Home Thoughts

My last Italian meal

On Friday morning we got up for breakfast at 7 again and started our hike down the mountain to the car. We thought about taking the cable cars (coffin cars) down, but that would have been more money and we would have had to wait for them to open. We then made the drive back to Verona and the train ride back to Rome. We stayed in an awesome airbnb in Trasteverde, a cool little section of Rome. We took the owner's advice on a restaurant and it was very good. Saturday morning we got up and called a taxi to get us to the airport to come home. 

We were really lucky to take this trip. I wish it had happened last year, we had planned on a few more days, but at least we made it. I think our time in Rome was perfect. Padova was perfect for Dave and I, but it was a little boring for the boys. When we lived there, we were closer to the Prato (open space to play), and they had school and soccer to keep them busy. I think if we had to do it over again, we'd take a day or too off of our Padova time and spend more time in the mountains. Of course as we were hiking we were already talking about when our next trip will be. 

I tried to get a family conversation going about what our favorite parts of the trip were at our last meal, but nobody really had much to say. There are a few memories that will stick out to me. Ben got soccer cleats on our trip, and then spent the rest of the time in the apartment wearing those cleats. As I mentioned in the last post, Ethan's bubbliness and chattiness while hiking. The boys seeing the big stuff- the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel- in Rome. Seeing our friends in Padova again. And the biggest one- the feeling of being on vacation, with the most pressing issue being where and when you are going to eat or have an aperitivo. It was a fantastic vacation.

Hiking Around the Rifugio

Hiking trails around the rifugio

You can't backpack with tents in the Dolomites. In order to hike for multiple days, you need to book a stay at a rifugio. These are buildings that are at different spots along trails. Dave found us one to stay in that was at the top of a trail in between two ridges. He picked this one for that location and because it has a lot of climbing and something called a Via Ferrata next to it. The Via Ferrata is a climbing route that has a permanent steel connector along the way so that you can clip in. Unfortunately, our full day at the rifugio was on Thursday, and storms were in the forecast for Thursday. We decided not to rent the gear needed for climbing and that we would just hike the trails that were in the area. 

The trail up to the rifugio was a mile and a half, straight up. It was tough! I was definitely questioning my choice of not taking the cable car as we were hiking. Once we arrived, the hosts showed us our bedroom, which was small with two bunkbeds. There was also a separate dormitory style area for people to sleep. We had a little bit of time before dinner, so we sat and played cards in the main room. There, we heard a combination of English, German and Italian again, which was pretty cool. Our hosts were fluent in at least those three languages. Both boys can now play euchre, and we played some rummy. We had vegetable soup and sausage for dinner, then headed to bed early because breakfast was at 7a.m.

The next morning, we were served a breakfast of meats, cheeses, bread, and jam. Somewhat unusual to our cereal-eating family, but we made it work. We headed out and the first thing we did was climb down the climb we went up yesterday- tough on the quads! Then we hiked around one of the two mountains near us. Once we got to the other side, we had to go straight up again! Luckily this time there was a rifugio to eat lunch at halfway up the trail. 

Ben took off in front of us on the uphills. Ethan stayed with us, and he definitely was showing his extroversion as we hiked. He didn't stop talking or singing practically the whole way, and had a good time picking up rocks and breaking them apart. After we ate lunch, the trail got very steep and clouds moved in. We did make it to our rifugio and spent the rest of the afternoon playing cards and hanging out in the main room. 

Getting to the Mountains

Dave learned about hiking in the Dolomites from a friend, and after that always wanted to do it. We had been snowboarding in the Dolomites when we lived in Padova, so I knew they were beautiful. I had no idea what a great experience being there in the summer would be. 

We wrapped up our time in Padova with a big dinner on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning we caught a 40 minute train to Verona, and then rented a car at the train station. The trip up to where we were going was 2 1/2 hours. We stopped about 2 hours in to have lunch. The town we stopped in definitely has both German/Austrian and Italian influence. Lots of the architecture looks German, and people spoke a combination of German, English and Italian. After lunch, we took a series of two cable cars up a mountain to get a look at the surroundings. It was absolutely gorgeous. The Dolomites stick straight up into the air, making them very dramatic. There were clouds below mountain level, which was really cool as well. 

Then we drove up the rest of the way to where we were going to park our car. Dave made sure we were good to leave the car there, and Ben had a brioche. (Despite his posts, I do think he had a good time. At least with eating.) We grabbed our bags and decided to hike up to our rifugio rather than take the cable cars, which were so tiny they called them coffin cars. 

Ben: 3

     Finally going home after 2 weeks I can't wait to play soccer again and see my friends. Its been okay in Italy the mountains were fun to hike up and down. The food here is fine. Also buying new cleats and a jersey was nice. Lastly I go home tomorrow and can't wait.

Ethan: In Italy part 4

 When I was in Padova we went to a ton of good restaurants and got to see the prato. Sadly the fountain was gone. Then we went to Rome for 1 night just to get on a plane in the morning and go back to the United States. Before we did that I got one of my favorite food, wild boar. Also I went to the Dolomites and hiked a lot.

Tuesday and Our Next Few Days

Tuesday brought another discount day at Padovaland! We again took the boys to the water park because of the heat. We have seen just about everything we wanted to see on this trip. Dave would like the opportunity to bike in the Colli Euganei (nearby volcanic hills). The boys and I haven't had a tour of the specola (astronomical tower). Yesterday we added something new to our list. There was an outdoor restaurant serving food in a park near Eremitani, and it looked like a big party. We'd like to eat there sometime. 

This evening we have packed up and are ready to head to the mountains tomorrow morning. We will take the train to Verona and then rent a car to drive up to the Dolomiti. We are hiking in to a rifugio to spend two nights. Unfortunately it looks like there is rain in the forecast for tomorrow, which means we will get less hiking in. We had hoped to do an ambitious hike of the Via Ferrata, or iron path, which requires us to be roped in. We will have to see what the weather brings. 

I don't expect to have internet over the next few days, so I'll have to wrap those up after we get home.

Venezia

On Sunday night we met up with a friend of Ben's from school and his mom. Sebastiano and Ana Maria met us at a nice restaurant near Prato delle Valle. It was a good dinner with conversation in Italian, English and Spanish. They are from Venezuela, and have decided that with the unrest there that Seba should finish his education here. 

Monday morning we got up and got on a train for Venezia (Venice). We immediately got off of the beaten path and meandered through some neighborhoods. Venice again did not disappoint. I had heard that the smell can be bad in the summer from dirty canal water and that the tourists were unbearable, but I didn't find it smelly or nearly as congested as I expected. The biggest traffic jam we saw was a collection of 6-7 gondolas in one intersection.

We got on the vaporetto- which is the water bus system in Venice. It's a great way to see the Grand Canal. We took the vaporetto all the way to the outer island of Lido. We had a very nice lunch in the shade and then headed down the street to the beach. We chose to go to a private beach where we could rent an umbrella and some chairs. I was expecting a rocky beach, but it was sandy. The water felt like bath water and we all enjoyed cooling off a bit.

We made a mistake on the return and got on the vaporetto going the wrong way. After a 45 minute detour, we got off in St. Mark's square and braved the crowds to walk back through the city to the train station. We stopped along the way for a snack, but all in all had a great day in Venice. (When we got home Dave cooked pasta for dinner. We just got Barilla from the grocery store, but it tastes SO MUCH BETTER here!)

Ethan in Italy part 3: Venice and Lido

In Venice I got to do nothing but walk around, boring you might say and I would agree, but I actually went to the beach in Lido. When we got there we had some waiting to do because in Italy you have to pay to go to the beach. On the beach we had to change but after we went in to the water and played some frisbee. After we played frisbee we got a snack and left. Then we got on the water bus and went back to just to get back to Padova.

Light Days

On Saturday mornings, there is a big market in the Prato delle Valle. You can buy anything from luggage to shoes to a parrot. We went to that market on Saturday morning and got Ethan a sweatshirt and Dave got a belt. 

We've eaten spectacularly for the past few days, and done little else. We are realizing that without the kids having activities, life here is somewhat boring for them while being great for us. 

Last night we met up with Dave's former colleague, Ricardo, and his wife. We had aperitivo in the Ghetto section of the city. They are extremely nice and very funny.

Today we took the kids to the brand-new Natural History Museum. It was a great way to beat the heat (It's 92 here today). I liked the skeletons of the bears and sea turtles the best. We also had our last meal at Al Borgo, as they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. That was the third time we had eaten there.

Ben: 2

    So far padova has been pretty good.

   I just got new soccer cleats and they feel really good.

Also getting ice cream every day is really nice but I'm getting fat now. 

Lastly I cant wait to go home to my friends.

Un Buon Compleanno

Today was my birthday. This morning, we got a car sharing car to drive out to a region known as the Colli Euganei. These are hills that were formed by volcanic action, and there are a ton of vineyards there. Dave found a great one that gave us a tour of the vineyards as well as the barrels. I don't have the right words to use for this right now as the tour was in Italian and I understood about 60% of it. Just like at the Colosseum. We bought some wine to bring home and asked for a suggestion for a lunch destination. 

They've been troopers on a few different activities with not much excitement for them.

Lunch was fantastic! They had a cinghale dish, which Ethan is always excited about. Cinghale is wild boar, and it's a dish that is pretty specific to a few regions around here in Italy, I think. I have not had time to be hungry on this trip. There is always another meal to have. We are, at least, eating well. Most, if not all, of the food we've eaten has been fresh. After lunch we took a rest period at the house. Then we took out the soccer ball and headed to the Prato. On the way we found cannoli at a new Sicilian place in town, which is what I wanted for my birthday. It was excellent! The boys only played for a few minutes because the bugs were pretty annoying. 

I'll find the pics of them playing four years ago and compare them on Facebook.

Finally, Dave got some fresh gnocchi and prepared dinner again tonight. We played a couple of hands of euchre, which is still pretty hilarious as the boys don't have quite all the rules down yet.

More Italian Things: A Castle, Soccer, and Laureates

 

 

Today is Thursday, and we took the train to Ferrara to check out the town this morning. The highlight was a castle! With a moat! I've never been in a castle with a moat. This one was pretty large, and we got to visit the dungeons as well as the tower on top. We can't remember the name of the castle, other than it was part of the Este family. We also had pasta for lunch and weathered a quick rainstorm before heading back to Padova. 

We took a rest, then headed out to hit another venue on our 'Tour to Recreate our Time in Padova'. Pier 88, better known by us as the 'Bubble Bar', is on the tram stop towards where the boys played soccer. We had an aperitivo and enjoyed sitting outside near the canal, despite the cicada noise. We have had great weather here- it's been in the high 70s to mid 80s. It's supposed to get very hot in the next few days though.

Speaking of soccer, we have tried to get the boys an opportunity to play here. Just like in the States, most teams are on break right now. There was an open day (kind of like an ID camp) that Ethan could have gone to, but he needed a physical, and that was too much for us to pull off. Dave found an app that has pickup games on it but Ben is too nervous about his inability to speak Italian to try it out. We did finally get a message back from the boys' coach in the past few days, so we will see if that amounts to anything.

Padova is a university town. Graduations here do not happen all at once. Students, especially PhD candidates, graduate on their own date and usually there is a small gathering to celebrate them. I've enjoyed seeing the groups in town. You can tell who the graduate is because they are wearing a laurel wreath on their head (hence the term laureate).

Amici (Friends)

Over the past couple of days we have been fortunate to meet up with some friends we made in 2019. Antonio was a classmate of Ethan, and his dad, Simone, and Dave talk almost every day over WhatsApp. (The rest of the world uses WhatsApp to communicate as their text system.) We met up with their whole family on Monday evening for gelato and a giro (walkabout) in the evening. It was fantastic to see them and hear about the kids' musical endeavors. Antonio and his sister sing in a choir that has traveled through Europe, most recently Croatia. They also let Ethan know that the fountain in the Prato is off because of the recent drought. They got very little snow over the winter, so the reserves are down. 

Ethan, Ben, and Alberto (I made the boys wear collared shirts and then Alberto wasn't wearing one... ha!)

 

Tuesday evening we got to see Alberto's family for dinner and gelato. Alberto was a classmate of Ben's, and we got together to play Ticket to Ride while we lived here. Alberto has been busy with fencing, and is leaving in the next few days to go to a sailing camp near Trieste. He just finished his exams to get in to high school.

We also had an aperitivo (pre-dinner drink) with our former landlord, and have plans to see another of Ben's classmates and his family tomorrow. 

Ethan: We're in Italy!

 Before we left Rome we went to the roman Colosseum. We had a great time and our tour was in Italian. The tour was really hard to understand. When we got to Padova I  was so excited because i wanted to see the prato. We got to the prato and the fountain was gone. :(

Italian Things

 

Once upon a time, during our earlier visit to Italy, I had a whole post ready to write about laundry. I think a picture and a few sentences will suffice now. Most Italians do not have a dryer, only a washer. That means there is always laundry out drying. 

Public transit is very Italian. We took the bus and tram to Padovaland today. They were both packed with people. Transit is reliable and affordable, and part of the culture. When we first got on the bus, there was drama between the ticket police and others who had not paid for their tickets. Periodically the ticket police will get on a bus or tram to make sure that you have paid and validated your ticket. 

Padovaland is a water park that is a bit larger than Rolling Hills. Dave found out that they have a super deal on Tuesdays and entrance is only 12 euro per person. It was a lot of fun, though several activities would not pass U.S. liability checks. 

Roundabouts are also very Italian. There are very few stoplights, only in major traffic centers where there are also a lot of pedestrians. 

Both of our Padova apartments have had this type of key.

Dave got this anti-itch cream for mosquito bites from the pharmacy. All of their products have Braille on the outside of them.

From 2019: The End of an Era

I'm going back to work.

It's about time. We definitely have spent a good amount of money, and it's time that I bring home a real paycheck.

I did work this summer, but I brought the boys with me.

I'm so grateful.

To Aunt Ruth, for the funds that paid for our plane tickets.
To the boys, for being brave and having a good attitude about our adventures.
To Dave, for organizing so much and being our go-to Italian helper.

I was a bit teary tonight at dinner, telling the boys how much I've enjoyed my time with them. When Ben reminded me that they would also be going to school, I reminded him that yes, but in the spring I was able to walk them to and from school. That will not happen again, and man, do I treasure those days.

While I've been grateful every day of this experience and really tried to appreciate it in the moment, I have one regret that goes along with that. I wish I had blogged more. I had really hoped to have an account of what life was like as an expat family, and I just didn't get the day-to-day recorded as I'd hoped. As I start to see my colleagues again, who knew just how excited I was for this adventure, the stories are popping up and coming to mind. Tonight I'm motivated to write. So hopefully I'm not completely done writing, and I can use this trip to share my experiences with others, as I'd hoped.

Old Haunts: Padova

We took the train from Rome to Padova on Sunday. It is extremely pleasant to travel by train in Italy. They are dependable and clean. The boys spent their time on devices and I read, reminding everyone to look out the window from time to time as we passed through Tuscany. 

Arriving in Padova, I found it so quiet compared to Rome. There are less pigeons, less cigarette butts, and almost no scooters. There are huge areas that are car-free. We walked to our apartment, which is a two bedroom. This means we have some space to relax that isn't anyone's bed. As soon as we put our stuff away we were out the door to go visit some favorite places.

We strolled down the main area pedonale (walking area), checking out which stores were still there post COVID. There are very nice shops, like Dolce & Gabbana and Swarovski, as well as toy stores, pasta shops, etc. When we got to the Prato della Valle, the first thing the boys wanted to see, there were scuba divers there from Venice searching for something in the water. We never found out why they were there but there were huge crowds. Ethan was very disappointed to find that the fountain in the middle of the square was removed. 

Dave had called and asked for a reservation at our favorite pizza place, Al Borgho. They said they didn't have any tables available. We walked by there anyway, and were greeted with hugs from the owners. They were more than happy to give us a table for 8:00. We headed back to the Prato to have a spritz (pre-dinner drink). This was at a bar that was right around the corner from where we lived while we were here. The owner took a minute, but she did remember us too. 

Dinner was awesome- just as we remembered. The service was great, the food was excellent. Ben has been very health-conscious, eating salads for dinner the past two nights. Ethan ate less than half his pizza, but was forgiven. After dark, Dave and I went for a walk and had a digestivo (post-dinner drink) in the Piazza dei Signori. 

Today (Monday) has been a lazy day for us. We slept in, and Dave and I went for a run. Dave is cooking dinner in the apartment and we will just hang around here. We are contacting people we knew when we lived here to make plans for the rest of the week.

The old apartment entrance. The building has been redone; the owner sold just after we left in 2019.

Ben: 1

SO far in Italy it has been fine walking around is kind of boring. The food has also been great. Another thing is that Ethan smells really bad because he has not taken a shower in days. I don't like Rome because its boring and there are too many people. Lastly I cant wait to go home.

From 2019: Home

 

 

That's my first grader's cursivo!

A few years ago, Disney released the movie Inside Out. I've spent a lot of time thinking about my thinking and my brain this week, and this movie has repeatedly come to mind. Like many of Disney's movies, it's a good one for adults and kids alike. The psychology major side of me really found the parts about the inner workings of the brain very interesting. In particular, I was really interested in short-term vs. long-term memory, and how the brain retires old information and memories that are no longer useful.

We got home. I can't remember which light switches to use. And not in an, 'oh, right, that's the right switch' kind of way. In a repeated,*

Oh, and we got a puppy. Less than 24 hours after getting home. It's crazy, and it's not. 

[Again, this post was started in 2019 and unfinished. There is enough here to post, and this is one that I think I remember enough about what I was trying to capture for me to attempt to finish it.]

*In a repeated, "How do you turn this bank of lights on?", walk around the perimeter of the room way. Apparently the location of the light switches in our house was so unimportant that it was part of my memory that went in the 4.5 months we were in Padova. 

The other very weird feeling I had was driving, or taking a car, anywhere. I remember it feeling so strange that I would be in a vehicle for a short trip, like to the grocery store. The first few days it almost made me feel a little sick to be driving instead of walking. (We did rent/carshare a care a few times in Padova, so it's not like I hadn't been in a car at all. It was just that I wasn't used to using one for everyday, short rides.) 

Il Colosseo

Our loft apartment in Rome

 

Ethan has, since we started talking about this trip, wanted to visit the Colosseum more than anything else. Dave looked for tours, but most of the English-speaking tours were selling out faster than he could get tickets. He asked me if I thought we could do an Italian-speaking tour, and whether it would be OK to do one at night. I was more concerned about the time of day than the Italian given that it would only be our second day after the time change, but we decided to try it. 

There are a few less pictures of Ben, as this is the best he gives me for pictures.

We headed out on foot and walked by the Forum. We found a place to eat with very affordable pizzas (8-10 euro). Once we reached the Colosseum, we waited at the gate for our start time, 8:30. There were a lot of other English speakers also waiting, which made me think maybe we were getting the English tour. It turns out that they had the same experience trying to get tickets as we did, but speak less Italian. The tour guide handed out headphones and audio sets so that we would be able to hear him the whole time.

Dave's Italian is pretty good. Mine is functional beginning, to be kind. I could understand about 60% of what the tour guide said. It was helpful that he spoke plainly and used lots of gestures. He also had a beautiful visual aid to help him. We got to walk along the very bottom floor of the Colosseum, seeing the drainage system, where they had elevators and ramps to let animals and gladiators into the arena. He talked about the history of the Colosseum, and how after Rome was Christian there was a little bit of a problem with such brutal entertainment. Ben was a good sport, listening to the tour guide the whole way despite not knowing basically any Italian. Ethan made it 75% of the way, and then used an umbrella to simulate gladiator battles.

Maybe I'll just take pictures of the back of his head.

One happy kid.

Ethan: Rome and Vatican City Trip in 2023

 When we got to Rome I was so excited because I knew we were gonna go see the Colosseum. What I didn't know was that we were gonna see the Sistine Chapel in Vatican city. I was so tired that I fell asleep right away. I had carbonara for dinner one night and some ragu for lunch. One of the days I got almost 20,000 steps.

From 2019: School: Parent-Teacher Conferences

The centrum area outside of the
boys' classrooms.

**The events in this post happened in February. I may back-date posts later after I am done catching up with writing.

In mid-February, I got a notice through the classroom texts among the moms that the boys would be receiving report cards. Right away, we were assigned a conference time to meet with Ethan's teacher and pick up the report card. Nobody was sure whether Ben would receive a report card or not- after all, he had been in school here for only a few weeks! It took a week of talking to the teacher and the room mom (my lack of knowledge, nothing lacking on their part) for me to determine that he would receive a report card. For Ben's conference, I was told that the teacher wanted to meet with all of the parents at one time, and then she would meet with the parents afterwards if they had individual concerns.

Ben's art from Holocaust
Remembrance Day

The conferences were happening on a Thursday afternoon, so Dave made sure to be off of work. We arrived a few minutes early, and I finally (!!!) got another look at the interior of the school and the boys' classrooms. There was work posted in the hallway, including some of Ben's. In general, the classrooms were very traditional and less decorated than is normal in America. Each student has his or own separate desk. They are arranged in rows or pairs, reflecting the generally teacher-centered style of teaching. There were lots of posters and student work, all of it reflecting what the students were studying. There weren't rugs or curtains, so I could understand why the boys felt like the classrooms were really loud when they first arrived. There are definitely lots of echoes.

Inside the classroom

Unbeknownst to me, the reason that Ben's teacher had called a group meeting was because several parents had concerns about the homework assigned and teaching happening in the class. She and her co-teacher (they split subjects, not teaching at the same time) sat up front, and over the course of more than an hour, explained their teaching methods and why she was deviating from the lessons in the students' books.

All of this was done in rapid-fire Italian. I followed as much of it as I could, understanding that her point was that she doesn't teach straight out of the book because a) 21st century students need to be involved, engaged, and interact with their learning and b) the students needed differentiated work in certain areas. The parents then asked questions, at which point I was pretty lost. I did understand when she was talking about Ben and how at times she asked him to demonstrate native English.

More than anything, I came away from the meeting with a lot of empathy for Ben's teacher. Teaching is hard. Before the meeting, one of the moms joked with me that now I'd see 'how Italian moms love and protect their children'. Even with my limited understanding, I could see that the moms (Dave was the only dad there), definitely asked very pointed questions. Ben's teacher chose to call the meeting, but it definitely wasn't easy or stress-free.

Teaching is hard everywhere. Parents love their kids everywhere.

We didn't talk to Ben's teacher after the meeting. Part of that was due to the fact that we had to get to Ethan's conference. Also, while Ben's teacher is very good, I don't think she

Later that afternoon I saw one of the moms at soccer practice and confirmed that my basic understanding was correct. Apparently the norm has been for the classrooms at their school to be very teacher-centered and traditional.

Teaching is hard.

Getting books for Ben
Report Cards
Conferences
The school

[This is another unfinished post from 2019. I'll try to record some of what I left off below.]

Nobody told us where to get school materials for the boys. Actually, more honestly, they may have told us and we didn't understand. We tried shopping for the notebooks that Ben needed at a supermarket, but they didn't have them. It turns out there are special shops to go to for school supplies, and one was right across the street from school. Notebooks for elementary students have extra lines in them and that helps them work on handwriting (tough to explain). We ended up ordering Ben's books for each subject from Amazon.

Ben's school books that came in
the Amazon order

Ah, Roma: The Vatican

Roma... Pigeons, cigarette butts, mopeds, and pushy street vendors. Luckily there are also amazing sights to see and excellent food to eat! 

This morning we got up early for 9:30 tickets to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. Dave and Ben left without rain coats, which was a mistake. We quickly doubled back and got them as well as the umbrellas from the apartment. That meant we abandoned the idea of taking the bus to the Vatican, as we were unsure of pickup times and routes. 

I was worried that I'd have to go without a cappuccino before the museum, but we got there five minutes early and there was a bar across the street. My Italian for ordering cappuccinos and food in restaurants is on point! Once in the Vatican, we took it slowly through some of the early rooms and found it uncrowded. There were quite a few pieces of art that featured babies' heads with wings... and no bodies. The museum was awesome- one highlight being the hall of maps, which featured maps of Italy from centuries ago. The Sistine Chapel was amazing as well, and it was not as crowded as I remember. I was also able to get a second cappuccino from the museum cafeteria! 

Weird baby angels

Not the Sistine Chapel (no pictures allowed in there)

After leaving the museum, we walked across the bridge of Sant'Angelo and headed back towards our apartment to find lunch. Everyone ate pasta at a trattoria. We are staying near Campo di Fiore, which we walked through after lunch. 

Most people (pushy street vendors) approach us speaking in English, and we try to reply in Italian. I'd like to think that we are not dressed as tourists, though Ethan was an exception after lunch. The boys both wore pants (over shorts) to the Sistine Chapel to meet dress code requirements. The pants unzip into shorts, and the shorts he had on underneath the pants stuck out under the top layer...

We are taking a siesta at the apartment for a few hours. Then we will head out to see the Pantheon, since it wasn't open last night, a dinner snack, and our evening tour of the Colosseum.