Even though I went to bed at 4AM, Amy and I had to get up at 7AM to catch a bus and get down to her parents hotel whom were coming in today. The buses were going on strike at 8:30 so we had to make sure we caught one at least to Termini. Luckily we caught the last bus in to Termini and then walked the rest of the distance to the Vatican which is where their hotel was. The walk took about an hour and a half. The streets were packed due to the strike (they randomly go on strike to get a break) and dragging a carry-one and carrying a backpack didn't make it any easier. It was already pretty warm and I was sweating a good amount after a few minutes.
We waited about 20 minute and her parents showed up in a taxi. We welcomed her parents and since the room was not ready yet, we went for a nice walk to St. Peter's Basilica and got them some lunch. By the time we got back it was just about time to check-in, dumped our bags in the room and were off to explore some more. Amy and her parents decided to go on a audio bus tour to get an overall picture of the city before exploring anything into depth. So her parents and her went off and it was time for me to explore on my own for the first time. I was a bit nervous but I had a cell phone and more importantly a map!!
I first went off to Castel Angelo's Markets---with lots of shoes, jewelry, dresses, food, scarfs being sold for very very cheap. Here at the markets, one could bargain with the sellers so I tried many times to bring the sellers down in price---sometimes they would budge to make a sale (I would act as if it was too high and go to leave---some would make it cheaper and some wouldn't). I ended up buying one purple dress from a guy from Taiwan for 10 Euros. It was alot of fun trying to see how low the sellers would go---but they swarmed me every time I walked to a table. They wanted me to try things on and show me other things but I was not interested. I wanted to look myself and when I tried dresses on over my clothes, they always said "very pretty." And then once I put the things I wanted aside it was time to bargain. I always tried to go lower than they wanted. But they got a little mad when I said too much and tried to go lower. Once they took the dresses from me and walked away with them shaking their head no. I guess they didn't like my offer.
After walking the markets, I went over the Tiber river and walked along apartments down by the river. I made it to Campo di Fiori, however the market was just being cleaned up so the piazza was rather empty so I kept walking and wondering around. I really had nothing planned today and was just taking my time, spending some time alone and exploring everything I wanted to. I was heading toward Mussolini's creation which he left here (massive building). The building just blows me away by the size of it and the architecture put into the building. It has the busiest and craziest traffic circle around it too. Then I headed down Rio del Corso (aka tourist street) where I shopped. I walked in and out of many of the local stores which were having huge sales. During the month of August, many Italians leave because it gets so hot, so stores have large sales to sell their products before everyone leaves. Their stores were a lot smaller than US stores. Mainly it was clothing stores, I saw a few undergarment stores, show stores, and "Accessorize" (jewelry store). I bought a few things at Tally Weijl which was much like Charlotte Rouse I would say.
Then I met back up with Amy, her parents, Jo and Fabio for dinner. We met at Pizzare--a pizza restaurant recommended by Alessandro. We had a great white wine, plates of lots of antipastos (appetizers -all recommended by Jo). I tried the mozzarella de buffala (cheese from buffalo), many hot, fluffy breads, fried mozzarella and zucchini. My favorite antipasto was a small round hot bread piece with tomato sauce and sprinkled mozzarella cheese on it...mmmm delicious. After talking for a bit about what each thing we were eating and trying a bit of everything---it was time to order our main dishes----I shared a pizza with Amy---cheese, artichokes, mushrooms, olives (which I took off)----and it was delicious. Pizzare was a pizza place from Naples so it was a bit different than typical Italian pizza---had more toppings and more sauce and the crust was a bit thick we than tradition Italian pizza. I really liked all the food from here!
After dinner, Amy, her parents, and I headed back to the hotel after Fabio and Jo rode off on their Motorino (small moped which ruled the roads in Italy--they swerved around stopped cars and squeezed in and out of traffic--the road really had no rules and no lanes to drive in so everyone was all over the place). When we got to the hotel, it was bed time--Amy and I shared a twin bed--quite close but could fit on our sides!
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