Rome if you want to

This morning I was going to walk down to the Vatican and back. What was supposed to be a 40 minute walk turned into 2 hours. I got totally lost. When I started to see signs for the autostrada I knew something was wrong. Finally asked someone in Italian, where the hell was I and walked back home.

Saturday walked at least fives miles. Went to Gusto (the osteria side) for amazing bucatini carbonara, then my favorite music store on Via del corso and finally all the way to a museum on Via Guido Reni to see the Francesco Clemente exhibit. The woman at the newsstand who said the museum was 10 minutes from Piazza del Popolo, was incorrect it was more like 40 minutes. Oh well, it helped me burn off the pasta.

Ettore lives near there so he picked me up and we went back to Trastreve to meet on our project. Went to this wine bar/book store, Libera di Cinema (sp) which is owned by a director and a bunch of his friends. Had a glass of amazing red wine from Sicily for a whopping 4 euros. Same glass at L'Ermitage would be at least $14. Meeting was very productive. I might add the bartender was fine.

Sat. night went out with "la contessa di filicudi's" friend. The Contessa and I met in Italian class. Her friend went to law school in the States so his English is perfect. We went to a club called Micca to meet up with his friends. There was a great jazz band, then a DJ came on around 1:00 a.m. We had the hardest time finding the club but at least we were on the list and didn't have to wait on line. It's near Termini station located in a basement. Very cool decor, good drinks and were it not 100 degrees and packed we would have stayed longer. We were going to go to another place but stayed outside talking for awhile. Althought I kept switching back into English, I did get props for my Italian. Well except from one guy who asked me how long I have been studying Italian, 3 days? I replied Ma Dai!! (come on!) and he laughed. Finally realized it was almost 2:00 a.m.

Yesterday met Max for breakfast in Piazza Santa Maria in Tratevere. I bumped into Matteo, who I was going to see later that day, at the same restaurant. Max and I walked back towards Piazza del Popolo ( almost 2 miles one way) to the flea market on Via Flaminio. She got some cool stuff. On the way back, went into Santa Maria del Popolo. It was the middle of Sunday mass so we didn't stay. I went to that chuch last year and saw the gorgeous works by Caravaggio and Bernini. I wonder if the priest was salty because tourists were taking photos. We stopped at the Trevi Fountain which was insanity, threw in our coins and got the heck out of there. Had the best gelato so far, San Crispino (sp). I tried to find it last year but kept getting lost and gave up. I will be back.

Back to the Piazza Santa Maria for another meeting on our project. It went very well. Then met up with expat Leslie, who is a costume designer for a drink at a wine bar in the Testaccio neighborhood. On the way we went into the church Santa Maria di Cecilia. It's one of the churches I really wanted to see and it's only a few blocks from my apt.  After the bar we went to her friend's apt. around the corner. He is a screenwriter and we had more wine. Took the bus back and walked around Trastevere. Finally crashed into bed around 1:00 a.m.

I might check out the church San Clemente today or go to E.U.R or a concert in the park with Max and Paolo. Today is a national holiday, May Day and there are free concerts all over. Now I have to finish my homework. ciao.