We had a small breakfast salad in the apartment and then went downstairs to do a load of laundry. Fortunately there were some instructions in English........which made things go much easier. We had bought detergent at the store the other day, and Andrea purchased the card that is needed to run the machines. Everything worked!
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| This is the central command station of our apartment.......everything plugs in here! |
THE MAIN CORTILE OF THE AAR
The reason we are showing this is to set the location for a video which follows. There are hundreds of small birds (sparrows?) that live in the vines which grow over the walls of the courtyard. It is quite extraordinary to walk through the space and listen.
The rest of the morning we spent in our studio in the main building. We actually started to get some things done. Andi worked on some sketches (and read the Sunday paper) and I worked back and forth between painting and drawing. It was nice to goof off for a couple of hours. The studio is a wonderful place to work.
For lunch we headed out to an American breakfast/bakery joint about 10 minutes away. It is run by a couple from Mississippi (seriously) and we think they cater quite a bit to the American University in Rome community. We had bagel breakfast sandwiches......could have been at Panera! Next time we are trying the french toast and waffles!
On the way back we hiked over to the Garibaldi overlook on the Janiculum which has great views of Rome. This was the location that Garibaldi and his republican troops tried to fend off the French/papal troops. While they were unsuccessful, it was the start of what became an independent Italy. There are statues all around the park honoring the men who were part of this important freedom movement.
VIEWS OF ROME FROM GARIBALDI PIAZZA
Back at the apartment, we finished up the laundry and tackled our obligatory afternoon siesta. This can become a habit!
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| We have no idea how they fit these machines in this tight space under the stairs! |
Forgot to mention, it was very nice (atmospheric) to hear church bells ringing several times this morning.
Also, we learned today that yesterday was Italy's 'birthday', which probably explains some of the large crowds we encountered around the city! The country is 2,771 years old, which is pretty amazing.......makes our 242 seem like a new kid on the block!
We enjoyed our Saturday late afternoon/evening wine foray into the villa lawn and gardens that we decided to do it again. In fact, it could become a nightly occurrence! I was thinking of the word foray because Collins suggests "If you make a foray into a new or unfamiliar type of activity, you start to become involved in it." That is so reflective of what is happening to us here.......you initially feel a bit disoriented, but how quickly you find those things which draw you into both the place and the community of people. Actually, maybe this is all brought on by our bottle of prosecco!
Dinner tonight was a simple affair. We were doing one of those Sunday 'things' where you do your best to clean out the fridge! For us, this ended up being almost more than we could eat. We toasted bread with olive oil in a frying pan, then had a salad of mixed greens, radishes, cherry tomatoes, larger Sicilian tomato slices, two kinds of ham, red peppers and cheese......all covered with fresh olive oil and a balsamic vinegar 'crema' which is something like maple syrup!
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