The best meal ever

Buon giorno, Mama!

Today we boarded buses and traveled back to Rome. Although I'm looking forward to Roma, I wasn't quite ready to leave Florence. At least we had a beautiful day. The weather in Florence has been a little cool with rain off an on. Today is sunny and bright with no precipitation in the forecast.

After checking into our hotel, we had an hour and a half before we were to gather for our walking tour. I went out exploring the neighborhood and had gelato--Italian ice cream--for lunch. I had a giant scoop of black cherry gelato in a cone. It was so rich and smooth. Probably not a well balanced lunch, but I figure I got a serving of dairy and fruit in there, so how bad could it be? Interestingly enough, I keep running into our students in this area, and most of them are treating themselves to gelato for lunch as well. When in Rome....

I took off with a small group to go exploring. Moundville's own Margaret Haverstic was our intrepid leader. With her Rick Steve's guide in hand, we went for one of Rick's recommended walking tours However, first we hopped on one of Rome's overcrowded buses. Our tour guides were not enthused about any Cottey folks riding the local bus system. The buses are packed with people and can be prime pickpocketing opportunities. The buses are packed, and on a warm afternoon like today, you can imagine how hot it was. Still, we had great fun seeing parts of Rome and trying to chat with an older gentleman standing with us. He was very nice and, most important, showed us the correct way to use our bus passes in the automated system.

We hopped off of the bus at Largo Argentina. This ancient site of Roman ruins might be where Julius Caesar was killed. Scholars now think it was somewhere around this area. With the Ides of March coming up on Saturday, how cool was that? Today the ruins are home to hundreds of stray cats padding around walls and stretching out on the warm bricks. I took a couple of photos of the lazy Roman cats basking in the sun, enjoying the attention.

Next we went to a church called Santa Maria sopra Minerva. It is a Catholic church built on top of a temple to the goddess Minerva. That's pretty common in Rome, to find a building whose foundation is some ancient ruin. What's also pretty common is to find priceless art in all of these places. Santa Maria has a little-known Michaelangelo statue called Risen Christ standing just to the side of the altar, near the choir loft. Can you imagine all of these churches with so much valuable artwork in them. "Padre, where should we put the Michaelangelo?" "Oh, put it over by the choir loft, somewhere out of the way."

Next was the Pantheon. Big, as I imagined it would be, but surprising. The outside looks like a crumbling ruin ravaged by time, but the inside is incredibly well preserved with elegant marble walls, statuary, and other decorative elements. I took lots of photos to show you. It's almost too much to describe in this letter.

We tried to visit the Basilica de San Fransici, the place where St. Francis is buried, but it is closed on Thursdays. So, we went to the Piazza Navona to have a glass of wine and sit for just a minute.

The piazza has an oblong shape because it used to be an ancient Roman racetrack, like for chariot races. In fact, on the north end of the piazza, you can see the excavation down to the old Roman entrance of the track. (I think this is the ancient world's equivalent of NASCAR.) We also stopped in Sant'Agnes in Agone church while at the piazza. Again, more amazing art work.

After refreshing ourselves with a glass of red wine and some amazing olives, we trekked to the Piazza Colonna to see the Second Century column honoring Marcus Arelius, then to the place I really wanted to see: the Trevi Fountain. The fountain is awesome. The area around the fountain is packed with people: locals enjoying the evening, tourists snapping photos, and vendors selling all kinds of cheap trinkets. I did toss a coin into the fountain. If you do that you're supposed to find either love or return to Rome. I don't know which it is, but I'll happily accept either one.

Our final stop was the Spanish Steps, and then it was off for a late dinner. We went to a place recommended by Courtney Mlinar, who works in the Cottey library. She's made a few trips to Rome and said this was her favorite place to eat. It's called dal Tuscana and I think everyone in there spoke Italian except us. Even though our waiter didn't speak great English, we were able to order. I had pappardelle (long, flat, wide noodles) fixed the Tuscan way, which is with a spicy tomato and meat sauce. For dessert, I had a hot chocolate pie. It looked like a large chocolate muffin sprinkled with powdered sugar, but when I dug a chunk out of it, hot, liquid chocolate poured out of the center. So good I would have licked the plate if it wouldn't have been considered rude.

The waiter came to get our plates and asked in his broken English, "Food, OK?" I rubbed my stomach and said, "Sono felice" (so no fay lee chay) which means "I'm happy." The waiter broke into a wide grin and shook my hand.

Well, another full day and more great food. I could get used to this.

Alla prossima (until next time),
Your loving son,