Flowers!

It's not much but I made my first bouquet of flowers from my yard today, consisting of one iris and a bunch of euphorbia. Yes, that's ALL the flowers in my whole yard, minus the marigolds in my veggie garden. :)

More Cat Naps

Just had to post this one. I have the cutest kitty in the world!

Florence: Day Three

Sorry this has taken so long to get up. I'd say I was busy, but I can't think of what I was busy with. :)

Before we got on the train to Florence, we had one last stop to make in Rome, La Bocca della Verita (the mouth of truth). If you've seen Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn and loved it as much as I did, then you'll know why this stop was absolutely necessary. If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for?!? And despite Aaron's teasing, "It's so cliche," I did put my hand in. :)


We got to the site a little early and no one was there so we walked up the street to Circus Maximus, the site where Julius Caesar was allegedly executed, and where the chariot races were held (Ben Hur, another must see movie). Now all that's left is a dirt path (Paletine Hill is in the background), we saw several people jogging with their dogs. Turns out we should have stayed at the church because when we got back 10 minutes later, there was a whole busload of Japanese tourists in line (probably 50 people). It seems funny to me to realize that when they show Japanese tourists in movies with their cameras and fanny packs they really aren't making that up, they look exactly like that. :)

So we bought our train tickets and packed up our stuff at the hotel (one block from the train station, nice!), and made a quick stop at a shop on the corner to pick up some Limoncello for my parents and some friends. Yummy stuff, by the way!

We got on what we thought was the right train, luckily before it left with us in it the steward checked our tickets and informed us otherwise. Then it was a mad dash to the correct train, which we made just in time. We also didn't realise that we had seat assignments, until someone told us we were in his seats. He said it was okay and sat across the aisle from us, but we felt bad and as soon as we deciphered our tickets we got up to find our assigned seats. They were taken and Aaron was perfectly content to make the trip standing. I must confess, I had a attitude about it and Aaron finally claimed our seats. I apologized later for acting up.

This is the view from the train:

It looked like this the whole way to Florence. Exactly how I pictured the Italian countryside, lots of vineyards too.

When we got to Florence it was raining, so even though our hotel was within walking distance, we bought bus tickets. This was the only time when I actually didn't speak a word of English when asking for something, and the guy understood me! Yay! I said, "Voremmo due venti quattro ora biglietti, per favore." and he gave me two twentyfour hour tickets. I CAN speak Italian! :)

Our hotel in Florence was definitely the best. The staff was incredibly kind and helpful and the rooms were beautiful. We had windows and a balcony (with these really cool old-fashioned dark green shuttered doors) that opened up to a beautiful courtyard area. This is the view from our hotel room:

We were kind of tired and wet when we arrived so we rested for a while and then walked around town until dinner time. The Duomo, which we were going to see this day, closed at 5:00pm, right when we got there, so there wasn't much else to do (everything is closed on Monday for some reason). So, we went out to eat at Trattoria Za-Za. The food in Florence was the best as well. Even the pigeons couldn't resist:

Appetizers, yum!
This restaurant sells a cookbook that I'm seriously considering buying just for the recipe for the walnut sauce that was on that omelet (top right), and the soup I had for my main course (tomato, basil, leek and bread soup. YUM!)

So, that's day three. I'm halfway done now!

More on the yard...

Well, things are going better in the yard. What Aaron had deemed an "unmittigated disaster" is now coming along quite well. All of our grass finally sprouted and in no time at all it'll be choking out those weeds. Then we can put down some weed and feed, which has done wonders for our front lawn. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have some flowers in some defined garden beds.

These are my peas, the seemingly only veggies I started that are surviving:

And the rest of the backyard, there really is more grass, it's just superfine baby grass:

ROME: Day 2

Day 2:

We started off looking for St. Peter in Chains Church, which has the "supposed" chains that once held Peter, but also houses Michaelangelo's Moses. It was a simple church, but still beautiful, and of course the statues were amazing.

While looking for the church we came out into a square turned around a saw this:

WOW! Nothing like just bumping into the Colosseum! It was so unexpected and so beautiful (not to mention HUGE!). We went back to the church first and then did our tour of the Colosseum. It was amazing. They built it in just 8-10 years, quite a feat when you have no heavy machinery.

Tip: the only people who can be trusted to take your picture are those who are obviously tourists (like ones who are speaking english, german, or japanese) and who first ask you to take THEIR picture. :)

A view of the Arch of Constantine from the top level of the Colosseum:

Next we made our way over to Palatine Hill and the Forum. Palatine Hill is where all the wealthy people (including the Emperor) lived. It's where we get the name "palace" from. Now it is all ruins, however the house of Romulus (founder of Rome) is still standing:

This is the view of the Arch of Constantine, and Palatine Hill (behind the arch) from the Colosseum:

Again from the Colosseum, Palatine Hill (left), the Arch of Titus (center, in honor of Titus' victory over the Jewish rebellion in Judea, when the temple was destroyed in 70 AD), and the Forum (right):

And, again from the Colosseum, The Forum (left), and the dome of St. Peter's Basilica:

Here, we are standing on Paltine Hill looking down on the Forum, the Colosseum is in the background on the right:

The Senate House:

View of the Forum (Palatine Hill is up on the right):

Below is the sacred site of Largo Argentina (or Torre Argentina). It was unearthed in 1929 but we were unable to find out what is was exactly. Now, as we later discovered, it is a cat sanctuary. We counted nearly 50 cats before we figured that out. I read somewhere that Rome has an estimated 250,000-350,000 stray cats!

After these sites, we headed back to the hotel for a while (we were hot and tired out). Then, when it was cooler out we went to the Pantheon and out for dinner. This is the entrance to the Pantheon from the inside (the exit?).

This is the main altar inside. It is still considered a Christian church (far from it's pagan beginning), so you have to be quiet,as some people are there for religious purposes. Also, according to the sign inside you are forbidden to: wear inappropriate clothing (skimpy, or grungy/dirty), play music, take flash photos, smoke, sleep on the floor, sell anything, bring pets, use cell phones, or eat inside. :) Unfortunately for us no one posted a sign saying you couldn't use the exterior as a urinal, and Aaron observed a local taking this liberty (on the Pantheon!)

The dome has an opening in the center, so when it rains water gets inside. Because of this there are drains carved into the marble floors.

My darling husband, enjoying some fantastic lasagna:

I forgot to write down the name of this place but it was really good. I had salmon with this amazing sauce on it. I tried to duplicate it already, but I didn't quite get it. I'll try again.

This is the view from the street that the restaurant was on. Can you say, "Ah, Italy!"

Last but not least, GELATO! Mmmm... we went to this place twice. It was so good, I swear I cold eat my weight in gelato (Chocolate, Coffee, and Hazelnut in particular.) :)

Sorry I didn't have this up yesterday, but as I was posting my last blog I decided to fill the bath while my pictures were loading so I could take a bath after I was done. I came back to the computer, got distracted and 30 minutes later, remembered the bath! Needless to say it had overflowed and flooded my bathroom, half my closet and the surrounding carpet in my bedroom. Yeah, I'm BRILLIANT! So, I've spent quite some time cleaning that up. Won't do that again. :)