New Year's Eve

These were supposed to be in yesterday's blog for my train ride to Rome before I met Nick.  I discovered a new setting on my phone's camera.  I LOVE the one where you can see the beautiful bracelet that Frances gave me.

 New Year's Eve...I usually don't do anything that special.  Once I was in NYC, but watched the ball drop on tv (i'm not completely insane!!!...haha).  Once I was with my love Erin in Tuscaloosa, and we had dinner and played with sparklers.  Umm...but usually, I just make sure I see the ball drop, and I usually watch it twice.  I will admit that I missed hearing "New York, New York" after the ball dropped, but I think I'll live! 

So the last day of 2012 started out in Gubbio, Italy; not a bad start to a day!  Nick and I got our lazy butts up and dressed for the day!  We had a few hours to spend in Gubbio before Anna Paola took us to the station to head back to Rome for a New Year's Eve date in Rome with my love Mattea and her parents.    We walked around looking for a place to eat, and we also saw the gate of the city, the patron Saint, and we even saw a small market where they were selling clementines from Calabria (yay Calabria). 

Sant' Ubaldo

 
For breakfast we went to this place where Nick eats sometimes and had cornetti and Nick had a cappuccino, while I had hot chocolate. 

The women that worked there were really sweet, and it was a cute place.  The atmosphere was nice, and the food was good!  We of course sat there and ate, laughed, and enjoyed our time!  I love that we always seem to laugh and enjoy each other, no matter what we are doing. 

Then we started walking around the city some.  It was cold, but not miserably cold.  We walked towards Nick's bank, which is kind of far from his apartment, and outside of the city walls.  We saw a place where people were buried,

 and it was a gorgeous sunny day, so it was a perfect day to walk around and see Gubbio.  It was cool to see the historical part nestled on the hillside.

 

We walked past of his schools, and this led us to seeing the Roman theatre that is in Gubbio.

 

It is gorgeous, and I loved it!    The strangest thing we spotted was a menu that offers "babies with potatoes".  No, it really does! 
We just spent our time walking around and enjoying the city.  We tried to go to the library, but it was closed, so we will have to do that next time!  We also went to Nick's favorite bakery, but they did not have the bread we wanted.  At one point, we just sat on a wall and talked for a bit because there was water running behind us, the sun was shining, and it was relaxing to just sit and enjoy the beautiful scenery; how many times will you be in Italy to just top and enjoy things at your own pace?? At this point, we decided to go to the small grocery store near his house and get a few things to have our favorite lunch: turkey, mozzarella, bread, olive oil, and tomatoes.  The grocery store was interesting because we had trouble finding the tickets for the line at the meat/cheese area.  I asked for directions to the numbers, which is significant only because I actually worked up the courage to just do it!  The place was PACKED, and slightly claustrophobic.  However, we got out of there with the things we wanted, and headed "home" to eat lunch.  So, we went to the apartment, made lunch, and relaxed for a bit while we ate our wonderful Italian lunch.  Then we packed our stuff, so that we could head out for the last Gubbian thing that we wanted to do before Anna Paola came to get us! 

We were once again heading upwards in the city.  We took an elevator to "piazza nostra" and then walked up some to get some beautiful views of the city!  First we stopped on "piazza nostra" and took a few pictures since it was dark last night and you could not really see it! 

 We had fun secretly telling people to leave our Piazza...you'd have to watch "Cinema Paradiso".  So, the initial views from the climb were gorgeous!  Gubbio may be small, but like most Italian cities that I have been to, there is something to be said for the views it offers! 

Then, in order to get to the other views, we had to climb over a fence, so of course I asked Nick to document this!  However, he eventually had to go over first and help me get over.  His legs are so long that he could just reach the ground; mine however were not quite long enough to do so!  It was funny though! 

From there we went a bit higher and got some other gorgeous views of Gubbio.  We also went inside the church, and as with most Italian churches, it was beautiful!  I love Italy, and I love exploring it with Nick! 

It was so beautiful!  Anna Paola called and told us what time she would pick us up at the city walls.  How amazing does that sound?  I love Italy!  So, we started making our way down the city, and I was really sad to be leaving Gubbio. 

As we made our way back through "piazza nostra", we saw these 5 children playing this game in the piazza.  It was amazing.  So here is how it went:
They were standing on four squares, and there was one child in the middle.  The children on the squares had to run to the square to their right, without the child in the center beating them to it.  If the child in the middle beat them to their square, they lost it, and now they were in the middle.  It was a really sophisticated game of "monkey in the middle", but they were having the best time!  They were making up their own rules (no adults within reach...that I could see), and not a single child was getting frustrated or anything.  They were just playing, laughing, and enjoying themselves.  I wanted to stay and watch for a while, but we had to go.  As we walked away, I started analyzing how I thought that this game covered most of the developmental domains, if not all.  1. They were being creative.  2. It was physical activity...gross motor skills, and control of their bodies to run and stop and such 3. They were having to think about it...and plan their attack and pay attention to the movement of all the children.  Plus, they obviously thought of the game themselves.  So, this is cognitive.  4. Social activity...they were all playing with each other, interacting and they seemed to be enjoying it. They were cooperating and agreeing on the rules and such as a group! 5.  I would say that it was stimulating emotional development because they were having fun with each other.  No one was upset when they lost their square; they just kept playing the game!  Again, the other amazing thing to me was that they had nothing but themselves, their idea, and the piazza; plus, there was not a single adult regulating these children's play.  I LOVED it!! 

So, we made our way back to Nick's apartment and finished packing. 

Then, we walked to the gate to meet Anna Paola.  I ran into a church while we waited, and took a few pictures!  When Anna Paola arrived, the first thing she asked was, "did you guys have an unforgettable night in Gubbio?" Haha, yes we did!!  We never got to tell her the full story, but we had a great ride to the station.  Anna Paola is great!  I talked to her about the London thing, and then she invited me to go to Sicily with her school/Nick later in the year!  I was sad to see her go, but I talked to her about February when I come to see the Montessori schools.  So, then we caught the train to Rome. 

So, we took our train to Rome, and we had fun on the ride.  We took pictures with my new Washington stuff, and just laughed.  I love that we can just sit for hours, and still have fun together. 

Can IIII ever be normal??

Sunset from the train

When we arrived in Rome, it was dark, and the Christmas trees at Termini were still lit.  We grabbed a cab and went to the hotel.  We had a great room.  There was a beautiful view from the window and we had a balcony area that was enclosed, but still had a beautiful view!  We took some time to change clothes and relax for a few minutes.  We got in touch with Mattea, and made plans to meet up with her at the Pantheon so that we could go to our restaurant for dinner later.  I was so excited to be in Rome for New Year's, and to see Mattea!  The hotel staff was really nice too, and they seemed to appreciate my attempts at Italian, and they definitely loved Nick's Italian!  So, we eventually headed out to walk to meet Mattea.  We stopped at the Trevi Fountain and took some pictures first because I was so excited to be in Rome, and I love the Trevi Fountain at night.  It was a bit crowded, and we kept having to make the guys trying to get us to let them take our picture...it was SO annoying. 

 After this, we stopped in the wine store and got a bottle to share with Mattea and her family later, but right after we paid, we discovered that they were not giving out the cups like most places do!  Plus, we had forgotten our wine opener.  Thus, we just had to wait to figure it out later...wing it...something Italy is teaching me to do!  Yay!  So we made our way to the front of the Pantheon and waited on Mattea. 

The Pantheon is one of Nick's FAVORITE places in Rome

 Mattea and her mom and dad joined us, and I was SO excited to see my Mattea, that we ran to hug each other! I just love her, and I love that we have so much in common and get along so well!  So, with hugs, greetings, and introductions out of the way, we decided to walk towards our restaurant to see if they might be able to seat us a little early!  As luck would have it, they had our table all set and ready for us downstairs! 

We had a great time at dinner!  We laughed, told funny stories, and just enjoyed each other's company!  I really enjoyed getting to know Mattea's parents, and they were so sweet to us!  It was good to have Mattea there and to laugh with her!  We had some appetizers, and I ordered this amazing pasta that was DELICIOUS!!

Nick had some amazing chicken that I could not have ordered though because it was on the bone, and that freaks me out!  The wait staff was so kind, and they told us that they are opening a branch of this resaurant on Bleeker street in NYC.  Mattea's family is from upstate NY, but we all knew where they were talking about.  It was just so much fun to be in the same room with two of my favorite people, Mattea and Nick, and it did not hurt my feelings that her parents were so amazing! 

So, with about 10 minutes until midnight, we got the check and headed towards the piazza in front of the Pantheon!  We made it there with a few minutes to spare; enough time that Nick was able to get a restaurant to open the wine and give him plastic cups!  Then, people started setting off fireworks, which were beautiful, but so low and ash was falling in our eyes and cups!  My momma happened to call right at midnight...I answered and said, "HAPPY NEW YEAR...IT'S MIDNIGHT!!!" It was so weird, but what a great way to start 2013!!  We poured our wine and toasted to a new year in Italy!  The loud bangs from the annoying bomb type "fireworks" that people were using were hurting our ears, and we eventually made our way under the Pantheon because the fireworks were so low, but it was so much fun!  I cannot believe that I spent a New Year's Eve in Rome!  How romantic, wonderful, amazing, potentially once-in-a-lifetime!  I cannot believe I was able to be with Nick AND Mattea, and I just felt so happy!  We took some pictures and just soaked in the first moments of the new year, and the fact that we live in Italy! 

It was such a wonderful night.  We all started walking towards our hotels.  Nick and I decided to walk with Mattea and her parents a bit longer.  We got blocked though when we were almost to the Colosseum.  However, we walked down the corso with them and were in pretty big crowds.  There was also soooo much trash on the ground, and a TON of glass everywhere because the Italians had broken glass bottles EVERYWHERE!  It was unreal!

The light up Mickey/Minnie Mouse type ears were the big thing...no glasses of the year

 

So, we eventually had to part ways with Mattea and her family, but we headed back to the hotel to use the bathroom and drop my purse and stuff off before we headed to the Spanish Steps, just because they were close to our hotel and because we were not ready to sleep!  We stopped by the Trevi Fountain again, and there was a guy getting his beard shaved off into the fountain...a little gross, but it was funny!

Tree at the Spanish Steps

So, at the Spanish Steps there was so much glass everywhere that it was sticking in our shoes.  We met a group of people from Malta, and they were really sweet!  Then we made our way back to the hotel because it was sooo early in the morning!!  It was like 2 am at this point, but we had plans to just sleep the next morning because we knew we would be tired; plus, most things were going to be closed in the city on New Year's Day!