Jesus and the Jukebox!

Oh boy! That’s about all I can say of the last 24 hours. Liz arrived at my apartment exactly on time …… a little bit early to be exact. I was getting ready to walk out my front door and meet her at the security gate when I heard and Italian man yell through my bedroom window and then was pretty sure I heard Liz’s laugh. And to my surprise, there she was, suitcase in tow. Her flight was a little early and she ran into the guy who lives in the flat across from mine. She showed him a picture of me, from her phone, and he said “yes, the American girl staying across from me.” I’ve NEVER seen the man in my life, but I guess people know when the Americans have arrived.

So, Liz drops her stuff, changes into shorts, and off we go. Yesterday turned into quite the blur due to all the drinking, but I’ll give the rundown a good go. We walked to Piazza Navona and found Liz’s favorite pizza place from her visit in October. In true form, her favorite pizzeria was closed until dinner with a sign on the door that said “Fuck You.” We’re going there for dinner tonight, by the way. We then proceeded to a little trattoria for fried zucchini blossoms and the first of much vino. Note to all, we started drinking about 2 hours after Liz landed, and we never stopped. The winning picture of perhaps the trip (time will tell) is this one of the make-shift shrine to Jesus and the Jukebox. It’s across from the trattoria we were at and above the door of a home. The altar is made of tin foil, there is a huge plastic jukebox behind the nativity like scene, and sadly Mary has fallen partially through (ie, her feet were dangling from the underside). The piece di resistance were the 2 plastic race cars flanking this nod to the baby Jesus. HILARIOUS!!

Unbelieveable!

From there we wandered over to St. Peter’s Square to gawk at the Vatican/Basilica because we knew our souls would be in need of some help based on how the day was unfolding. After kicking it with Pope Benny-Raz, we made our way back to the Jewish Ghetto and plopped down for some much needed birre. Ok, I knew to order beer, but Liz needed to get fancy and order a Campari Gin Martini; just typing it makes me want to hurl. It was sooooooo nasty it burned the hair off her chest (didn’t know she had that did you? No worries, it’s gone now). With saner beverages in front of us, we put back and enormous amount of beer. Naz came over to join us and then Liz proceeded to kick the table …………. twice. Not since crystallnicht has the Jewish Ghetto seen so much broken glass. Again, HILAROUS!!!
Now thats a picture for all time. Liz and I in front of the Vatican, and lightening did not strike!

The start of the beer extravaganza in the Jewish Ghetto

Now, you would be thinking that this day has got to be coming to close. Wrong answer. We went home, showered, drank some vino, got fancied-up, and headed out for appertivi and dinner in Trastevere. We hooked up with Naz again at Café Artu. Liz brought us all red, white and blue candy necklaces to celebrate a belated July 4. So appropriately jeweled, we sipped Prosecco until our table was ready. I’m not gonna lie, we got shitcanned; it was tragic. Nonetheless, we powered through and ate an amazing dinner of Spaghetti cacao e pepe and arugala salad with asiago and walnuts. At this point, jet lag and hours of drinking took its toll on Liz. She looked at me with her huge doe eyes and begged “PLEASE, can we go home?” so we started the trek home. Somewhere in the middle of Trastevere, I felt an arm link through mine and a sad little voice asks “can we just walk like this for a little while?” I was pretty sure I was going to end up carrying Liz the rest of the way. To try to make the walk more pleasant I bought her a slice of cocomero (watermelon). About 30 seconds later I looked at her and the watermelon was gone. I didn’t inquire into the whereabouts of said watermelon until this morning. Apparently she was “too weak” to carry it and left it on a scooter for someone else to enjoy (she’s nice that like). It was a seriously spectacular first night in Roma with one of my longest standing friends. HILARIOUS!!!

Prosecco!

American girl arrives in Roma

Candy necklaces and Prosecco, what could be better.

I’ve moved apartments now and I’m quite pleased with my pool, mini patio, and garden. Unfortunately, as can happen in Italy, I don’t have internet access even though I was promised it. I think if there are secured wireless networks around, the Italians consider that “having internet”. Now, I’ve got to get ready for dinner at Pizzeria Baffetto and Liz’s favorite enoteca (wine bar) in Piazza Spagna. Hopefully, the pizzeria won’t tell us “Fuck Off”.

Looking straight out my front door.

Standing in my front door and looking to the right at the POOL!

Liz having apperitivo on my piccolo terrace.


View from Gianicolo Hill over Roma

St. Peter's from "the hill"

monument to Garibaldi.

Someone in the Garibaldi clan. Just a cool photo!

Monument and graveyard.