Day Three

After our long second day, we slept in and decided to take it easy. We grabbed some breakfast at our hotel (breakfast isn't big in Italy...bummer)and wandered over to the Colosseum. Now, as I said, I detest tours. But the line was long, so in order to cut the line we agreed to a 45 minute tour. It was again, led by an archeologist, and it was pretty interesting. It was unfortunately raining a little. But the real bummer was that none of the cats of the Colosseum were out and about! There's a colony of about 200 cats that live in the Colosseum...the last time I was there, I vividly remember all the cats around me. I was really looking forward to seeing them and feeding them! I had even brought some cat food in my luggage. I was also looking forward to seeing the "basement" where the slaves and animals were kept, but it had been closed off a week before we arrived. Oh well. We also checked out the Pantheon that day. It was under renovation of some sort from the outside. In spite of the fact some horrific things took place at the Colosseum, like the killing of animals and slaves, it's an amazing structure. And the tour guide reminded us that in reality, we are just seeing the skeleton of the Colosseum, and way back when it looked a lot different, and had marble and statues all over. So weird.

More On Rome

Christina and I were on vacation for 6 days...so it's hard for me to stay true to the daily events, but I'm gonna try my best. There was so much walking, food, and coffee it tends to blur at times. But day two started with a pretty huge undertaking: The Vatican. Now if you go to Rome, you gotta go to the Vatican. But needless to say, it's huge, overwhelming, and a tourist trap extraordinaire. Prior to deciding to take the trip together, we talked about our opinions on sight-seeing...I am very much against the whole bus tour and running around all day trying to see as many sights as possible. I would rather see a couple of important sights and spend the majority of my time discovering the place I'm visiting. Christina was more evenly minded about it...she wasn't against organized tours, just in moderation. So I agreed to doing one guided tour that was a few hours in length (not on a bus!)...at the Vatican, which of all the guided tours, is the wisest, in my opinion since the Vatican is so vast. We went with Viator. And it was worth it. Our tour guide was an archeologist, and knew so much about the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. Plus we skipped the lines. There's no way you can see everything in the Vatican in a couple of hours or even days, but I was absolutely done by the end. It was fascinating and beautiful, but it was too much and it needed to just end! Having said that, I'm glad Christina convinced me to do that tour, because with so much to see, it's good to have someone showing you selected parts of the museum and giving you interesting factoids. Speaking of factoids, as you probably know, Vatican City is literally its own country, with its own citizens, currency, and ATM machines that function only in Latin! So after we headed over to Via Ottaviano, which is nearby. Back in the day (aka when I last went to Rome in college) it was a hot spot for me to go shopping for affordable clothing. We ended up checking out some shoe stores. At some point we made our way back home to the hotel and were zonked out. I think by the end of that day Christina may have secretly wanted to lose me somewhere...I can get a lil' cranky when I do four hour tours in the Vatican with annoying know-it-all tourists who keep interrupting the tour guide and when there are seemingly thousands of tourists in every room you go to! God bless Christina for her patience...and thank God for her map reading abilities! We made a great team...I served as the Italian translator and communicator, and she was our navigator.

Back Stateside...Roma: The Recap

I just returned from Rome yesterday. What a fun trip! As I mentioned previously, I went with my good friend, Christina. So from the beginning: We arrived in the early A.M. and settled into our temporary home away from home, Hotel Columbia. The hotel is located just blocks away from Stazione Termini, the largest station in Rome. I'd highly recommend staying there if you're looking for a clean, simple, inexpensive, conveniently located hotel. Breakfast is included, which was a plus. Having said that, breakfast isn't a big meal for Italians (what a shame!), so it is a simple meal they serve. But again, it's included, so it's all good. Since I'm highly paranoid of vermin of many kind...I can verify that I did do extensive research on bed bug sightings in hotels around Rome, and did a thorough investigation of my own (you can ask Christina...I did actually rip off all the sheets and checked under our mattresses) and felt confident we were going to be safe. After acclimating, we cleaned up and headed out. We ate at a restaurant right by Termini first. Pretty good food (I had gnocchi)...and I was reminded about one of the Italy-isms over there. You pay for bottles of water in restaurants...not like here, where your glasses are perpetually overflowing. And you are offered plain water or carbonated. After we hopped on the metro and headed to the Fountain of Trevi. How beautiful. One of, if not my favorite monument in Rome. But it's so hard to pick because the architecture is stunning everywhere. Not to mention all the twisting, narrow cobblestone streets. Anyway, we ate some great pizza, had some caffe latte and cappuccino, and hung out at the fountain. Christina had some Nutella gelato (as you can see in one of the photos), which would turn out to be her dessert of choice during the trip. After we walked all over, we stumbled upon the Coccinelle store, a utopia of leather handbags. Steve, Terry-a's husband, reminded me of this gem before we left, so I was definitely planning on getting myself something! I got a gorgeous grey leather and suede bag, and a blue clutch. Christina got herself a bag, too. At some point during the day we stumbled upon a church that was undergoing some renovations. The contrast between the construction and the old, intricate church decor was pretty dramatic. We then headed home after a long first day out. Phew.

Mamma Mia!

Woah I haven't blogged in a while. Well, Thanksgiving just passed us by, and my parents went out of town. So those of us who remained went out to lunch at Half Moon, a restaurant on the water in Westchester. It was a pretty good meal and a great way to celebrate: no clean up and no feeling the need to host guests! I'd definitely go this route again for the holidays. Well, in a day, I'm heading to Rome with my good friend Christina! It's a trip we've been planning for a while, and I'm so excited. Our plan is to bum around town, check out the different neighborhoods, eat great food and drink great coffee...shop...go out...all that good stuff. Marcus and Gustaf will be holding down the fort during this girls' only trip. Don't feel bad for Marcus, he'll be skiing in the Swiss Alps with his guy friends in a few months...

A Good Ol' Saturday Night

Last night was Saturday night. After work, Marcus and I met up at Union Square and we ate at Vapiano. It's very reasonably priced Italian food, and it's pretty decent...all the pasta and pizza are freshly made on the premises. We then headed home for the event of the night: HBO Pay Per View! We were going to watch the greatly anticipated Manny Pacquiao Antonio Margarito boxing match. It was great! We don't follow boxing, but we heard about the match so we wanted to check it out. My father watched a lot of boxing when I was growing up, but I forgot how ridiculous the sport really is, and that's why it's so great. I love the trash talking, the controversies, the show, and the serious death stares and psych outs the boxers play off...but you truly have to be a little crazy and you have to buy into all the trash talk and self promotion to box, because there aren't many sports where you can REALLY get f$cked up, like in boxing...I mean, not many people would willingly sign up to get their faces jacked up with a chance of serious brain trauma. Anyway, Pacquiao won, but the other guy was a serious trooper...his face was butchered mid way through the fight, and he could barely see out of one eye...but he kept going. Damn. The match was not complete, of course, without a pre-match performance from the cheeser Nelly. Anyway, I'd like to follow more boxing. Today I went to the gym to work out. My trainer kicked the crap out of me...we were sparring...I need to work on my speed. Then I met up with Christina for brunch at Le Plein Sud down in Tribeca. We were catching up and planning our upcoming trip to Roma together!

Halloween and Good Days!

This past weekend was Halloween, a personal favorite of mine. Specially because of the Greenwich Village Parade. Marcus and I dressed up and made our way to the parade. He reprised his role as Krusty the Clown, and I was finally Lara Croft Tomb Raider. Gustaf made it in the shot, as you can see. We were thinking of making him Pepe Le Pew...it would have been an easy costume, considering he's a black cat! Anyway, some favorites at the parade were timely costumes like the bed bug and Metrocard Man, who was going to save NYC from fare hikes. My dream is get a bunch of friends on a float for the parade...because anyone can march in it! Today I had a really good day at work. I did a really good job on surgery, if I can say so myself...I also saw a few patients of mine who were getting better, which always makes me happy, specially when I'm worrying about them. Phew.

My Abs Hurt!

This weekend has been been a weekend of recovery. First, Marcus was gone for the weekend visiting with friends. This past Friday night, I went out with my co workers to a bar in Greenwich Village, and then had to be at work the next morning at 8AM. So needless to say, after work I just vegged out in front of the TV, ordered some dinner off Seamless Web, and hung out with Gustaf. I ended up watching two flicks that night: "City Island", a film produced by Andy Garcia, who also starred in it. Wasn't the greatest movie, but a lot of it took place on City Island (like the title indicates), which was pretty cool, because I have always had a little fascination with that place. My father originally wanted us to move there when we were young, so we could have a boat and live by the water. Then I watched "The Hurt Locker" for a second time. I love this movie. It's so intense and unnerving. I HIGHLY recommend this movie. Today I went to the gym and worked out with my trainer. She kicked the crap out of my abs today! I spent the rest of the day catching up on housework and I watched the film "The Pool". I liked it...it's a slow paced film about a teenage boy in India who spies on a wealthy family and is fascinated with the pool in their backyard. He ends up infiltrating their lives in the process. The funny thing about both these movies is the actual filmmaking processes for them were just as interesting as the final product! Apparently they were very challenging to make in terms of locations, departmental issues, and casting problems, if you read about them.