La Dolce Far Niente

The Italians have a saying: "la dolce far niente." It means the "the sweetness of doing nothing (and no, I did not just get that from Eat Pray Love). Yesterday, Sam and I walked over ten miles. The upside is that we saw a lot and didn't have to worry about calories now. The downside is that our feet killed and we had been on such sightseeing overload that we, again, forgot to relax. So today, we recouped. We slept in and had a lovely breakfast at the hotel cafe. Then, we chilled out for a few hours.



But, its not really healthy to stay in a hotel all day, so Sam and I looked up something to do. We landed on Trastevere. Trastevere is a neighborhood across the river (on the Vatican side) that guidebooks rave about. So, we took a bus and then walked. First we stopped at a little restaurant to eat. I had pasta and Sam had pizza. Then, we toured Trastevere. It's kind of a small neighborhood with lots of little shops and restaurants. It's cool because it's not very touristy. Most of the people walking around with us were Italian and the shops were more authentic and less Colosseum paperweights.



In the square, there is the Church of Santa Maria. Sam and I went in. It was beautiful! The ceiling was a huge mural and the moldings on the pillars were really detailed. There were also a lot of cool statues everywhere. There was music playing and all the other tourists were quiet. Sam and I sat there for a long time, admiring the architecture and art and soaking in the serenity. After that, we thought it was about time we got more gelato, so we hunted for a gelateria. It wasn't difficult to find. I got coffee and chocolate and even ordered in Italian!!!





Then, it was time to go back to the hotel for some more relaxing and to get ready for Rome's nightlife. First, we went to Campo dei Fiori. We had passed through it earlier to scope it out. It's a piazza surrounded by restaurants and bars. Tonight, we chose The Drunken Ship. We got a couple beers, watched the soccer game, and played Spot the American. After a while, these three people came up to us -- Jack from Australia, Mike from London, and Jenna (??) from Connecticut. They hijacked our table and started going on about how they party every night. They were really funny for a while, but then started advertising some pub crawl the next night. Sam and I quickly realized they were working us. But they were entertaining, so we stay for a while. Once the bar cleared out, they went one way and we went the other, back to Scholars.


Scholars was medium-crowded. I learned tonight that they have an irritating bathroom set up, as I really had to go by the time we got there but had to wait some time. Other than that, it was lovely. Sam and I got a couple more beers and talked with the bartenders. Steven said that he would throw people out if they were bothering me throughout the semester, and that eventually the bartenders would started joking around with me, so I would have to hold my own. Actually, I'll have to learn to understand more than 50% of what he says first.



After that, we left and went to sleep. It was an awesome day. Turns out, the Gibsons do "la dolce far neinte" pretty well...