Don't go!

We started our morning by getting dressed, going to eat breakfast in the breakfast room, and then getting the last of our stuff together.  As we were starting to get our stuff together to leave the room, I could not help but cry!  I did NOT want my momma to leave!  We then went down stairs and I had to explain the lady that I was not leaving, but just taking them to the train station, and finally a guy helped her understand.  So, we walked to the train station and waited on Nick.  While I was excited for him to arrive, it meant my momma had to leave, and I was NOT okay with this!

Waiting at Termini...

So, we waited near their train, and then when we saw Nick, I started walking towards him!  He picked me up and twirled me around!  I saw my momma taking a pictures, but I do not have it yet!  I thought that was so sweet of him, but I was not surprised!  :)

So then we talked for a few minutes, and then took their stuff to the train and put it on.  I stood and talked to my momma for a bit, and then the train was getting ready to leave, so I let her go sit down!  I immediately lost it!  Nick was so sweet to hug me and comfort me, but I still did not want her to leave.   The train took a little longer to leave, but we did not risk getting on or off the train!  My momma took our picture as we stood waiting on it to leave.  When it pulled away I wanted to chase after it...but, we watched it go, and then headed off to the hotel to get my stuf!  It's a really good thing that I had Nick and Rome to distract me because otherwise I would have been a hot frickin' mess!

We had to give them Nick's passport and then we went upstairs to get my bags and such!  NIck ate the breakfast stuff I nabbed for him at breakfast.  Then we went downstairs and I paid for the room, and we were off to Andrea's apartment!  It was a beautiful walk.  We walked up the stairs at her apartment, and her building is really nice!  We dropped our stuff, used the bathroom, decided on our plan to get to the catacombs.  We decided that we had to walk back to Termini to take one of the subway train; my first time on the Roman subway, so naturally I took a picture!

My favorite thing about Nick is that we have fun all of the time.  Even when we are just walking around and doing "nothing", we are having fun!  It is so easy to be with him.  So, that being said, we had fun just journeying to where we ended up!  So, Nick bought our tickets, we waited, took the A track, and when we got off the train we asked for directions to the buses we thought we needed!  Then, we realized that we had just over an hour before the catacombs closed, and Nick said that we had come out at the Appian Way, the original road into Rome.

We saw some things we were now interested in seeing, so we put off the catacombs.  Nick realized that the big church we were staring at was the church he has been wanting to see, St. John Lateran.  This is the official church of Rome I think; not St. Peter's.  We walked to see a little more of the wall around Rome, and then turned back to see the church.  Nick was so excited, and it was fun to see him excited; it was infectious!

Nick laughing!!

The church itself was GORGEOUS!! I loved the statues of the apostles; Peter's had the keys!!  We looked at a poster of the Popes, and I finally got to see a picture of my favorite pope, Pope Clementine XII (not his real name...but it's the name I have given him!!).

 

At this point we were hungry and ready to find something for lunch!  When we picked a direction to walk in, we quickly realized that we had walked all the way to the station, taken a train, and ended up just up the street from the apartment...well, like a 10ish minute walk....umm...OOPS! We found a restaurant that had some things on the menu that appealed to us, so we went in!  It was rather empty, and thus we were obviously the Americans here!  We sat down, Nick spilled water...haha...we ordered some brosaola, the meat we discovered last weekend in Rome, and then split some penne arrabbiata, which is a "spicy" penne.  Nick also dropped his knife...it wasn't his day! ;)  We had a wonderful lunch full of conversation, laughter, and joy!  It was a good thing that we were the only ones in the restaurant for a while because we were laughing so much!  When we got up to leave, and I had to leave quickly because suddenly there was an overwhelming fish smell, it had become colder outside! 

After lunch, we stopped by the apartment, because we had to walk right past it, and I tried to lighten my purse load!  Also, it’s always nice to use a clean bathroom…I won’t lie!  

Our first stop was the big white building.  Nick had never been inside, so we went!  It is a huge building and quite beautiful!  We saw the tomb of the unknown soldier, some Italian flags, and went to the outside area to get some views of Rome!  We stood there for a while being silly, which is always fun! 

An (or the most) inefficient way to re-do a road...

Nick and his "man bag" aka y purse

 

 

 When we headed back out, it was to go to Tiffany to pick up my bracelet.  We took the route that took us by the Spanish Steps, because we figured if we would somehow hit all of the other major landmarks while walking around, this one should not be left out!  Though to be fair, Tiffany is located near the bottom of the steps!  Anyway, we went to Tiffany, picked up my bracelet, and I was so excited to have it back!  While I trust Tiffany with my jewelry 100% of the time, I never like leaving my jewelry there!  

After Tiffany, we started making our way towards the castle/Vatican.  We walked along the river and just enjoyed the view and the company!  We seem to be making Roman habits; I’m okay with that.  How many people can say, “yeah, most of our dates were in Rome…walking along the river..going to the castle…etc!!”  Every time I think about this, it makes me smile!  More so than that, “where did you meet?”  Rome…and dated in Italy…and traveled in Italy!  I can handle this!  I do loooooove to travel! 

Today we walked past Piazza Marcello again, and I practically shoved Nick across the street.  I HAD to get his picture under the sign!  I knew that Erin and April would REALLY get the significance, but I wanted a picture that would have the caption, "MY MARCELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FINALLY FOUND HIM...his name is Nick Crown!"  So, I had him stand while I took this, and I explained a little bit, but it was mainly for Erin and April! Erin later told me that she almost cried when she saw it on facebook!

Our first destination on the other side of the river was the “Old Bridge Gelateria”, which is the place we took my momma and Barbara last week!  We started having to speed up our walk just a bit so that we would have time to eat our gelato and then get to the castle for our sunset date on the top of it.  It was not looking very sunny, but nonetheless we wanted to be there!  This time at the gelato shop I got “cookies” and then the same amazing caramel I had last week!  The cookies one was really good! Nick got hazelnut and…caramel maybe?  It was so yummy, and he even got whipped cream on his!  Sneaky boy thought he could be silly in a picture, and I would not notice.   

Once we finished our gelato, we started making our way towards the castle.  
 

Let’s hear it for the museum cards that Fulbright gave us!!  A free date at the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome…yes please!  We were laughing as we tried to get to the top because we have now come to the castle 3 times together, and have yet to succeed in taking the same path to the top!  Today was the worst because we kept getting turned around!  I suppose the person who designed it probably did some of this on purpose!  Once we reached the top though, we claimed a bench (well, ½ of the bench), and sat there for about an hour and a half. 

We watched a girl doing dancer poses with the Vatican behind her, and just had so much fun!  The sunset did not really happen like we wanted, but it was still not raining, not too terribly cold (until the sun went down), and we can have fun just sitting!  This hour and a half is probably one of my favorite periods of time I have spent with Nick!  We took some pictures, talked about meaningless things, talked about important things, laughed endlessly, joked around, did some people watching, and enjoyed our time on top of the world…I mean castle!  It was even relatively empty up there, so at some moments, it felt like we were the only ones in Rome that knew about this great view!  At one point I could not but glance continuously over my shoulder because as the sun went down, the lights of Rome came on!  The street lights, and I got to see St. Peter’s (Vatican) lit up at night!

 

 

 It was gorgeous!  At this point it had become quite windy and cold, so we took pictures of St. Peter’s at night, and then decided to head down!  I was frozen to the bone now, but had not fully realized it because we had been somewhat huddled together as not to be too cold!  

We were not really hungry, and so Nick suggested that we walk towards Piazza Navona, and perhaps we could go back to my favorite store!  I told him that I probably would not be buying anything, but we could go look around.  Then I decided that maybe I would buy myself something; a treat for my birthday! 

On our walk, we stopped in this AH’MAZING bookstore that had used books and a café with couches, etc.  The atmosphere was really close to STRAND in NYC, but Italian!  We looked around or a bit, and warmed up!  This store was so cool, and I think I would have a hard time staying away from it if I lived in Rome!  Before we made it to the store, we scoped out a few possible places to eat later, and one guy saw us looking at the menu and was being sweet to tell us what was best, and he was impressed with Nick’s Italian!  He gave us a card, and encouraged us to come back! 

When we went in the “Made in Italy” store, he immediately insisted that I show him the wax that I loved so much last week!  I hesitated because I did not want him to buy me any more birthday presents!  He had already given me my t-shirt from the market in Seattle, which had a fish on it…don’t ask!  However, he quickly figured out which wax it was, and then had the guy wrap it up!  I was busy looking around at everything, and trying to decide what I MIGHT buy myself, when he came up and told me that he wanted me to pick out a journal; one of the Italian leather ones I had been looking at last week!  I resisted for as long as I could, but then gave in and chose this gorgeous crimson one!  I tried to tell him that he did NOT have to do this, but he insisted that because it was my birthday (well, this was our celebration because he could not be there on Wednesday) he had to get me a gift!  He is so sweet, kind, generous, giving, and all around wonderful!  I have to admit, the journal is GORGEOUS and I DO love it!  The guy even told us that you can get refills at Papyrus, which we have in the States.  Yay!  So, I picked out the pages with lines so that my writing would be neater, and then we were off!  

At this point, I was only a little hungry, but really wanted to go inside, and to a bathroom! We went back towards the restaurants we saw, and decided on CYBO, the place we had the card from!  The guy was excited and told the waiter that we were his “friends” and we had a card.  Tonight we were the early-bird Americans (we got there around 7 p.m.) and had the whole restaurant to ourselves for a while!  They put us at a table near the window, and so we were able to “people-watch”.  They brought us some prosecco with pomegranate in it.  

Nick ordered a bottle of Chianti wine, and then we ordered our food! 

Being the Americans that we are, we only ordered pasta dishes!  Nick had some sort of spaghetti that sounded, and was, amazing! I ordered ravioli that had ricotta cheese, a few nuts, and then it was served in a spinach sauce…words cannot describe how good it was!   The bread and olive oil were really good at this place too, which always makes me happy!  The wine was delicious, and the conversation even better!  When I got up to go to the bathroom, Nick was sneaky and told them that we were celebrating my birthday!  So, not too long after I came back, they brought out this cake thing with a huge sparkler in it!  Thank goodness they did NOT sing, but they were sweet and wished me a happy birthday!  

 All together, Nick and I sat there for about 2 ½ hours talking, laughing, eating, drinking our wine, and just enjoying our night in Rome together!  He never fails to make me feel like a princess!  

So, when we decided it was time to leave, Nick checked the map on his phone, and saw that the path to Andrea’s apartment would take us right past the Coliseum “at night”; something I have been dying to see!!!!!!!!!  We stopped to take pictures, and I even tried a jumping picture, from a ledge that was too high, and I am sure I’ll pay for that later!  For once in this entire time I’ve known Nick, he was the one that was searching for a bathroom; I gave him my “disease!!”  So, once we took some pictures, we started walking to Andrea’s apartment! 

 

We stayed up and talked for a bit, but then naturally, sleep was next.  It had been a long, sad, wonderful, fun, amazing, exciting, beautiful day in Roma, Italia!

Return to Rome

This day and tomorrow are days I have been dreading!

We finished packing in the morning because I knew we would not have much time when we came home from school, and I was still not sure how we were going to get to the station.  I made plans for the bus, but was hoping that I could get us a ride.  So, my momma and Barbara were not going to Patrizia's class with me, so I left them at the bar and went to class. 

Patrizia's class was awesome!  We did the famous person dinner, and I was really impressed with their participation!  This lesson is a gold mine at this point!!  Francisco called and said that his dad could take us to the station, so that made me happy!  Here are their answers:

 Edward Norton surprised me...and Stan Lee. 

Next was my first one hour break.  I went to find my momma and Barbara and they were in the bar finishing their cappuccini!  Then we walked around a bit...went to the bank, stopped in one of the  tabbacherias to get them some postcards, and slowly made our way back towards the school. 

Linda's class was next, and Linda was there today!  We did the famous people dinner, and had fun with it!  I love giving the students the time to think about it, write some stuff down, and then talk about their people.  It is also fun because everyone has to talk!  It was a great class!  The students were so kind to hug and love on my momma and Barbara.  Linda said that I was becoming a great teacher, which meant a lot to me because teaching this age group is so new to me! 
Here are their answers:

 There are a few people that they have a hard time remembering are NOT American: David Beckham, Adele, and apparently in this class, Kate Middleton!  However, their participation was most important to me!

My new sweater...which makes me look huge here, but it is sooo warm!

We spent my last break at the other school.  We went to the teacher room, and I went to get a decaf cappucino from the machine!  Barbara wanted one too, so I got her one as well! I also talked to NIck a little bit during this break!  One of the teachers asked me to help her with her English as well!  I enjoy helping others!  :) 

Rosina's class was the last one of the day! I told them what we would be doing and then Rosina took my momma and Barbara out again!  When the door closed, my students immediately said, "okay, today we do it all in Italian!!" Haha, nice try guys!  So, they decided that they wanted to turn the dinner game into a game of "Guess Who?!?" So, one student had to think of someone, adn the others had to ask questions.  It was rather chaotic, and half English/half Italian, but they seemed to have fun!  When my momma came back, they each thought of one and the students guessed.  It was fun...a bit chaotic, but fun! Here is their list:

 

After this class, we gave quick goodbyes and booked it home!  I wanted us to have time to double check packing, throw final things in, and eat lunch!  We were able to accomplish all of this and had the pizza Lilla brought us last night.

We went downstairs, and Franco called to tell me where he was waiting.  I had to run and see if I saw him, and then we found him!  He was so sweet to take us to the train station!  I had to speak quite a bit of Italian, which is good for me!  We waited at the train station for a bit, and waited in a room where I had never been! We finally got on the train and went to Paola, and I was able to talk to Nick before we got moving on the train; always a happy thing!  There we had to wait a little bit, and the train was delayed a few minutes!  My momma and Barbara both bought cute bracelets there, we used their bathroom.  We eventually got on our Rome train, and in a hurry I might add, which was NOT easy with the luggage that we had already been dragging up and down stairs! 

It had been kind of rainy, and I was really bummed that my momma and Barbara would not be able to see the sun set over the water from Paola.  However, just as we started the journey to Rome, in our mostly EMPTY train car, the sun was visible and we got a GREAT sunset! 

 

 

 

 

 

As soon as the sun set...like less than two minutes later...HUGE rain drops started falling!  Thank you God for allowing my momma and Barbara to see the gorgeous sunset!!  The rest of the train ride was rather uneventful!  The lady in our compartment got off at the first stop!  The train was SO empty, and it was really nice!  We turned out all of the lights and slept! We had train sandwiches and some of our snacks for dinner! 

When we made it to Rome, we grabbed our stuff and I found out that the hotel is like 2 minutes from the train station!  So, we walked there, checked in, took our stuff to the room, and got ready for bed!  Then, my momma and I went downstairs to print their boarding passes and such.  It took us forever to do: thank you Italian internet, computers, and keyboards!  However, we had a great time laughing, and I was just soaking up my time with my momma!  I did NOT want her to leave!  Eventually we went upstairs and took showers and got ready for bed! 

Not ready for her to leave!!!

McDonald's????

We got up, ate breakfast, got dressed, and walked to school. 

First up is Valeria's class.  This morning while I was getting ready for school, I had an epiphany.  I decided that in order to get the "famous people" conversation going, I would have them play the "game" of, "If you could have dinner with one famous (American) person, who would it be?  Why are they famous? What would you talk to them about?/Why would you like to have dinner with them?"  I was pretty excited about this, and I figured it was a better way to stimulate conversation! 

Valeria's class responded REALLY WELL to this activity!  It was so much fun, and I was impressed with some of the people that they came up with!  It was hard to get through all 30 of them in the 1 hour, but I was just so excited that it went so well that I did not care!  My favorite part of this activity is that EVERYONE has to participate! 

 So when this class was over, we were headed to Patrizia's class in the other building.  We were a little late because we talked to Valeria for a few minutes, and I had to ask Patrizia if my mom could come in.  So, we spent the class time talking about Christmas, New Year's Eve, the gifts they received for Christmas (money and cell phones).  They said that they primarily slept and ate over the break.  Then we talked a little bit about how American and Italian cities are different; the set up...so the idea of the Piazza and such does not exist in America.  We do not always have "town centers" either.  This all led to just random conversation, but it was a great class.  I was just excited that they all participated and responded. 

Next we had a 1 hour break, so we went to the bar near the school.  My momma and Barbara had cappuccinos while I tried a new kind of hot chocolate.  I tried the orange/cinnamon one, and it was sooo good!  The barista gave us some free cookies to have with our drinks; pays to be American sometimes!  :) No, this guy is always really sweet and kind to me!  After we had our snacks, we went to my favorite little flower/candle shop near the school!  We looked at the Yankee Candle candles and just killed some time!  Then we went in one of the "chinese" stores (Italians terms not mine!). 

So, we went back to the school and I was really excited for Linda's class to meet my momma!  I love this group; this is the group that gave me the beautiful earrings!  When the door opened, they all came out excited and saying, "EEEly!!!"  I love getting that greeting, and I am always so excited to see this group!  Some of them are struggling to understand English, but they are always attentive, engaged, and doing their best.  You cannot ask for more than that; at least I cannot ask for more than that!  Linda was not going to be there today, so it was just me and the students.  We talked about Christmas, New Year's Eve, what they received for Christmas, etc.  It was funny to tell them about my New Year's and stuff because I waited to mention Nick's name and right before I did, I turned to my momma and said, "wait for it...!"  Then I said, "Nick met me in Rome for New Year's!"  It took half a second to register with them, but then they started cheering!  I thought it was so incredibly sweet!  At some point my little fashionista in this class mentioned seeing Tiffany & Co. in Rome and I whispered in her ear that Nick gave me a beautiful bracelet from there for Christmas!  She got so excited and word quickly spread around the room!  They talked to my momma and Barbara, which I was really proud of them for doing!  They told me that they were still working on their books in English, and I urged them to ask me for help if they needed it!  I would love to read a book with them, but it does not look like that will happen!  We talked about Calabrese food, and had random conversation!  It was a very successful class, and I love spending time with them!  It ended with a lot of hugs, kisses, and conversation afterwards!  I cannot say enough how much it means to me that my students are allowed to be affectionate, and that they are affectionate.  This was one of the things that I was nervous about with high school students; I was afraid of missing that warmth that I get with young children!  God is so good to answer even the seemingly insignificant prayers!  He knows our every need!

Next up, we walked to the bus station.  My momma was finally going to get her Italian McDonald's.  So, I went and bought our tickets for the trip there and return! The bus came quickly, and in no time we were there.  I had forgotten exactly where the food court was, so we got a quick tour of the mall while searching for food!  Haha. 
We got in line at McDonald's and it did not appear that they had the Calabrese anymore, which made me sad because I wanted my momma to try it!  Instead, she decided on the Focaccino, which is also something unique to Italian McDonald's!  SO, they went to get a table, and I ordered her food!  Then, Barbara and I went to a different place and I got a sandwich, while Barbara got some pizza!  I was surprised at how busy the food court was, and especially the McDonald's!  I think I know more Italians who love McDonald's than Americans, but yet they think that the only thing we Americans eat is McDonald's, and hamburgers in general! We sat and ate our lunch, doing a little bit of people watching.  Afterwards we had the really good gelato from the mall.  THen we went to the big grocery store that is in the mall!  We bought a few things that I needed, and Barbara found some cookies that she wanted to take home with her! 

Then we went outside to catch the bus back to Cosenza.  WHen we got back my momma and Barbara took a nap while I talked to Nick.  Then I ran to the store to get some "hamburger" meat for dinner.  Lilla called and said that she would have to bring us pizza and not go get it with us because her mom did not feel well.  SO, Lilla came by and delivered the pizza and stayed to talk for a while!  We talked about civil rights, MLK Jr., and my momma and Barbara were able to tell her stories about their school being the first one to be integrated and such.  Lilla was really interested, and I think she really enjoyed talking to them!  Lilla eventually had to go, and so hugs were given all around. 

A bit later, I made hamburger patties with some cheese on it, bread with oil, and some leftover pasta.  We spent the evening hanging out, packing, and solving a hotel issue where I had the wrong hotel and so I had to book the hotel again in ROme...ughh...oh well...problem was solved quickly, so it was okay!  We also took some pictures in my Ruby Red Slipper socks that my momma bought me! 

 

 

"There's No Place Like Home! There's No Place Like Home! There's No Place Like Home!"

Not looking forward to taking my momma to Rome tomorrow,  because that means she has to go home!

Wine at school???

The morning started out with breakfast, getting dressed, and walking to school.  As we got near the school, Valeria was coming out of a building nearby, and so we walked the rest of the way to school with her!  I was soooooooooooooo very excited for my momma to meet Valeria.  I just adore Valeria; she is so kind, gentle, sweet, loving, intelligent, and all around fabulous!  She is DEFINITELY one of my favorite people!!!  

So, Valeria's class was up first, and I was excited to see them!  They were great about talking today!!  They were great about asking questions for my momma and Barbara; we also talked about what we did on our vacation from school; and we even talked about why it is best for me not to speak any Italian to them.  I talked to them about how I learned Italian, and then how hard it was for me to go to Florence and not have it translated into English!  Valeria joined in the conversation, and it was a great hour with them!  I was really excited for my momma and Barbara to see the difference between the schools.

Up next, Rosina's class.  I adore this group of students.  They all seemed really excited to see me, and greeted me with hugs, smiles, and a ton of "ciao Ely" 's!  What a wonderful way to start the hour.  However, when we started class, they became so shy!  My momma and Barbara were sitting at the front and Rosina was sitting in the back as usual.  I was trying desperately to get my students to talk, but they would barely utter a word.  Eventually Rosina said that she was going to take my momma and Barbara downstairs for some coffee.  As soon as the door shut, they all erupted into half Italian, half English.   I got them all quiet and asked if it was my mom or Rosina that was causing them not to speak.  All at once they answered, "TEACHER!!" Haha...okay, well now I can talk to you all.  We started out somewhat formal, with me sitting at the desk, but then we all just gathered around the radiator and started talking.  Surprisingly, they were all involved in the conversation (in English) at some point.  This made me so happy, and made me feel like I am truly forming a relationship with them that will help them learn English, and they are teaching me some things in Italian as well!  THIS, is what Fulbright is all about for me; THIS is what I think my purpose here is!  So, we talked about boyfriends, the difference in ENglish between a boyfriend and a fiancee, dating, Christmas, hanging out, and my pretty boy was being funny!  A lot of them went on their first dates at like 11 and 12 years old.  We saw one boy's ex-girlfriend walk by outside (one of my students in another class), and it was just so funny to watch them interact.  This group is awesome!  Pretty boy was joking about first dates and such, but by listening to what all of the students were saying as a group, I gathered that while they may want to seem super grown-up and mature, they are all rather sweet and innocent; I love it!  Rosina eventually came back with my momma and Barbara, and when they opened the door we were all huddled by the windows/radiators.  They all of course clammed back up when she came in, but thankfully the class time was almost over. 

Rosina was very kind and drove us to the other school, which I know my momma and Barbara were EXTREMELY thankful for; this meant that they did not have to walk the 40 minutes from one school to the other. We had a few minutes before Francesca's class, but I was actually looking forward to this group today because 1. Tuesday went so well and 2. They were bringing food/a party for us today! 

So, Francesca tried to make it a lesson where they learned vocabulary for setting the table and such, and I put the words on the screen, but it just turned into a party!  They brought food, wine, and such.  Everything except for one jar of veggies in vinegar and the bread, was homemade!  There were different kinds of olives, spicy pesto, grape jam, pitta mbigliata (Christmas treat and this one), and some other Christmas treats.  The students were really sweet and seemed excited to share their homemade sweets!  THey were talking to us, and granted I had to try and translate most of it, it was so wonderful to see them happy, interactive, and excited about something!  The food was really good and we had a lot of fun!  A few of them wanted to take pictures with me, and here are some of the other pics we took:

 

 

 

 

 

As we were getting ready to leave the school, I ran into Lilla and we talked to her.  Then the headmistress approached me and started telling me something about my momma and not bringing her to school.  She became exasperated and called Lilla over to translate.  She started telling me that I could not bring them back to school because lessons were for the students and not for strangers. She said that they could wait on the couches, but they were not welcome back in the classrooms.  Lilla was looking highly annoyed about what the lady was saying, and I was just in shock.  She (headmistress) was NOT very nice about it, and it made me SO angry!  First, IIIII was the one teaching lessons, and they were just there to observe and have conversation with the students if the students wanted to!  Second, she clearly has no idea what I do at her school because if she did, she would have known that after the class we just had (where they brought wine to school by the way), that I am not at her school again until Monday.  THe thing that made me REALLY angry was that they do not follow other rules; those students do not follow rules of tardiness, respect, homework, food, gum, etc. etc. and they are NEVER punished...it is a free for all most of the time, but now that it has to do with me...there is a rule and she is angry with me!  Double standards much? I was so upset and could not believe that this happened.  However, I tried to eventually let it roll off my back.  I do not know why this lady does not like me, but she does not seem to like me at all!  THough I never see her, and when I do she will not speak to me!  Oh well...we had fun!  Just hope she doesn't find out about the wine! ;) 

When school was over, we took the bus to the Piazza Europa and changed buses.  I realized that there was a bus that would take us to the theatre in the historical center and it would take us up a little higher for a great view of the city!  I was really excited that I realized this, and it saved us a lot of time and them a lot of walking!  When we arrived at the theatre, the guy remembered me from the other night when we tried to see it.  He was kind and said that we could have a look around.  So, we went to see the inside; we went upstairs to one fo the balconies, I took some pictures on stage, and I showed them the area beneath the theatre.  It was all just as gorgeous as I remembered it!  I love that theatre and desperately want to see a show there! 

 

When we left the theatre, we took the bus back to the center of town.  This allowed them to see the wonderful view of the city, which made me happy!  We then came home to rest for a little bit.  We did not really need lunch, so we just took some time to relax.

Then we walked down the Corso.  I stopped in Zara and got a really cute chunky sweater that is SO warm, and then this really cute little crop jacket thing that I adore!  We were also able to go in the chocolate store and Barbara bought some chocolates while we looked at the wines and such!  THe store was rather empty compared to normal, but I still love it for the atmosphere.  Our next stop was the Calabrese Specialita' store!  My momma bought some liquore di melone from there.  Not wanting to buy groceries to cook, we went to a tavola calda and tried some different pizzas and this pasta with tortellini in it.   We had pizza with potatoes on top (sooo good), pizza rustica, and the pasta thing! 

After we ate, we made our way home.  We did some packing, and I talked to Nick about doing a lesson plan the next day.  We talked about doing his "famous people" discussion, and so I decided I would...though I had NO clue how I would approach it! 

Per the usual, I talked to Nick for a while, and then I went to sleep! 

I do not want my momma to leave!