Buongiorno!
I’ll start off with an apology regarding the blog silence. The Wi-Fi we were expecting to have at our apartment didn’t start functioning properly until Thursday night (i.e. two days before our day of departure), which is why we’re posting several entries simultaneously. But since access to internet actually tends to eat away at time, I would say that the more or less complete cut-off from the digital world (with the exception of Thomas, who enjoyed constant access to Internet through his phone) was a blessing in disguise.
We started off our Tuesday with a meeting with former senator and minister Di Pietro, who is famous for his role as prosecutor in the corruption scandal surrounding Craxi. He gave quite a charismatic impression, and our own fiorentina Laura will write more about our meeting with him on another occasion.
Meeting with Di Pietro
After the meeting we continued our new tradition of walking around aimlessly and discovering marvelous sights around each and every corner. We met up with Bocca della Verità (The Mouth of Truth) and climbed up Aventino Hill – one of the seven hills that Rome is built on – and enjoyed a fantastic view; both from an open terrace and from the Secret Keyhole. (The title of this entry, by the way, is a lovely quote from Alexander, who slightly misremembered the saying “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”.)
Picture taken directly after Fredrik’s hand bit Anahita’s and proclaimed her a liar
View of the Sistine Chapel through the Secret Keyhole
A coffee break was next on the agenda, and all of us experienced the luxury that is Wi-Fi at Caffè di Marzio at Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere – one of the astonishingly many beautiful squares in this wonderful city. The whole of Tuesday was actually just a very, very long walk with spontanious visits to churches, Pantheon (again), several gelaterie and pasticcerie, and the evening ended with a grand dinner at Grano and a spontanious sit-down in the middle of an empty square (close to Fontana di Trevi, can’t remember the name) with wine-filled coca-cola cups and predictions of where all of us were going to be in ten years time – a conversation that provided a fantastic playground for Lauras imagination.
Fredrik put on his raincoat during the five minutes of dripping weather, and almost managed to out-brighten Maari’s jacket
Paparazzi photo of a couple from the inside of a pasticceria
- Fredrik being Fredrik at Caffè di Marzio
Incredibly random photo of a group of tourists posing by the prettypretty car
A late night cobblestone-gathering
We got home in the middle of the night, as you do, and enjoyed a poor night’s sleep before our meeting-packed Wednesday began. But more on that later. Ciao!
/Anahita