I'll Have What She's Having. Paprikash and Pecan Pie.

Hello!

Have you ever seen When Harry Met Sally?  Billy Crystal and Megan Ryan?  Harry and Sally meet (I think that's where they got the title...?) and don't really hit it off.  At first they really don't like each other but then they become really good friends that drive each other crazy.  At the climax of the movie, Harry/Billy tells Sally/Meg that he loves her--he loves that she gets cold when it's 70 degrees out (which I don't think is that crazy....I can relate, Sally...), he loves that she takes an hour and a half to order a sandwich, he loves the crinkle she gets on her forehead when she thinks he's being crazy.  This is the relationship that I have developed with Rome.  I love that the sidewalks along the river are positively treacherous because the tree roots have mangled them and they haven't been fixed.  I love that I'm always tripping because the cobblestones are ridiculous.  I love that there are no rules of the road and people park on the sidewalk or double park each other in.  I love that all of the buildings are old and sometimes each level of a building will have a different style because they just keep building on top of it.  I love that the citizens hate Berlusconi and don't particularly care about government, but love being Italian so much that they weep with drunken joy on the 150th birthday of the unified country.  I love that it's not America.

The next few weeks for me are going to be crazy--midterms this week and good friends visiting, then spring break, a visit from my beautiful mom, and then a weekend long field trip.  Since I had nothing going on Friday, I took a day for myself and wandered around Rome and it was one of the best days I've ever had.  

One of the professors that I am well acquainted with at Hope proposed to his wife in Rome and he asked me if I could take some pictures of it if I had some spare time.  So, I ventured out with the address and a map.  The sun was shining and I was wearing a new pair of jeans and had "Windy" by The Association stuck in my head.

I hope that driver was planning on spending the afternoon parked there....

I'm in love.

Yeah.  I have no idea either.

To the right there was a man playing the accordion.  So Italian!

Apparently the caffetteria (yes, I spelled that correctly) was featured in a movie.

My favorite Harry Potter book with an Italian cover.

Who's tripping down the streets of the city?

This means Obama is an a**hole in Italian.  I laughed.

The highlight of my day:

I stumbled across a bookstore that advertised books in English, so I stopped in (see the Harry Potter cover above) and as I was browsing, I came across a book of Italian folklore that had been translated into English; it was kind of expensive, but I know I will treasure it and am already planning on reading it to i miei bambini (my kids), many years from now.  So, I sat on the steps of the Vatican and read about curses, kidnapped princesses, talking rats, bodies without souls, and magic dancing apples. 

I hope you are all healthy, happy, and can feel the spring coming.  Love you!