'did you ever get your caprese salad? No, so I am going to mcdonalds....'

a 2 day field trip to rome...

last wednesday (2.10.2010) – we had a field trip to rome. Basically we learned that the 'long lost journey' we went on saturday (2.6.2010)

chigi (the 'royal' family whose palace we are living in, in ariccia!) palace in rome,
now it is an italian government building

trevi founrtain – throwing our two coins in to 1. return to rome and 2. find love

inds rocks rome.

GELATO DIARIES-
tommy directed us to a local 'tourist-y' gelato place while we were soaking in the trevi fountain. i tried 'stratchatella' or chocolate chip, it was OK...the chocolate chips were all melted together and formed a huge ball of chocolate in the ice cream. but it was still edible ;)

yay! gelato on a cold rainy day...

tommy showing us the marking's for how high the water used to flood the streets.

french church... in italy.
San Luigi dei Francesi Church.

amazing attention to detail.

cydney trying to get some 'artistic' shots.

rome's weather is similar to what i would imagine seattle, washington's to be - cold and dreary. their is constantly a slight drizzle in the city...

Yay for rain boots!
lil coco is (mid- jump) enjoying a puddle.

'where's chigi?'

the chigi family symbol is '6 mountains and a star.' can you find it in this picture?

we returned to ariccia EXAUSHTED after walking all around rome for the entire day. But excited to wake up and do it again...

thursday (2.11.2010) slept in to 9:00 and then rode the train to rome. Our goal today was to finish our assignment (the rome scavenger hunt – yeah we do have a little bit of school work) and then have some time to shop :)

the sun trying to peek out in rome!

our first stop was the roman forum and the colosseum (been there done that...), but this week we were going to actually have the chance to go inside!

some ruins in the roman forum...

how were these ancient romans so detailed?

Quick history lesson- the romans would sometimes 'import' greeks to carve their columns (because they were SO much better at that craft), and then the romans would take all the credit...RUDE.

arch of constantine.
someone was even nice enough to jump in my picture for scale.

'I am #1' (I started singing Nelly's old school hit from middle school when I saw constantine's hand from his statue...apparently he had the same thought about himself.)

ghost chandelier.

THE mcItaly...i am thinking I am going to sample sometime on my 'italian' adventures. It is 100% italian carna (meat/beef) on chibata bread with artichokes and asiago cheese for 6.40 E! Whoa.)

since I only wanted a snack I choose the 'euro' menu and got a small coke (that is actually small and not GRANDE like the ones and america) and a cheese burger. The verdict? MUCH better that USA. I think they actually used real onions vs. the dehydrated ones they use in america)

italian mcdonalds.
anit-climatic, looks similar to the US but somehow everything here manages to be BETTER.

After a uneventful shoppting trip to Zara and every other shop on the way to metro, we made it back to Ariccia around 9:30PM. I quickly ate dinner and packed for my first weekend trip...to VENICE!!!! this was a very exciting weekend trip, we were going to experience the most authentic 'carnival' in all of italy...