BELLY ENDEAVORS Blog

Caligula’s Home

Caligula’s was the third Roman emperor (31 August AD 12 – 24 January AD 41).  Italy is currently working on renovation and restoration of his home.  His home, located on a cliff side (this photo was taken from the Roman Forum) and it is just a short from the Colosseum of Rome.  FYI: The Roman Forum is part of the centralised area around which the ancient Roman civilization developed. The oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located in or near the Forum. As we walked around in this area, I would pause, close my eyes and try to visualize this area in times that Julius Caesar and Marc Antony walked these very grounds.  If you haven’t seen the HBO series Roma, I would highly suggest to watch these (can rent from Blockbusters).  The first two episodes are a bit slow and uninteresting but if you continue, you’ll get hooked!

 

 

St Peters Basilica is also in the Vatican City.  It is also indescribable.  I  marveled at the structure of this church and yet  more statues & paintings.  Until recently, St Peters Basilica was the largest church in the world.  St. Peter’s Basilica stands on the traditional site where Peter – the apostle who is considered the first pope – was crucified and buried. St. Peter’s tomb is under the main altar and many other popes are buried in the basilica as well.  

 Originally founded by Constantine, St. Peter’s Basilica was rebuilt in the 16th century by Renaissance masters including Bramante, Michelangelo and Bernini.  

* Okay I have to mention one thing about the Italian people.  It was my observation that Italian’s in Rome don’t smile at tourists and may think tourists are weird for smiling at them.  Regardless, I smiled at everyone.  It was hard not to, come on we were in Rome!  I smiled, I said, “Buon Giorno”.  It’s funny after spending 4 months practicing & learning Italian from a CD that seemed to be the only Italian they understood from me!  Ha!
    

  * The Rome wall is very well intact and most people (that I have spoke to) that have visited Rome don’t know about the wall around Ancient Rome.  Really.  ”Oh, I don’t remember seeing that”.  My response has been, “You could not have missed it, honestly you just didn’t know what you were looking at.”  I was surprised the wall is not only intact but fully functional and quite solid- wow!!!  Did you know this wall was built ~700 BC!!  Of course it’s had some renovations but it’s actually still the original wall.  Mind boggling…
 
 *  All Italians are slender.  Yep, EVERY ONE of them.     

 *Italian language sounds beautiful.
  
 *  There are many small boutiques and shops on the streets of Rome.  Italians dress modern yet modestly.  It was easy to spot an American tourist.  It appeared that only American tourists show cleavage and a lot of skin.  
Hey, scarves are the “in” in Italy.  The little stores,  boutiques, and kiosks are loaded with colorful scarves.  Women and men both wear scarves and really not just for warmth, but fashion. Pinochio is a popular doll to buy in Rome.   

Hey ladies, men look sweet  in a sexy man scarf.    Yes, adorable.  Of course, I wasn’t looking until the looking for Luca game… I’ll try to get to that later!!  I think my father thought my sister and I were a little crazy.    

 
        

*  The street vendors are amazing artists.  A canvas painting starts around 75 euros.  Not buying a couple of the paintings is by far one of my regrets!  As you can tell, they are beautiful.  

 
   

*  Bars/cafes seem to be on every street corner -they serve pastries (pastries that taste as scrumptious as they look), gelato, wine, liquor, and beer, Italian coffee and Cappuccino.  Italian coffee is served in a small cup that is much like our American espresso.  An Americanois espresso witha little more hot water and is served in an American size small coffee cup.  This photo, I believe is an American cup of coffee with whipped cream on the side.      

Coffee

 
        

*  Italian taxi drivers-  SCARRY!!  I would have not sat in front if you had paid me.  I was the obnoxious American back seat driver making all sorts of frightening noises.     

*  We spent one afternoon outside of a neighborhood Bar Cafe -chatting and people watching while eating gelato and drinking wine.  We had an ideal spot just outside the Bar sitting at a street corner.  We watched crazy motorists move about their day through traffic.  They are masters at maneuvering and weaving in and out of traffic.  There doesn’t appear to be many rules to driving- well any that MUST be followed.  There were many, many scooters zig zagging in-between the cars and driving on the middle line between the traffic. Our taxi driver said many scooters have head on collision because of driving between traffic lines of ongoing traffic.  I didn’t see any American sized motorcycles or BMW motorcycles nor and big vehicles like in the US-  just little compact cars that drove extremely aggressive.  Both women and men on little scooters were just as aggressive.  I heard an ambulance at least twice each day.       

*For those that know me well, you know I eat gluten-free.  Since no one could understand my Italian language explanation for eating “no wheat products”, I asked for vegetarian meals.  ONLY vegetables.  So, if I wasn’t eating fish, or a salad, I was usually served marinated zucchini and eggplant.

*Gelatos and Gelaterias (Italian ice cream) – WOW!  My favorite was coconut and also pistacio.       

Stephanie ate a lot of the fruit gelato- I think mostly berry.  But I’m positive they are all tasty.
    

*Smart cars are very popular.  These cars are parked on the curb, vertical and horizontal by the curb and so closely to other cars that you’d think they could never get out from in-between the vehicles.  If you don’t have a little car, you have a scooter or motor bike.         

 I have another gallery of photo’s to upload but I’m unsure how to do this on this page.  It’s about the game, “looking for Luca”.  Stephanie and I had so much fun with this game.  We have almost 100 shots of Italian men to share with our lady friends.  Unfortunately, this will have to be a separate page!!  CLICK on this link for the Luca page:

http://bellyendeavors.net/wordpress/?page_id=547

PLEASE COMMENT on our trip !! 
http://bellyendeavors.net/wordpress/?cat=31

Favorite Luca Comment:
http://bellyendeavors.net/wordpress/?cat=30

 

I’m finished with this brief memoir of our trip.  I have had many editing night mares while putting this blog page together.  There are too many spaces in certain area’s and the photo’s did not seem to be placed where I attended and I think I may have uploaded too many photos that may have created problems in my blog locking up on me as I worked on it.  I have tried to get into the photo gallery and remove duplicates but it seems to cause more problems than it’s worth.  It is what it is, I hope you all enjoy it!

So enjoy, and please add comments .  My edit preview didn’t show a comment section- I hope it’ll magically appear .  I’d love to know you have been here!!  love you, Susan