Saturday

Saturday, 28 June
Our first full day in Rome.  Well, everyone more or less got good sleep last night--eventually.  I think Finn had the hardest time falling asleep, and Coen did the best, sleeping from about 12:30 until 10:00 am.  I forgot to mention that, thanks to our Italian classes, we were able to order our dinner in Italian last night.  We also bought food at an open-air market that is about 5 minutes from our apartment and I was able to ask for "due banane e due peschi, per favore." Heady stuff.  We were getting a late start, and didn't have any food in our apartment, so we decided to have some food first at a Spaghetteria.  Finn actually got spaghetti, which he said was "really, really good." We all had a taste and agreed--it was the cheese that really made it special.  I got the bruschetta al pomodoro, coen got bruschetta al prosciutto and Lane got an antipasti platter and we shared. So good. This meal I really enjoyed.

Finn is running the show, so we asked what he wanted to do today and he chose to go to the Villa Borghese, a huge--no really, HUGE--park in the north part of Rome.  It was about a 40 minute walk to get there, and for a while we just explored, but then we settled down to business--we had a letterbox to find!  If you don't know what that is, our family goes letterboxing, which involves boxes (usually tupperware, to be waterproof), hidden in various places in parks, forests, and other areas around the world (usually outdoors). You find the clues online for a place you are planning to go, print them out and bring them with you. Inside the box is a rubber stamp and a little notebook. You use the stamp to stamp your own notebook and (having brought your own stamp, ink pad(s) and notebook, stamp your own notebook to prove that you found the letterbox.  We found the letterbox in the Villa Borghese, and it was kind of neat, knowing that we found this secret object halfway around the world. We have three more letterboxes to look for in Italy, but I don't know if we'll have time for all of them.  One is in Florence, one in Cinque Terre, and one in Venice.

We rented a four person bike-mobile for an hour, because a lot of people were riding them around the park and it looked like fun.  Kind of neat for something different. Some of the people renting them were even Italian, so we didn't feel super touristy.  Just mostly.  People seem to know you're American, somehow. Finn said he wanted to go to the Bioparco next.  That's the zoo, which is also part of the Villa Borghese park.  I thought it would just be some teeny little zoo, but no--it's a real zoo, comparable to the Seattle Zoo in size, I think.  We spent about two hours and only saw a third or a half of it. Finn enjoyed it, definitely.  He has always liked zoos. The petting zoo was only open for school groups, though, so that was disappointing.  We got some especially cute pictures of him with a little monkey who was hanging out with him (behind the glass).  A group of three Italians asked me to take their picture (in Italian), and I understood what they were saying!  What do you mean, them holding out the camera was a clue?  I totally understood them anyway!

We walked home through citta centro (city center), which was interesting in a different way from our own neighborhood. Stopped at a little market to buy juice, crackers, mozzarella and prosciutto. So, so tired of being on my feet.  I suppose we have to go out to dinner, but I don't want to move.  A litter can arrive to carry me to the restaurant tonight; otherwise I think I'll stay right here with my feet propped up.  Lane is napping and the boys are playing on my kindle.  We all like Rome!  But I want to figure out the bus schedule so we don't have to walk EVERYwhere for the rest of our stay.

Ciao!