Rome-Guest Blog!

Well, I’m back for guest blog number two mostly because I might not make it through Lawyering Abroad without some sort of distraction, but also because there are adventures in Rome to fill you in on. Mal’s Rome blog pretty much covers our view of the Vatican and our first day in Rome as well as our first night bar crawling all over Rome. One funny anecdote not mentioned previously occurred during the first night. At about 4 am I awoke to Katie, disoriented and frantic, saying “there are not doors in this room! I will just have to pee right here.” Apparently she could not find the door to the bathroom and had decided there was no place to go, but by the window on a pile of Mal and I’s clothing. Luckily, I woke up just in time and scrambled to the door to the bathroom and opened it for her, but the next day we had to tease her about it because she was so disoriented the night before. Anyway, after a hairy day at Vatican City and a lunch of lean cuisine-esk lasanga on our first day, I decided that we needed to have a day where we made peace with Rome by seeing all the sites and eating delicious Italian food at every stop. Again, Mal was re-charging and probably semi-scared of me all amped up on Cappucino and Frommer’s, so Thomas, Katie and I departed alone. We began by heading to Piazza Bernini. En route to the Piazza, my sandal broke. This has happened to me on a previous Euro trip as well, so by now I am an expert at dragging my foot with a sandal barely attached all over the cobble stone streets. Thomas was more bothered about my shoe than me and he kept insisting that I stop and buy sandals, but when I’m touring a city nothing stands in my way and I refused to stop because who wants to spend time looking for sandals when you’re in Rome. So I hobbled on. Piazza Bernini was beautiful and we loved the fountain. From there we ate lunch at Colique Emille, a Frommer’s recommendation, that was reviewed by the NY times and rated as “about the best pasta in Rome.” It was small family owned restaurant tucked down a back alley, and although I can’t quite say it was the best pasta I’ve ever had, it was homemade and delicious and a huge step up from the lunch debacle the previous day. After lunch, we headed to the Spanish steps and shopped along Via Sistina. After promising “el mundo” to his girlfriend, Thomas was on a mission to find her a sun dress because he had already told her he bought her one. Luckily for him, we found a cute boutique where he was able to find a dress and also the owners, probably thinking I looked semi-homeless, super glued my broken sandal for me. After this we made our way to Trevi Fountain, my favorite spot in Rome. We already had our wishes pre- planned and I made a wish for Mal and myself, and tried to do it at the same time as Katie, but she forgot her wish when it came time to make it. By this time, we were really having a great time and felt as if Rome was apologizing for our first day there. We then proceeded to the Pantheon, which was amazing in that it was built without modern conveniences like a crane. Our final stop was Piazza Navona where we had planned to eat a second, late lunch at Osteria Gallo, a famous Italian restaurant there. On our way to the restaurant I tripped, for the 100th time that day, and my super glued shoe again came undone, so I was back hobbling around town. We were unable to eat at the Osteria because they were closed, so we settled for a beer and olives at a café outside near Piazza Navona. At this point we had traversed most of the city on foot and were hot and tired, and starting to miss Mal so we headed back (in a cab) to our hotel. Once reunited and sufficiently happy with Rome in general, we headed to Trimani wine bar, which Mal described in her Rome blog. We may never stop laughing about Thomas getting his meal in a martini glass. The next morning we departed Rome and made it back to Innsbruck just in time to hop back in our much beloved beds after another solid weekend trip.