roma

what can you really see in one day? if you are carson and melissa, you see all you can in a city on the very first full day you are there by walking endlessly for hours and hours till your shoes are soaked (one of the only rainy days of the trip!) and nearly every point of the map has been covered. this is rome for us today. we have seen the colosseum, the roman ruins surrounding it, some over 2000 years old (!!!), meandered narrow streets, went to campo de fiori and piazza navona, where there were carnival like booths set up, the kind where you shoot little moving targets to win colorful stuffed animals, and everyone was eating grilled dough with nutella spread on it...we watched people scurry around in the rain, all of these men trying to sell umbrellas, "nice price" and we finally bought one, carson bargained a big $8 one for $4.94, all the change left in his pocket...we went into a coffee shop with coffee beans from brazil and had both a delicious cappuccino and a ciccolati, hot drinking chocolate, rich and perfect, where we met a wonderful woman from santa cruz area and we spoke to her about traveling, she was here visiting her daughter who goes to school here and was just so excited about her opportunity to be here and to see the sights and to just be in such an old place, to be out of her routine...after being here for five days she was already convinced her and her husband should sell the house and start visiting more places...it was so cute, and so great to meet someone and connect, we shared pictures of slovenia with her from our camera and she told us of some places we should see while we are in rome...we visited the pantheon and went inside, such a enormous dome, with an open circle at the top, the rain was falling down onto the beautiful marble floors...we walked through the (pouring!) rain to vatican city where the clouds started to glow and a full rainbow ended there as we walked into saint peter's cathedral, the largest and most beautiful (absolutely stunning) breathtaking cathedral in the world....wow is it huge, entirely marble, immaculate, and an honor to walk through....how many beautiful catholic cathedrals have we witnessed....so many here, so many in all of the cities we have visited, all with that smell of incense and tall cielings and tribute to those who are worshipped. it was amazing to visit it.... we walked across the river again in search for the best pizza in rome (yesterday in florence we had perhaps the best pizza of our lives, it rivaled the one we had in NYC, it was at a place called il pizzaiuolo on via dei macci, we got one to-go with capers, onions and olives with buffala mozzarella...neopolitan style crust....we ate it messily in the park with our fingers and every bite was utter perfection....it's so amazing to eat something so balanced and perfect, where nothing is missing, there's nothing to add or take away, every bite is heavenly...) we followed a guidebook's recommendation tonight to the best pizza in rome...it was good, but unfortunately not matched up to the one of yesterday. the roma style crust is even thinner and a little crunchy, where the neopolitana style...bellisimo! we tried another pizza at a different restaurant that was semi'ghost shaped with two olives for eyes, we ate it by a fountain tonight...the fountain water is so beautiful, a glowing light blue color. we went to the trevi fountain (threw a coin over my shoulder for a wish and good luck!), to the spanish steps, walked by countless other cathedrals and through the streets, so many ristorantes, so many gelaterias, so many pizzarias, so many stylish stores, so many men trying to sell roses or umbrellas or little glow in the dark discs that you toss up into the air and catch on a stick.... unfortunately our hostel is not quite where we want to be, we arrived in rome last night and the one we had originally booked, which felt so cozy and nice, was overbooked and they sent us to another one which was too full and loud. two of our roommates though are from israel and they are also traveling around the world, they were very nice and we talked with them for a while last night.

florence (firenze) was great too....of course the pizza....but the beautiful duomo in the center, the huge outside so colossal, with white green and pink marble...so many amazing tuscan restaurants, you could spend weeks trying them all...we ate at a little panini and wine place that our friend jennie recommended to us, it was so cute, you drink your piccolo (small) glass of wine out on the little street, there are little wooden shelves extending out from the wall that you put it on, and they make a fresh little panini for you to eat too...it's been a gradual adjustment to cities again after our lovely time in tuscany. it was hard for both of us to leave nicola's, such a great life we had created there, with that family and the trees and the wonderful food we ate every day, with nina and tomaso who also lived there, with the dogs, and alex the woman who worked with the horses, and colleen who was the new helpxer and former international fight attendant who has been to over 50 countries and had so much to share....florence felt big, and rome is bigger, and i just can't imagine what bangkok will be like, we are flying out on tuesday afternoon!!

is there anything anyone is wondering about or would like to hear more about? there is really so much both of us could share about our travels so far, what we have seen and experienced, what it's like, and i hardly feel like i can cover it all in these little blogs. it would be neat to have some questions or guidance to write by! we have one more day in italy, tomorrow we are meeting jennie (she was living at nicola's for a week, the one who cooked us thanksgiving dinner!) for lunch here, how neat!, and then wandering around for the rest of the day, of course scoping out a couple more pizza places, we have some in mind! :)

love to you all!
melissa