventures to the land of the Brits.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE IN LONDON WHO MADE MY EXPERIENCES WONDERFUL!

After we packed up our things we were off to Heathrow to catch our flight to Rome. Mom had to have her Starbucks, and that took forever, and then we went to Itsu (A Japanese fast-food chain in London with great food) and we had a delicious lunch. Well, sort of. The food was great, except the salad that came under my salmon and rice was COVERED in cilantro (coriander) (Mary if you are reading this, you would have died). I really can't stand eating the stuff in that large of a quantity, so I sort of had half a lunch. Then I felt really sick on the (delayed) flight, which kind of sucked. On the upside I drew my first webcomic since I've been in Europe on the plane, so you should check that out this week on WEDNESDAY.

When we arrived in Rome, we went through "customs" where some very unhappy man stamped my passport and waved me through. That was it. No line. No questions. No nothing. I think it is too easy to get into Italy. We were greeted by a car to take us to the hotel, and he spoke a good amount of English, and so he decided to give us a little tour of Rome, which was very kind of him.

Our hotel is very nice. It is small, as is our room, two twin beds with a two-inch space in between them. We have a bidet which makes me happy because I think they are the coolest things. Honestly! They are really practical, and if I had one in my house I'd probably use it... as often as one is supposed to use a bidet. Our hotel is a bit to the west, close to the Vatican (but on the other side of the river), but still within walking distance of most of the city. On Monday we will start our day at the Colosseo (Colosseum) and we will take a cab.

Dinner the first night was fine. The food was delicious, a bit rich, but good. We made the mistake of sitting outside, and were just bombarded by all the cigarette smoke around (which sucks for me on multiple levels, one is my stomach, one is my head, one is my lungs, I could go on). So we sort of tried to eat quick-er, but that doesn't really work in Italy.

Then we went up to our hotel (next door to the restaurant) and went to bed!