It’s still raining here.  Rained yesterday and we went to eat Indian food for lunch.  One the corner by the restaurant, we noticed activity in a flowering tree.  A whole row on both sides of the street of Apple trees in bloom and the activity in the tree was a flock of wild parrots. They are small and bright green.  We came home after lunch to read, sew and nap.  A lazy Sunday.  I fixed a salmon salad and we had it on crostinis for dinner.

Today we cleaned house and washed and changed sheets.  Even in Rome we have to take care of the basics.  Stopped off at a favorite place for lunch…lasagna…and found out it is the owner’s birthday.  While talking to her today, found out that her husband had an accident 4’years ago and is blind and can’t work.  Then her 4 year old daughter died two years ago.  We were all on the verge of tears!  Too sad.  After lunch, Andy and I stopped  by a store and got her a box of orange scented soaps and took it back to her for her birthday present.  She ran to the back and came back with a huge box of pastry and offered us some.  So nice.

Another day of laziness, reading and sewing.  Out for dinner of a pizza.  Home in bed now and supposed to rain again tomorrow.  I’m going to the close grocery store in the morning for a few things and plan to cook a couple of dishes tomorrow that will be good on a chilly, rainy Tuesday.  If there is a break tomorrow in the rain, we will go to the police to check on the official permit to stay!  Wish us luck.  Good night!

Today, we went to the Oriental Museum for the Iranian art exhibit.  There was a big crowd and they were all jammed into a small room to watch a film.  It got hot, there was standing room only and we got tired of waiting.  And we knew the whole thing would be in Italian or Farsi…so we looked at the permanent exhibits and left.

I went to the quilt shop across the street and a lady was in there with the quilt top she had finished.  I admired it and asked if there were a quilt group I could join and sew and visit.  The lady, Paola said I certainly could come and gave me directions and her email and phone number.  The group meets every Wednesday at 3:30.  So between now and Wednesday I will look up sewing and quilting terms and learn them.  I very excited to meet these ladies and sew with them…and speak Italian.

When we were on the bus today, I noticed a big round circle on the validation box.  When you get on a bus, you stick your ticket into the box and it validates the ticket with time and date.  We don’t do this because we have a monthly pass.  We do put our pass over a circle at the subway to open the stile.   But today, I said to Andy, ‘I wonder if we are supposed to put our card up to that circle here on the bus?’  We did and a green light came on. Then, not ten minutes later…the bus police got on to check our tickets!  They took our monthly bus cards and put them over the circle and handed them back.  I’m not sure anything got validated but at least we weren’t hit with a 50€ fine!  I think the green light meant our card was valid for the month.  On the first of every month we take the card and pay for another month and it goes on the card.  It’s like a plastic credit card in size.  But funny that I should notice the circle on the box for the first time and the bus police get on for the first time since we have been here.

We went to two churches today.  One was St. Paul’s within the Walls.  It is Anglican-Episcopalian.  There was a small orchestra practicing for a concert this evening.  Then we went to St. Prudenzia church.  One wall of the church looks as if it has been built into part of an ancient Roman viaduct.  There seems to be quite a bit of restoration of fading and almost gone frescoes.  It looks to be a very old church.  Across the street, we found another stumbling stone commemorating the life of another Jewish victim of the Holocaust.  We are finding that some of the stumbling stones have a marble plaque on the wall commemorating the person as well as a huge wreath on the wall.  I don’t know why some have the plaque and wreath and some don’t.  If I find  out – I’ll let you know.

Coming home, a man was standing right beside Andy, and I was standing across from her.  All of a sudden, I saw the creep’s hand inching into Andy’s purse.  I yelled for her to move her purse.  It was zipped so he got nothing, but they are good at unzipping!  He got off at the next stop and I called him a very un-lady like name!  He knew I saw him and I’m sure he thought of a name for me!  

We ate at our friend, Vince’s restaurant again tonight.  The Caesar salad with lots of anchovies.  Delicious and so fresh.  He gave us capers like I have never seen.  Instead of the tiny, salty ones in brine…these are as large as olives, green and no added salt.  

Tomorrow is the Ides of March….the day Caesar was assassinated at Torre Argentina where the cat sanctuary is.  The healthy cats who live at the sanctuary play and sun themselves among the ruins.  Even tho my kitty, Raptus has only three legs, she can go out to the ruins.  The special needs cats have to stay inside so it is safe for them.

That was our day.  Have a good evening, All.

Another Friday the 13th..we had one last month too.  Remember…anytime the 1st falls on a Sunday there will be a Friday the 13th.  Worthless Trivia.

Today, we went to Three (3) churches!  The first and second are right together at the beginning of the Roman Forum.  They have never been open when I passed by…but today they were.  Not sure what one church was called, but the other seems to be dedicated to Mary…like the other million churches in Rome!  As usual, beautiful with lovely mosaics and lovely little chapels.  We walked past the Forum and the Coloseo…they are cleaning it, so there is a lot of scaffolding around parts.  Last year, on April 1st, I received a daily Italian post I subscribe to that told the amazing news that in order to raise money to preserve the Coloseo, 25 luxury apartments were being developed along the wall.  They were to be the most expensive property in Italy.  I nearly broke out in hives…I wanted one…I would sell everything I owned just to have one of these tiny apartments.  Just before I started hyperventilating, I got to the end of the article…yep…April Fools Day!  They got me!  Oh well…it was exciting to dream on that one for a minute!  Then we continued on to the Basilica of San Clemente.  The floors of this church are like the ones in St. Mark’s  in Venice…all marble quilt patterns in different colors.  There is a lovely apse that has a band of sheep circling it, just like we saw in Santa Maria of Trastevere last month.  Did the same artist do both?  Or is one a copy?  I don’t know.  Below this church is an underground home with a pagan altar and a pagan sarcophagus as well as many Christian frescoes.  All of this was covered in the 4th century to build the Basilica.  Unfortunately, there are only tours for groups, so we had to just read small plaques to figure out what we were seeing.  Hopped a bus and headed for our area and ended up back at our new favorite restaurant…where Andy had a salad of arugula, Gorgonzola, walnuts, Parmesan cheese and a wonderful balsamic dressing.  I had a scooped out avocado, mixed with shrimp, Roma tomatoes, onions, lettuce and a delightful dressing.  We love this place and Vince the chef.  Back home to read and recuperate.  Until tomorrow….Oh, before I forget…last week two American girls were caught carving thei initials in the walls of the Coloseum.  Did these morons check their brains with their baggage?  The fines will be quite hefty…hope they lift their passports and never let them back into Italy again…maybe a ‘No Fly’ list for idiots who think they are entitled…I think they made a selfie…MORONS!

Rode the subway to Termini (after delivering the signed dollar bill to Vince -his first US dollar from his first customers.  He put it up in a prominent spot!) and caught a train to Santa Marinella.  It stopped four times before getting out of Rome…including the St Peters station near our apartment.  Who knew?  We headed towards the coast seeing lots of country side and small towns.  One town, Marina Cerveteri, is very unusual as ALL the houses are painted white and have a rather Spanish look to them rather than Italian…or Moorish as we saw in Venice.  Maybe Google will have an explanation.  When we got to Santa Marinella, we were hungry so started walking on the Main Street of town toward a restaurant I had read about…and we walked…and walked…and walked…and I kept thinking: if that restaurant Is closed, I will sit on the ground and cry!  And we walked some more.  As I was passing a big ceramic shop I saw a lady with a little dog walking toward me.  The little dog would stop and look frightened and start up, only to repeat the strange, fearful behaviour.  I realized there was a huge ceramic black dog on a pedestal, and the little dog was afraid of it.  I started saying, ‘No e vero’   to the  puppy meaning It isn’t real…and he finally decided the big old thing wasn’t going to get him…and besides, he now had a crazy American dog lover to fuss over him and get kisses and all that silly dog stuff I love.   We FINALLY found the restaurant and it WAS open and we had a wonderful meal.  On the way there, I had noticed a bus stop about a block from the restaurant and we made sure we were on it back to town.  Otherwise, I would have still been there, crawling  to the  train station.  We went to the beach…Andy walked around in the sand and I found a wet, sandy dog to love on and get more kisses from.  People seem to love having their dogs getting lots of attention.  And we love giving it.  We had a sack of stale bread we threw out for the sea gulls.  There are some beautiful huge villas along the sea wall.  Back to the train station and caught our train home…getting off at St. Peter’s station and we were home probably before the train reached Termini.  Forgot to mention…on top of all the walking in Santa Marinella, to get to our train in Termini, we had to walk to Track 28….the farthest one of all.  When we bought our ‘open’ ticket we had 10 minutes to catch the next train..and couldn’t get there in 10 minutes…missed it!  Another one came along 20 minutes later and we were on it.  Had a fun day.  I don’t want to walk much tomorrow.  OK?

thanks to Evan for getting the Venice posts posted!  I messed up something, I guess and couldn’t get them on the blog.  

Monday, we went to our wonderful market to buy fish for a dinner party on Tuesday…and the fish stalls are shut up tight.  No fish on Mondays!  So, I went  back yesterday to get mussels for my famous steamed mussels.  They were wonderful.  We had Caprese salad first, slices of tomato and slices of Buffala mozzarella and fresh basil leaves on top.  Olive oil drizzled over the top and balsamic vinegar.  Oh my!  And if you think you have eaten tomatoes, think again…nothing tastes like a fresh off the vine Italian tomato!  I like buying the mussels from a sweet little old man who has a tiny stall…a fourth to a fifth the size of the other fish stalls.  He runs it by himself.  The others have from 3 to 10 workers cutting chunks of fish, filleting, counting out and wrapping.  I told the little man, in Italian that ‘I came yesterday and all the fish stalls were closed’.  He repeated to me in Italian, ‘ You come Monday, the fish stalls are closed’!  Friends, Liz and Lauren came and a good time was had by all!

Today, we went to the Oriental Museum, but unfortunately, the Tibetan exhibit was finished and they were in the process of setting up an Iranian exhibit to start on Saturday.  There will be a special event at 11am on Saturday.  The Iranian Cultural Ambassador and his Italian counterpart will meet to sign a cultural agreement, open the exhibit and refreshments will be served.  We plan to attend.  And, the exhibit will be free that day. After we left, we went to the Rome Quilt Store.  What a delightful surprise.  Lots and lots of bolts of lovely material for quilting. I will be returning, and hope to find a group that I might quilt with while here.  On the way hope, stopped for a slice of pizza.  It was a thin crunchy crust that I love, a green called rocket and huge slices of smoked salmon.  It was wonderful and I will stop there again.  Got home and rested before dinner.  Tonight we went to a brand new restaurant near our apartment.  The chef opened this evening and Andy and I were his first customers.  We are taking him an American dollar tomorrow that we are going to sign and wish him good luck.  His name is Vince and he was a chef in NYC for many years.  He serves Caesar salads – the only person in Rome who does!  That is what we had and it was delicious!  Can’t wait to try his other salads and the soup of the day.  Very different fare from all the other places around that serve the typical pastas.  And he won our hearts by sharing a Reese’s Peanut butter Cup with us!  A taste of home!  Any of you coming to visit…please bring a package of Reese’s, Milky Ways and Almond Joy!  A special request from Vince!  We hope he is a huge success!  

Tomorrow we are off to the beach.  Will report on that tomorrow night.  

Once again, coffe and off to see the sights.  We caught the Vaparetto and went to the famous Rialto Bridge across the Grand Canal.  All kinds of shops on either side of this massive bridge. And jillions of tourists.  We have mostly seen Asian tourists in Venice.  We ate an American breakfast of bacon and eggs on the Grand Canal…it was a beautiful warm day to sit outside in the sun.  Went back to the convent to pick up our backpacks and then back to the train station.  We checked our bags and went out sightseeing.  There was a huge protest forming in front of the station and in a piazza nearby.  I would guess several thousand people protesting Government corruption, the Mafia, terrorism, illegal immigration…same stuff the world over.  It was very peaceful and there was a lot of police presence.  We visited two churches.  They are very plain compared to Rome’s churches, except for the Murano glass chandaliers in all of them…and one had the mummified body of St. Lucia in a glass coffin at the altar.  She is the patron saint of eyes.

Finally, it was time for our train.  We got out seats and all of a sudden, a little white fluffy dog jumped into the seat next to Andy.  Like her new best friend.  A little girl and her mother apologized profusely, but we assured her the dog had come to the right place!  I showed the little girl photos of all my doggies and kitties back home.  She was about 6 years old and spoke perfect English as her dad is American.  At one point Andy babysat the dog while they went to the food car.  We made it back to Rome, caught the Metro to our stop and walked home.  Fell into bed.  Already planning another trip to Venice later in the year to see more of the sights.

Today is now Sunday and we are just staying home and recuperating.  Andy fixed bacon and eggs for our breakfast.  We had really thick bacon cut at the market last week and it was delicious.  Not quite like bacon at home, but no complaints.  I never did make the spaghetti carbonara last week, but will get more bacon Tuesday and will see what happens.  We are having friends over Tuesday night for my famous mussels.  Our first dinner party!

That’s for today.

(Sorry all – these didn’t go out at the right time so “today” below isn’t today. We’re doing a little catch up)

Today was Friday (3/6), and we went to a fabric store near the Jewish Ghetto.  The fabric stores in Rome don’t have quilting fabric of any quality, but this store in Venice had about 50 quality bolts.  Almost double the price I would pay in the States.  We had a sandwich at a little soccer pub and it was divine.  Smoked salmon, mayo and egg.  Then we walked to the Ghetto.  The very first Ghetto in Europe was here in Venice and it was where the Foundry was.  Originally a ghetto was not as we think of it today, but just the foundry area where the Jews lived.  They were required to wear yellow scarves or hats to signify they were Jews but there was little persecution.  They were set apart because they had jobs that were forbidden to Christians such as money lending.  There are three synagogues in the Ghetto and a museum.  We met an interesting shop owner who sells his wife’s paintings.  She does paintings that are very folk-arty showing the Jews celebrating all the different holidays.  And she does cat paintings as if they were done by famous artists.  Instead of people in the paintings…there are cats.  They have a big, fat Orange cat who sleeps in a basket on the desk.  Of course, it is HIS gallery and the man and wife just work for him.  He got lots of pats, tickles and attention from us.  Then we went to a Kosher restaurant for lunch.  Wonderful place!  Called Gam Gam.  We had four appetizers and each was excellent!  One was eggplant with a tomato sauce.  One was hummus with whole chickpeas in it and ground beef.  Then had fried artichoke hearts with a sauce of sesame and parsley and then latkes…potato pancakes with fresh applesauce.  What a feast.  I think my favorite meal this whole year!  We hopped a Vaparetto right outside the restaurant back to St Mark’s and toured the Doges Palace.

The Doges were the Dukes who governed Venice for hundreds of years.  You have no conception of the size or grandeur of this place from the outside.  It goes on and on.  On one side are rooms that house the original colums that were part of the facade of the building.  One dates back to the 1420’s.  Across a massive courtyard attached to the Basillica on one end, you enter room after room, and floor after floor of magnificent rooms.  The staircase ceilings and walls are carved and guilded and painted.  Each room has beautiful ceilings and walls covered with art.  One wing houses ancient arms, crossbows and arrows, armor for men, boys and horses, some kind of bow that had two handles that you rotated to fire the bows.  Guns and something that might have been an early Gatling gun…it had about 10-12 barrels.  Then we got to the prisons…oh brother.  A wooden door about 3 feet high admitted you into a cell with stone beds…some had no beds.  No light, facilities, just a hole cut into the stone so the guards could look in.  A docent said they crammed them full.  We got to cross the famous Bridge of Sighs.  From the inside.  It is said you could hear the sighs of the prisoners as they crossed from the court that had convicted them to the prison as they saw the Grand Canal and Freedon for the last time.  After that tour, we were exhausted again and went to dinner and back to the convent for bed.  And the full moon to shine in our window.

once again….we were NOT kidnapped by handsome Italian counts…or no-counts, for that matter.  We went to Venice for a few days and had poor or no wifi reception.  Even in restaurants that boasted Free WiFi…it wouldn’t work.

We had so much fun.  Took a ‘Fast Train’ from Rome and it only make a few stops…Florence, Bologna, Padova, Venice (mainland) and Venice (island).  We bought our 3 day vaparetto ticket and took off for St. Mark’s Square.  The Vaparetto is like the city bus.  A medium to large boat, I guess depending on time of day and normal rider use.  It goes down the Grand Canal moving from side to side to the Vaparetto stops to let people off and on.  Before going to Venice, I couldn’t get the waterways in my head… how they worked.  Picture the Grand Canal as a big, wide freeway that cuts through the center of the town.  You can take a bus…the Vaparetto, a Taxi…water taxi, or private car…Gondola.  Priced accordingly.  When you get to your Vaparetto stop or taxi stop, you disembark and walk.  There are small canals shooting off the Grand Canal and other canals shooting off the main canals…just like streets at home.  The streets are just made of water, and cars become boats.  You can catch transportation to other islands.  Lots of small bridges in Venice…but only a very few over the Grand Canal.

We found our convent hotel and checked in.  A lovely old building that the nuns have inhabited since 1932.  Only 4 nuns live there now, the others live on the other sideman the Grand Canal.  The building has a small reception area.  To the right are stairs that go to the nun’s offices and a big sitting room where we would have coffee.  From there on the second floor are classrooms and the chapel where the nuns attend Mass at 6:45 every morning.  It is small and fairly simple.    From the reception area you can go into a large courtyard that leads into a big hallway with classrooms off of it.  The convent is a school for children ages 3-11.  They all wear smocks to cover their clothes…white for the littlest ones and navy blue for the older ones.  Passing thru the great hall, there is a tiny courtyard that leads into the area for the rooms on 4 floors.  There are 14 guest rooms with private baths.  Simple, clean and comfortable.  All accessible by stairs and elevator.  Our room had floor to ceiling doors that opened to a tiny balcony.

We left the convent to explore and went to St. Marks Basilica.  And got right in…no lines!  You can read up on the Basilica on Google.  The mosaics are beyond description.  Just stunningly beautiful with gold and brilliants colors.  The floors are all quilt patterns!  Done in marble and stone..all beautiful colors.  After the Basilica, we hit the shops to,see the beautiful Murano Glass…jewelry, vases, glassware, figurines from huge to teensy.  Most made in Murano and some made in China.  Chinese goods being passed off as authentic are a growing problem in Italy.  And didnI mention chandeliers?  Absolutely breathtaking!  I forgot to mention the Murano glass chandeliers hanging in every room of the convent.

We had dinner in a cute restaurant.  Andy had the best spaghetti with seafood she has ever had and I had mussels…again.  We collapsed after dinner and slept with the almost full moon shining in our windows.  Slept like babies!

Standby Folks….
Having trouble getting our 4 posts from the Venice trip to be posted on the blog. Son, Evan is working on it. When 

Today, we had coffee and went for breakfast in a little bar…cappuccino and rice ball with cheese.  Not wild about them, but needed to try it.  Oh, speaking of food, I didn’t have mussels last night, I had a typical Venetian dish of sardines and onions, some type of vinegar and whole peppercorns.  Very good.  We went to the Vaparetto stop to get a boat to Murano.  We were approached by a man who gave us tickets for a free boat ride to Murano and told us he worked for one of the glassblowing factories.  About that time, a man came up and shook hands with first man and offered us a free water taxi ride to Murano.  He is the manager of the glass factory.  This ride would have cost us $100 euros on our own…he said.  When we got to the factory, we saw a demonstration of three men making a glass horse for some Russians.  Two men would get the molten glass from the furnace and roll it on a metal table to get it a bit cooled and the size  needed.  They would take it to the Master glass blower who would add the piece to the horse and shape it.  If it cooled too much he would zap it with a blowtorch to make it more pliable.  There are 25 Master glass workers on the island and the craft is kept in the family.  No outsiders are ever allowed in.  Glass works in Murano are a strongly guarded secret.  An interesting book to read is called The Glassblower of Venice.  How centuries ago, the glass blowers were virtual prisoners on the island, and if they ‘escaped’ their families would suffer.  We then toured the gallery with pieces made by the Masters.  Very beautiful and prices to match.  Obviously, the best of the best.  Went to the church where all the chandeliers are Murano glass and two three-tiered chandeliers flank the sides of the altar.

After Murano, we took a Vaparetto to Burano…the lace making island.  The houses are all painted every color of the rainbow.  We ate lunch…here I had the mussels and then went shopping.  We saw the church with beautiful lace edged altar cloths and then did the Lace Museum tour.  All kinds of ancient handmade laces…on up to modern work.  After the museum, we stopped in a shop that had their own museum…even better than the official museum.  Their collection dated back to the 1300’s.  In many of the shops, there was an older woman making the lace.  Using a hard round pillow on her lap as a table, she has a pattern drawn off and uses a needle and thread to make the lace.  I have seen bobbin lace makers, but these women don’t use bobbins.  We were told that a piece the size of a salad plate would take 7 women a month to make.  Each woman has her speciality…lattice work, loops, flowers, edging etc.  I looked at a pair of booties for 450 euros.  Heirloom, christening type booties!  Just exquisite!  It is a dying art, unfortunately.

After Burano, we went back to Venice.  Dinner and more shopping around…mostly looking. And off to bed.  We asked about Carnivale this year and were told less and less people come every year.  They don’t know if it from lack of money, threats of terrorism or what, but participation is down.  The masks in Venice are works of art..and of course, just some that are junky.  Every animal, real or imagined, classical Carnivale masks and beautiful masks with feathers, lace and jewels.  That was day 2 in Venice.