Ancient, like BC ancient!

Ok, so it was the Pantheon. But, I need to back up to continue the narrative...

C & G did hook up with their friend Elia last night. Luckily, prior to our trip I invested in a global phone - we call it the Zoolander "is that you, God?" - I decided that it would be a good thing to have, and it was cheap. Since our house phone can't make calls to anything but landlines it has already come in handy. After multiple back and forth calls, a meeting place was established and off they went.

First stop was an American bar, then they moved on to a local place... getting from one to the next took them past a couple Rome landmarks, including Embassy Row and some monuments. They rolled in around 1, 1:30 - trying to be quiet. But the key to this place is very loud! LOL

This morning it was raining, or at least that's our story and we are sticking to it, because we did not get out of the apartment until 3:00 this afternoon. By the time we woke up (1:30), showered, cooked and ate a breakfast of eggs, speck, and toast slathered with the butteriest butter....well, time flies. We changed plans numerous times, then settled on hitting the Pantheon.

The route there was interesting - took us down the Via Corsi, which is the premier shopping street in Rome. Quick stop at a ruin dedicated to Hadrian.  Then we cut through a pedestrian-only street, where we were distracted by a crowd shouting and waving signs that said: "Salviamo I nostri maro" which loosely translates to "Save our Fascists." Never one to shy from a demonstration, we hung around for a while until it began to rain and then we proceeded to the Pantheon.

Because we are all a bit sketchy on Roman history we elected to get the audio guide headphones, and that was a good choice. Just walking in you are amazed - the occulus, the altar, the floor, the sanctuaries - but gaining a true understanding of this incredible structure would be impossible without more than the limited signage. Raphael, the artist, is buried here and has the most impressive tomb. Just knowing you are in a building that was originally built in 26 BC is hard to get your head around, even though most of the current structure is from the early 100's. One of the most interesting things we learned was that people used to think the building was so holy that rain didn't come in the occulus - what actually happened was that it was lit by thousands of candles, and they created a heat level that evaporated the rain before it hit the floor. There was also a rumor that when the Christians took over ( it was originally a pagan site) seven demons flew out, and one of them had horns that knocked out the hole that is now the occulus. This isn't true either but it should be because that is one cool story.

Exiting into a drizzle, we meandered through a pedestrian street and stopped and shopped. I'm just going to say that some interesting purchases were contemplated. Headed toward the apartment, Connor peeled off and went home and Griff, Ben and I stopped at the supermarket for supplies.

Once home, Griff tried his hand at creating a signature cocktail, and it was pretty good. I guess Beau has already been informed that I rated it higher than the Pink Madrid, but this will be news to Colin. Griff was not willing to officially designate, so as Ben pointed out the Pink Madrid may move to third before we are done. Of course, in Madrid we did not have Blood Orange soda.

I will now interrupt this narrative with a potato chip report: Bad news, no ham-flavored ones. Good news, whatever they put in the Mediterranean-flavored ones is excellent! And, we found some plain chips that are awesome. They are much more potato-y tasting than USA chips. But ham-flavored ones are the pinnacle. Kristin may be going to Spain on that basis alone.

Along with our chips, we had some Italian cheese we have never heard of, and some crackers, that near as we can translate, are a rice/wheat combo.

Next: Dinner at Pizza Ciro again. Love that place! The guy that waited on us last night is a manager, and he remembered us, and came by. Ben had a seafood soup - it had a whole fish head in it - I had a linguini with seafood, Connor had lasagne, and Griff had pizza with bufalo mozzarella. Connor thought his was a little cheesy, but the rest of us had no criticism of ours. I tasted some of the bufalo mozz from Griff and it was awesome. Neither of the boys wanted to sample either mine or Ben's. Connor picked the app tonight and we could have made a meal out of it: crostini with proscuitto and tomato and cheese.

Since then we've hung out at the apartment and swapped stories and laughed and gotten to know each other and planned for the rest of the trip, until about a half an hour ago when Elia swang by to pick up C & G - he's having a small party for them.

We are all looking forward to the Vatican tomorrow - no sleeping in as we need to be out the door no later than 8:25!

I will try to post pictures tomorrow, the internet is sketchy and the process is complicated by the fact that I have to use the apartment netbook. But Ben feels we need to prove we are actually here, not holed up in Cleveland making day trips to little Italy.