Day 1

Wow.  Arrival.  Day 1.  Our first full day in Rome.  We all tried to go to bed last night early (around 8pm), giving ourselves the most chance to ‘sleep at the right time.’  It didn’t really work.  Violet was up from 12am to 2am, constantly getting out of bed to checking our phones to see what time it was… and she couldn’t figure it out.  Rachel’s phone was still on Seattle time and my phone was on Rome time.  Compounding the confusion, she heard ‘people partying in the streets’ in the Campo dei Fiore – and thought “it can’t be midnight, there is a party going on down there!”  Yes, my girl, it was midnight and there were people partying.  She is learning so much.

At 2:15am, Eloise woke up and started crying because she was “Bored of sleeping!”  Couldn’t blame her.  So we got up and read four ‘Fancy Nancy’ books… on the couch.  Then Rachel came out too!!... Violet was now zonked out.  Finally, Eloise went to sleep in our bed, sleeping stretched out like a starfish in between us.

 I was woken up by someone poking my face… saying “Its 9:30am … you slept until 9:30!”  Everyone else in the apartment was up, so apparently, I had to get up too.

 The other faculty had left some food for us the night before – milk, pastries, fruit, etc – so we had plums and a small tartelette for breakfast before venturing down to the market to engage the excitement.  There were so many things all at once – filling water bottles from the fountain, seeing the fruits and vegetables on display, getting sold to like “Yes, hello, hi, I have something for you, yes, come see…”  We bought plums, oranges, and a chopped vegetable mix. 

We walked to Piazza Navona (nice sculpture, Bernini) and then to the Pantheon.  Most things tend to be smaller in real life than in memory – except the Pantheon.  It’s huge!  The temple front is huge!  The line to go in it was … also huge.  We will go in another day.  Massive brick and stone details, huge columns – amazing.

Just outside we got lunch:  pizza bianca panini con prosciutto cruddo e mozzarella, pizza bianca con prosciutto cotto e mozzarella.  A mix of salty and creamy, crunchy, chewy, warm.

 At the recommendation of Katie, the Rome Center intern, we got gelato at Fatamorgana.  Two, double-scoop cups: straichatella & crema di limone, limone & bacio de principe (hazelnut, with Nutella)

 We went to two grocery stores, got toilet paper and eggs.

Dinner – we went out to ‘Origano’ a small place and got our classic ‘welcome to Rome’ dishes:   spaghetti carbonara, spaghetti alle vongole, pizza con funghi e crudo, and an ensalata medeterrena. All very good… but a good reminder that going out to eat with kids is not simple – in Seattle or Italy…. But they did well, and 'The Carbonara Kid' lived up to her name. --Tyler