Nuns on parade

So a confession. I love nuns. Yes, you read that right. LOVE THEM! There was a moment where I thought about becoming a nun but decided against it (the whole can't get married thing dissuaded me). Anyway, here in Rome there are nuns EVERYWHERE and I love it.

Nun at my local pharmacy. Thanks to her I realized there is convent in my neighborhood! (No, I did not follow her! I just happened to see her going in to what I had suspected was a convent and then looked at the sigh more closely.)

Nuns at the train station. 

Nuns sharing my commute.

Nuns at IKEA. I guess the convent needed some new furniture? Sorry it's blurry; I am not so great at discrete phone photography :)

More nuns on the bus

A bit much? I've stopped taking pictures cause I am afraid I'll get caught and embarrass them (and myself)... I can't explain it. Something about the whole "Bride of Christ" thing really gets to me. You would think that nine years of Catholic school (with nuns) would have beaten that out of me but I find them endearing, these hardworking women of God.

When in Italy...

Since it was Ferragosto, and unbelievable disgustingly hot, my husband and decided to make like the Italians and flee Rome.  We took advantage of the holdiay, took a "ponte" (meaning we took a vacation day so that we had a very nice long 4-day weekend) and headed off to the beach! Not just any beach, though. We decided to go to Rimini!


Never heard of it? Yeah we hadn't either before we got here.  Rimini is a pretty popular beach town on the Adriatic Sea a 4 hours drive from Rome.  We had heard, it is where the young Italians and foreigners go to party. It was, according to my husband, "the Panama City" of Italy...
Obviously someone need a refresher course on what Panama City was. Or perhaps they meant some other Panama City and not Panama City, FL, which is what we were both expecting. Do not get me wrong. Rimino was BEAUTIFUL! and RELAXING! At one point on the last day we were there, I turned to my husband and said, "this is what I had always thought a vacation was suppose to be like!" Slow lingering days of doing nothing but relaxing.

Getting some sun!

View of the water from our beach chairs, under our umbrella!

View down the beach. Yup, that IS a Ferris Wheel!

But party central, it was not. We did go out one night to a perfectly fun club. Where there was dancing. And an 8 year old...at 3 am in the morning.  As I stared in horror, and my husband chuckled next to me, I remembered...This was Italy (where yes, kids are out at very odd hours of the night!). It was NOT the US, where booze infused evenings at bars and clubs are the norm. Here in Italy, an evening out starts with a looong dinner where a bottle of wine is shared among many. Then everyone goes out for an evening of LOTS of talking and a drink. Maybe two. No more really. Italians, we have been told several times, do not need alcohol to have a good time, or to socialize. (Though they are VERY quick to tell you they think Americans do).

Danny's skewer of meat. It was AWESOME!

This bar was the happening place...but everyone just sat around and chatted...

Strolling the boulevard and hanging out.

Overall I had a great time in Rimini. Got some sun, relaxed a lot, ate wonderful food. Did we party till 4am? Well...actually we did, Italian style, with a loong dinner, and with lots of talking! When in Italy...

Attack of the Smart Cars

One of the biggest decisions, at least it seemed to me, was whether or not, to bring a vehicle with us to Italy.  The vehicle in question was my car, Siegfried, a 2002 Lexus I have had for several years that runs like a dream and looks kind of like a nightmare. We decided to sell my car but Carmax would barely give me the price of the gas to drive him there (seriously this car looks like it’s already been in Rome for a few years…) and when we thought about online selling it, I got the worse case of seller's remorse. So instead of being sold (and us buying a nifty little Fiat), he came along with us to Italy.  Anyway, for those of you know and have driven in Siegfried, you know that although he is awesome, he’s no giant. He’s a smallish 4 door sedan.  What I've learned here though is that compared to Roman cars, he’s a monster. He’s going to eat these Smart Cars for breakfast.

Teeny, tiny little cars. 

I had thought it was stereotype that everyone in Rome drives tiny cars but the question here isn't WHETHER you dive a smart car it’s what color.

There's blue, and white, and yellow, and black, and red...teeny tiny little cars...

But I guess given the parking situation here, one needs a small car. Yes, parking situation. I had this rumored before I arrived but seeing truly is believing.  American traffic cops would have a field day here. They park on the side walk, facing traffic, on 2-3 rows blocking in other cars, perpendicular.  Yes, perpendicular between two cars.

Yay, a space! Fit right between these two cars!

This is a space right?

These cars are parked in the lane divider. It's ok though. It's Rome.

I asked my husband what does one do if your car is blocked by another car, and he said it’s Italy, no one really cares. I guess you just wait, go get a coffee, since chances are you have done it too.

Ferragosto

Since we arrived in Italy, now almost a year ago, we had heard about this mysterious "Ferragosto." People would refer to it, almost reverently, as the time of year when the city empties. All the locals go to the beach...or the lake...or the mountains. They take advantage of their 20+days of vacation (jealous?) and take a nice long break during the middle to end of August. As result, Rome becomes deserted. In half whispers, our friends told us about this time of year, when traffic became non existent, shops closed, and the Italians disappeared.
I'll be honest. I didn't quite believe them. I mean, how could a whole city stop, really?
Than August 1 rolled around. Suddenly, there were parking spaces on our street. Our commute to work, usually about 20 minutes to drive the little more than 2 miles, started taking 15 minutes, then closer to 10. There were less and less crazed Italian drivers cutting us off on the streets.  More and more shops were closed with little signs posted, stating
 
"Closed for the holidays".
What is the holiday, exactly? Introduced by Emperor Augustus in 18 BC (yup, the Italians have been taking off like this since BEFORE CHRIST), the Feriae Augusti, or Augustus' rest, was one holiday in late summer that celebrated both the hard work that goes into agriculture and the joys of the harvest.  Traditionally, after all the work of the harvest, the ancient Romans would take a long needed rest. The period was celebrated with horse races and beasts of burdens, like oxen and bulls, were decorated with flowers.  The famous Palio of Siena, celebrated on August 16, is a remnant of these ancient celebrations.
Today, Ferragosto is just one day, August 15, a national holiday where even the government is closed. Depending on the day of the week this national holiday falls, many Italians (and non-Italians like us) will take a quick vacation (or longer one).  The tradition of taking a holiday over the actual Ferragosto holiday dates from Fascism where the government itself promoted quick discounted 1-3 days trips. It was a wonderful opportunity for those who could not typically afford it to visit seaside or mountain resorts and thus Ferragosto became associated with trips to the beach or mountains. And it is definitely worth the trip!!

Welcome to Italy!

In the days before my husband and I left DC for Rome, every good bye was accompanied with, "I am going to blog about Rome! No worries, I'll keep you updated about our life on my blog!"... I even, in a fit of over eagerness, set up my blog while sitting in our hotel in Arlington, waiting for our Italian visas to be ready and for us to leave. Our trip kept getting postponed and it seemed like we would never leave. And then we did.
It was all we had imagined...and not at all like we had pictured! And time passed. We settled into our (beautiful) apartment. It felt every day more like home. We sight-saw around Rome and took trips to the Italian countryside. Yes, it is as beautiful as the movies and looks just like a postcard. I kept meaning to post on my blog. But life kept getting in the way.
So here I am, almost a year of Roman adventures under my belt and a year (and a little bit) of adventures still left.  Some of the posts will be about the things I have seen (and I apologize in advance, I love history so there will be some storytelling and historical tidbits thrown in). Some will be about the interesting cultural things I've observed (and there are tons!). There be food, drink and merriment! Hope you enjoy!