lots of walking.

so yesterday i ended up taking a 3 hour nap after i posted. then liz and i lazed around. i drank some tea and read my italian guidebook while she made a fabulous dinner. we had spaghetti with tomatoes, sausage and onions in pasta sauce and it was quite delicious! after dinner, we went out and walked around trastevere (which is the area liz lives in). then we wandered through tiber island, the jewish ghetto and all the way over to piazza venezia. bought some chocolate and came home for a relaxing, if somewhat low key night, with wine and reading. audrey niffenegger, the fabulous author of the time traveler's wife, has a new book out, her fearful symmetry. it was 1/2 off at border's so i couldn't resist purchasing it. good thing too, as i'm loving it so far.

this morning, we went to porta portese, which is basically a giant flea market that opens every sunday. it reminded me of the street fairs in new york, only more crowded and about ten times the size of any i've been to. you can buy pretty much anything you want there: from lightbulbs and makeup to furniture and pets. spent a couple hours walking through a large part of it. i was able to purchase some nice gloves, along with band-aids and batteries. i am unfortunately suffering from a HUGE blister on the back of my right heel, which is making it difficult to walk. this is a problem in a city that requires much more walking than ohio, for example.

anyways, after a quick stop back at liz's apartment, we headed over to the roman forum and the palantine hill. it was so fantastic to walk through the ruins and imagine a bustling ancient rome. during our whole tour of the place, i was just so excited to be in a place that's steeped in history. our ticket included entrance to the colosseum, but we didn't have enough time to make it there today. luckily, it's a two-day ticket, so we're going to hit that up tomorrow. liz and i started talking about dan brown's angels and demons and decided to look for a tour that takes us on the path of illumination. so i think our day is pretty much planned out for tomorrow.

for now, the plan is to take a siesta then go out for dinner and roman nightlife afterwards. i'm loving the later eating times here... much better than sticking to a strict 6 pm eating time at the gouch.