1. The days are lighter longer and the oppressive winter fog is gone. I have been able to ride my bike to school almost every day for 2 months now! The days I can't I can still see the bus coming down the street. Fog can really dampen your mood. It's been rainy here this month too, and I learned an important lesson about biking in the rain: sand is muddy too, so don't ride through puddles too quickly!
2. The grocery store is open on Sundays. It seems so silly, but this gives me more free time than I had before. Sundays can be lazy, productive days and Saturdays are free to be more fun.
3. April is full of travel and holidays here. I just went to Rome over spring break. If you remember from before, I am in amor with Roma.
JL arrived over Easter weekend. His luggage came the day after he did, but it did make it so we were able to head to Bergamo for a day. This was the first time I was disappointed in my sister city. We went the day after Easter and it was unusually crowded. Part of the charm before was that it was not super touristy, but this time it felt much more so. The view was still spectacular. I actually climbed the clock tower and got a great new panorama. There are hills all around and it just looks so stereotypical Italian.
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| View of Bergamo from the tower |
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| Bells in the bell tower. |
On to Rome. JL and I took the train down. We took the speedy train so it was a pleasant trip. We made it in 3 hours, but still went through Tuscany, a beautiful ride. In Rome, we met up with my old roommates from DC, Allison and Patricia. Allison came with her sister Lauren. Patricia came with her boyfriend Robert. 3 of us were Rome virgins and 3 were not, but were willing to see the important sights again.
First sight to be seen was new to me-- the Pantheon. It is so enormous. I have a hard time imagining the materials being shipped all the way from Egypt, but there you have it. There is an open hole in the dome to let sunlight in, but also has the effect of letting rain in too so the floors are slightly sloped. You only notice this when going to the edge to look at a tomb (both Michelangelo and Vittorio Emanuele, the 1st King of a united, modern Italy in the 1800s, are buried here).
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| hole in the dome |
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| Inside the Pantheon |
Second sight was probably the highlight of the whole thing, a private tour of the Vatican. I would love to say that we all pooled our money and paid for this "Donor's Tour", but as a poor teacher, this will probably never be the case. Robert has a friend, Anne, who gives private tours of the Vatican to donors. Anne was extremely knowledgeable, lively, and very enthusiastic. She is very clever too and she asked us to come first thing in the morning. We went through the whole museum backwards and ended up being the first people in the Sistine Chapel. Just us, the security guards, and God. It was simply amazing. However, despite the quiet and sense of awe, upon reflection later that day, I was surprised to find that I didn't find it particularly holy-feeling. I wasn't moved to pray; it felt much more like a palace than a church. In any case, it was an incredible experience and one that will stay with me for a long time.
One of my favorite rooms at the Vatican both last time and this time was the room of maps. The colors are so appealing and exciting. I was amused to discover the Milan map myself, only later to have it pointed out by Anne who claims that it has not changed much since it was made (in the 1500s?). I couldn't help but agree with her in more than one respect.
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| Virgin Mary Room |
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| Me in front of the Milan map |
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| One of my favorite works at the Pinocoteca |
After lunch, we headed back to The Vatican. This time to St. Peter's. I went to parts I couldn't go to last time which was cool, but the coolest part was going up the dome. I thought it would just be a spectacular view of the city, but it turned out that on the way to the outside view, you have to walk around part of the dome inside. You get a whole new perspective looking down at it. The view from the Dome was very pretty, but there were so many people that it was a little frustrating to try to enjoy it properly. Going down those 500 stairs was a whole lot easier than going up them.
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| Interior of the Dome |
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| View from the Dome |
That night we headed back to the restaurant I went to last time that I enjoyed so much, Trattoria da Lucia. Everyone enjoyed their meal. Anne joined us so we got more history on the way over. We also had lemoncello at the end since I insisted that they must try it before leaving Italy. Yum!
The following day was ruin central. The Colosseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill, and Circus Maximus. I was planning on getting a run in while the rest of the group was at the Colosseum, but we didn't know of a good meeting place so I joined them on a group tour. I couldn't hear well so I wandered around a bit and then left to go see the Circus Maximus. It was the highlight of the day. It was the place where races used to be held, but is now a park. It is not very crowded and at one end there are excavations going on and it was really interesting to watch. I enjoyed walking around and imagining watching chariots racing around the path 7 times. You can see the Forum from the Circus and history just seems to be everywhere.
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| excavations at the Circus Maximus |
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| Now a park today |
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| View from Palatine Hill |
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| Part of the Forum ruins |
After a late lunch at a pub, we finally found the Bocca della Verita at the church of St. Maria in Cosmedin. My hand was not bitten off thank goodness. This ancient lie detector was made famous in Roman Holiday. Now there is a line to see it and a guard who will let you take 1 photo per person for the cost of 1 euro per person. The inside of the church is very simple and in contrast to the Sistine Chapel had a holy feeling for me.
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| Bocca della Verita |
Later that night was another heavy but yummy pasta dinner at a little trattoria close to our hotel. It was recommended by my mom's friends and they really knew what they were talking about!
Friday was our last full day there and Patricia's birthday too. In the morning, while Allison and Patricia went to scout out Allison's Rome office for work and see another church and Lauren and Robert went in search of good Italian coffee, JL and I went shopping. Unfortunately it started raining and then we got lost on our way back to the hotel to meet everyone. We did stumble upon a sushi restaurant where after more getting lost we eventually relocated with the group. It was quite chic, but a nice change from the heavy Italian food we had been eating.
After lunch we went to the Capuchin Crypt. This is a crypt for a Capuchin order of monks. Very serious about death were they. So serious that they made all sorts of decorations for and reminders of death out of dead monks' bones. Pretty creepy. While the whole thing was very interesting in a slightly uncomfortable way, the best part was the ticket lady and guard who we overheard chatting with a kid around 10 years old. Upon his exit she told him to, "Sleep well tonight."
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| The Skull Room. Nice, huh? |
We wandered around the streets a bit more before ending up at a gelato shop. Well, really restaurant. It was huge and fancy and had absolutely delicious gelato. Robert had strawberry gelato and champange gelato which I believe was dubbed the most exciting combination.
For Patricia's birthday dinner we went to a restaurant close to our hotel. The most notable thing about this place (other than the pictures of celebrities hanging on the walls) was the delicious wine. It was the best red I've had in a while.
Alas, Saturday morning it was time to leave. We had breakfast together, and then took off for the train ride home. It was an exhausting trip but so worth it. Bottom line: Go to Rome!!! Take friends!!!
4. Of course I have to include this because it was my life for so long, but running. With the nice weather comes nicer runs, or at least in theory. Unfortunately, on a long run at the end of February, I hurt my IT band and had to significantly shorten my runs. For 2 entire months my knee was in sharp pain after 4 miles. In an last act of desperation, praying for healing, I quit running anything over 3 miles for 3 entire weeks! Yesterday I got 12.8 in without any pain so I am hoping that next week I can at least do the half marathon. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Sunday is the big day. 26.2 slated, but who knows what I'll feel like on the day of...
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