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...