The Paintings.

So last night was the exhibition for all of the studio art classes. Here are some pictures of the paintings I worked on this semester (minus two because they just didn't fit in with my theme).




















(Autoritratto, just in case you couldn't figure it out!)






























































































































If you look up Giacomo Balla, Emilio Vedova, and Pino Pascali, you'll understand what I was going for. The exhibition went really well, and I spent a lot of time setting up the entire show... so my professor Breda (who is swiftly becoming a very good friend of mine) bought me some chinese food, and we ate lunch together and talked about art. She is this little old hunched over Irish woman with a big heart and a sharp wit... I'm glad that I'll have classes with her every semester from now on.

Anyway, school sucks, there is too much work ahead of me, and I'm desperately awaiting next week, because I would much rather be taking a bunch of stupid exams rather than writing ridiculous papers. My weekend is shot, and all I really want to do is go see the Pop Art! show and the Rothko exhibit... maybe I can sneak it in on Tuesday.

We are coming home in about a week, and this means packing up our entire apartment and figuring out where to leave all of our stuff while we are away. I'm fighting the urge to just burn everything so that I don't have to deal with it.

But Christmas is coming, and we've been listening to the music non-stop. If you really want to hear some good Christmas stuff, download The Ventures Christmas... nothing like beach music to get you into the spirit!

Scrubs, gallery openings, and lots of papers.

So if you are wondering what we've been up to, it's a whole lot of ridiculousness... working a lot and such. Stef has been at Berlitz every day, except for today (yet another bus strike).

Last night I had a final project for my Art Gallery Management class and my group had to put on an exhibition. So we got a couple of friends to display their artwork, bought some food and wine, and held an exhibition that was very successful. Here are a few pictures of our group:


















Melissa, Ursula (my professor), Freya, Alison, Me, Catie

















Things get silly.

Afterwards I went to my friend Rita's house to play guitar and sing Christmas songs. Now I'll be holed up at home all weekend writing 3 papers, painting, and studying for finals and such. Tomorrow night is my friend Steven's concert at one the churches by my old apartment.

And then we come home on the 15th. Cute right? I'm excited for the season, but there are a few things I'm dreading, like renewing my visa in the depths of the Italian Consulate. People don't realize how that the DMV is a dream compared to the 5th ave hell hole with dim lighting and broken seats.

Anyway... life is hectic but good as long as there I can make a sandwich with prosciutto, smoked cheese, olive oil, salt, and some rucola. Mmmmmmmmm...

A can of crazy!

This week is the start of the madness. Papers, gallery exhibitions to plan, finals, packing to move into a new apartment... wonderful.

I have a final on the 14th and a flight to NY on the 15th. And somewhere in between there I have to move all of our stuff into our new apartment next door. WHY!? Haven't been getting good sleep because of my neck, and I've been getting sick off and on for the past couple of weeks. I think a doctor's appointment is in order, along with being with my family, going into the city to hit up the museums and galleries, renewing my visa, translating documents, all for my month vacation back home in NY.

No worries though. I'm looking forward to Starbucks, Fox Soccer Channel, internet in my house, seeing my family and friendsies, and getting to squeeze Steven and Julia for a whole month!!!!!

And because we are bringing our family from the homeland with us, I'll still get to speak Italian all break. I think this is a great deal.

Less than a month until we arrive at JFK.

Or Ellis Island.

Birthday fun!

So I'm 20 now, along with the rest of the world. My birthday was actually the best one I've ever had, and it was totally worth losing my teenage years.

The day started off with a really really attractive bus driver that took me all the way to school. I had a midterm that day that I totally rocked because it was so easy, and after that class I went to Freya's house and we had some celebratory wine and pizza. I hung out there the rest of the day and Stef and other friends met up with us, and we went out for a monstrous dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant here. Tons and tons and tons of free food, lots of wonderful pictures, and a little limoncello later, we walked our way over to Piazza Trilussa (possibly my most favorite place in Rome), sat on the steps for a few hours, and sang Cat Stevens and Beatles songs with a bunch of Italians that had a guitar.

It was a wonderful night full of so many friendly faces and beautiful music. What more could a birthday girl ask for?

And now, I'm all feverish and trying to get my way through the school day, which isn't working out too well. But I'm a trooper.

I made my schedule for next semester and it goes a little something like this:
Art for Arts Sake
Italian Writing Styles
Painting II
Van Gogh to Warhol
Art of Renaissance and Baroque

This is exactly why I moved to Rome.

Really excited to come home though! I just want to eat a huge Christmas meal and take a wicked nap right after. Mmmm...

My Vacation from Rome.

I just had a week off from school and I did my most favorite thing in the world: nothing.

I slept all day, sometimes went out at night, but mostly just vegged around the house and walked around aimlessly. It was amazing.

Back into the grind. I think I'm becoming a nerd with the amount of work I have to do. It's probably better this way because as of this Thursday I will officially leave my teenage years. I need to grow up, I guess. (Expect another post soon completely contradicting this one).

Ummm... I'm diving into the Italian language, because I realized that I have barely been speaking it since I've been here, and I need to get back on track.

And also, Palermo better beat Napoli next week. That's all I'm saying.

I have nothing to wear for my birthday. Must find a nice outfit for fun and games.

The world needs more smoked cheese.

So Steffi planned on writing this epic post about our ridiculous weekend, but I don't think she finished it. Either way, I'll just say that I'm thinking about joining the Communist party of Italy just because they know how to throw a good party/parade.

Joking.

But seriously, I have 4 tests in the next two days, and I'm not freaking out at all, because if you just study a little, everything comes together. Right?

After Thursday, I'm on vacation for a week, and it is definitely deserved as well as needed. My plans include: sleep, reading, writing a couple papers, visiting all the museums and galleries I've been wanting to, sleep, eating soup, eating bread, eating, a little vino, dancing at Rialto, and working a lot so that we can pay for rent.

As far as working goes, I babysit these two little Italian boys, Simone and Michele. They are 4 & 7, and they crack me up on a regular basis. The language barrier is quite funny actually, especially when I'm giving them a bath. Apparently Michele believes he has a un pisello grande, while Simone has a pisellino. Greeeeeeeeeeeeeat.

But this job alone will not pay the rent. So I'm going to the Abbey Theatre Pub, that caters mostly to Americans and the Brits with American sports and lots of rugby... and I'm going to get a job. Or I'll try to get a job, try really really hard. Really, waitressing is the way to go if I want to be able to make some real money quickly, so I'm hoping to get a job on my English/Italian skills and my good looks. C'mon, you gotta use what you got in a flashy city like this.

I figure it's a good way to meet people too. Meet them at work, and then never see them again... probably the best thing about meeting a lot of people. There is no follow-up. Sweet!

So pray that I get this job, and that I get it really really soon... because Di Croce girls cannot live on bread (credit card) alone.

ps- There is a bakery right underneath our building that bakes fresh bread every day, and the guy there gives me about a euro discount every time I go. I spend about 2euro on a ginormous piece of fresh crusty chewy bread. Che bella!

If you are what you eat...

...I should be turning into a piece of prosciutto very soon.

In sickness and in health.

So just in time for a week of studying and catching up on all slacking tendencies before midterms, someone decides that I need to start getting sick.

And it's like that evil sneak-up-on-you sick. Like, I feel it brewing behind my eyes. Hoorah!

Food shopping today will consist of the ancient remedies of chicken soup ingredients and lots of vitamin c. And also smoked cheese. Always cheese.

Stef and I have no warm clothes. Fall is already here. Maybe a trip to H&M is in order, especially because my birthday is coming up real soon... mmmm, 20 years of awesome.

One of my friends recently said to me that one's enchantment with Rome has to fade at some point. He said this in response to me finding it difficult to enjoy the city since I've been here, mostly because of stress of financial things and school and all that rot. But I don't think that's true at all. I think it's possible for certain people to lost there enchantment with a lot of things, very quickly, but again, it takes a certain person to never lose it. Every experience is what you make of it, and if you want to disregard the magic floating around this city then of course you'll become oblivious to it.

I just know that this city captivates me like no other place ever has, and even though I haven't been able to experience it to the fullest yet, I cannot be discouraged.

And now, time for food.

In which I disclose things which I have learned...

So let's talk about lying things that lie.

1) The ATAC website.

So Rome has this great and fantastic website for its public transportation system. That is, it would be great and fantastic if it didn't LIE all of the time! For instance: I've been dying to go to this huge shopping plaza Porta di Roma for the longest time. It's a bit of a ways outside of the city, but it's one of two IKEA locations in the area around Rome and IKEA = Love. You know it's true. Anyway, Jackie and I decide to make a trip a few weeks ago using the route planner option on the ATAC site which tells us to take the 84 to a stop and then IT'S SO RIGHT THERE. SWEAR! Following said directions led us to...the autostrade. The highway for those unfamiliar. Which we gazed along seeing signs for Porta di Roma in the distance and gave up. I find out today that the 38 has an extended route that drops passengers off in the IKEA parking lot.

You'd think I'd have learned my lesson.

No less than 4 times since have I tried to plot my route using the website only to find after trudging across cobblestoned alleys that directly in front of my destination is a merry little bus stop just bustling with arrivals and departures. So, right now I'm downloading PDF files of all of the bus routes in Rome, because ATAC? You are a lying liar who lies.

2) Recipes.

There is no brown sugar in Italy. Molasses is an American product that just doesn't have the same following across the pond and is pretty much non-existent except for specialty international stores. FEAR NOT say various ex-pat websites! Brown sugar exists! Just look for zucchero di canna (Zucchero di Canna...are we ending that word with a varro? Because in that case, I'll *adapt the recipe, thank you* [this aside brought to you by a very silly football obsession and yes I'm stopping now])! Those of you familiar with Starbucks' ever delightful 'sugar in the raw' will know what that ingredient is. And what it isn't. Which is brown sugar.

I need to bake cookies, people! Fortunately there seems to be a huge international supermarket (glory of living in a major metropolitan area, huzzah!) near the Vatican, so I'll be making a field trip there in the not so distant future as the weather has turned snappy and, cookies, people. Cookies. Gluttony may be a sin, but even Jesus was all about making food and making it the best stuff around (Good wine? Bread? Fish? That's what I'm talking about).

3) Citibank
Liars. WaMu >>>>>> Citibank

4) Who cares, as long as I can make oatmeal cookies, Who. Cares. Indeed.

Hopefully I'll be back with pictures of the glorious result of this epicurean search. And it will be glorious...

So...things. Good things.

Oh man, I suck. As I was making the layout for this site I would get all snippy at Jackie like "you'd better not put my HARD WORK TO WASTE and not post" and here I'm the one who's being rather lame with the whole thing.

So, slight update -- I am employed! About a week and a half ago I got a call while I was on a bus from a strange Italian number, after hopping off the bus and fumbling around Piazza del Popolo, I hung up from my conversation with Hugo of Berlitz Intl. regarding a CV that I'd sent him. A few hours and one interview later and I was a contract employee of Berlitz EUR and the first full-time hire for the new language school at Tuscolana (which is a 4 minute bus ride away from the apartment). I cannot tell you how blessed I am to have this job. It's a full time job teaching English in an amazing, internationally renowned language school with room to grow and a salary I most certainly did not think I'd be making within a few months of being here. Let's just say that the people who live next door have been living here for a few years and advised Jackie and I that "you shouldn't expect more than 1.000 euro a month" and, well, I didn't expect it, but I'm more than thrilled that I'm working a legit job that pays nearly twice that at its base pay.

God's really blessed me, not only financially with this, but emotionally. I've been struggling a bit with resentment at the amount of money that I put into my university education and with the fact that most of the jobs here that I'd been applying for didn't make use of that degree. Berlitz requires its instructors to at least have a university degree, so it's been kind of a relief for me to know that those four years are really helping me live and have a job that I'm going to enjoy doing. So woohoo to that.

Other than that... Palermo needs to shape up and stop giving me heart attacks and, um, SOMEONE needs to stop leaving Zacca off of the national team sheet, and if that made no sense to you just ignore this paragraph. It is of no consequence.

Also, I pick up a WiFi signal in my laundry room. Go fig. But my computer won't connect to it. I don't know. But do not underestimate my insanity -- I *will* sit cross-legged on the top of the washing machine (for its 2 hour cycles) and surf instead of hauling myself to Trastevere. Oh yes.

Love you all,

'Sei di Sicilia?'

Sometimes you think you speak Italian well and people know right away that you are New Yorkese. Sometimes you don't think at all and you get asked if you are from Sicilia.

Last night we went to Mondo Arancina, this little Sicilian place that sells pizza and arancine (rice balls is a much less attractive term!). I order my arancina and the cashier asks me if I'm from Sicily because my accent is very Sicilian... I thank him of course and we get into a conversation about family in Palermo and such.

Point is, I sounded like I was Sicilian and that makes my life. What more do you want?

Nobody wears red in Rome.

Why am I always the cartoon character wherever I go?

So things have been in complete madness since the last time I wrote. My school ruined my loans for this semester, and blah blah blah things got insane with me going to the financial offices every day, being treated like a criminal delinquent, falling behind in my schoolwork and losing weight... but thank the Lord, it's all over.

Somehow, I was able to explain the entire complicated situation to our landlady (all in Italian, thank you very much) and she was completely fine with everything, very relaxed, kept telling me not to worry and just to call her when the rent is ready. And people don't believe that there is a God that is watching over us and providing for us... Ha!

I was talking with our friend Jake last night (who is right now in Rome staying with us!) and we were discussing how blessed we are to have our parents. We both come from families that support and love us no matter how screwed up things get, and how incredible it is because many people don't know what it's like.

So for the first time since I've been here this month, I'm at ease, I'm relaxed, and I'm finally able to enjoy my beautiful city to the fullest.

Jake will be here for a week, then he's off to travel around the rest of Europe for a couple weeks, then making his way back to Rome for a few days to hang out before he goes back to Jersey... it's great to see a familiar face from home. And it's also so much fun taking someone around the city you love and showing them all of the wonderful things.

I keep picturing my family and I sitting on the steps of Trilussa on a weekend night... mostly because I think it would be funny, but also because you want to share your favorite things with the people you love. Hope they are ready for it in February.

Things are good. I'm in the process of speaking to all of my professors about my situation, so they know that I'm not some slacker that doesn't feel like doing work... they are all incredible anyway, so it all works out.

My Italian is getting better every day and I'm even beginning to forget how to say things in English. YES!

Midnight in my mind, five years from now.

I'll never discover a painting. I wont be in some grad school with my nose in a book, researching an artist's every breath to track down a piece. I see my rooms in disarray, but charmingly so. I can smell the aroma of freshly cooked vegetables and basil all over my brightly colored kitchen. The sun shines through my windows peeling with salmon colored paint and it warms the simple tile floor, worn and old. I'm barefoot, as usual, even though I still own a plethora of shoes. I have a room strewn with canvases, large and small, my own originals that aren't etremely good of profound, but the colors make me happy and I like to get my hands dirty. I have an old black typewriter and I sit like my grandfather does writing out my life story. Might as well start as it's fresh in my memory. Sometimes I get called in to work on a painting or to restore a mosaic, here and there. I eat lemon gelato and lay in the park with fresh fruit and my guitar at my side. I drink wine with friends and I go see Palermo play when they're in town. I sit and draw in piazzas, faces, hands, windows... I'll never be an artist like my father or sister, but I find joy in any sort of creation. I often write down my dreams and when I'm home I wear large button-down shirts and no pants. I listen to classical music and conduct orchestras as I walk through my rooms. My hair is long and still as black as ever. He tells me I give the sweetest kisses in all the world, honey and wine.

Palermo, lezioni, soldi.

So, I'm thinking about becoming a genius.

I truly am in my element right now, studying exactly what I want to study, thriving in all of my classes, and for the first time truly enjoying school. This is exactly what I would never get at Fordham.

My direction in life is changing a bit. AUR might be starting a Restoration concentration next year, so I'll definitely be taking all 6 classes for the requirement, but I'm wondering now how I'll fit this all into 4 semesters or so. Summer classes! I'll be trying to get all of those stupid classes out of the way, like math and science, so that I can focus on the things that are more relavent to me.

Tonight I'm going to a gallery off of Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere with Freya... it's a requirement of our Art Gallery Management class and we have to do a write up on the function, layout, lighting, etc. of the place, and it's all very wonderful to me. There are so many interesting galleries here... I want to get involved in the gallery crowd. Go to openings, meet artists and historians, learn everything there is to know about everything... and here is so much more down to earth than in New York. The galleries there are kind of stuffy and high-class.

Which inspires me (and this is where the new direction comes in) to consider opening up my own gallery... something really earthy and accessible, a way to have a relationship with local artists and give people a relaxed atmosphere to view art.

We'll see. I must learn it all first. Restoration too. Maybe add a coffee shop into the mix as well... sip on espresso and discuss art, my two favorite things.

more pictures!

Tottitottitottitottitotti...
Just a glimpse of the lovely advertising campaign throughout Roma. Oh Totti.



Waiting for the 44 in Piazza Venezia



So, the Palermo-Mlada UEFA Cup game was on the other day ON A CHANNEL WHICH I GET!!! and 1) the bus was really slow getting home so I didn't get to see the first half, and 2) This is what I saw for half of that second half...
So total minutes of live Palermo footie that I've seen since being here? 20ish. EXCELLENT.



Jackie and a caramel cornetto. Mmmmmmmmm.



Pictures of our church! I only got a couple that actually came out nicely because the flash washes the colors out, but this is directly behind the altar. The mosaics were done by a pre-Raphaelite artist named Edward Burne-Jones (and it just figures that as I was looking up the spelling of his name just now, I find a website that looks like it promises to have better pictures than the one I'm posting...go! Look!) who actually did the whole things around the height of Oscar Wilde's fame (1880-1890). They're really gorgeous and the symbolism behind them is really interesting. This one is Jesus on the throne of the new Jerusalem with seats for the six archangels -- the empty space to his right being Lucifer's former seat. I know there's Michael next to the empty spot (with the armor and the red banner) but I'm not sure of the others. This is a case for Art-History Jackie!



Another view



And yet another of all three panels.



This is around the corner from us on Via Merulana -- apparently we have a fellow enthusiast in our neighborhood! Totally made my day.

--------------
Videos!! Finally got these up -- it's been a long time coming, I know.


This is part one of our "apartment tour." Sunday morning in a slightly disheveled Di Croce household.


Part 2 -- Kitchen, etc...


These are the bells of the Scala Santa. I just wanted to put these here so that you all could get an idea of what we wake up to every morning. That's right outside of our window folks. Bright. And. Early.

Alright, until next time!

All work and all play.

Today I'm going over someone's house to meet her two little boys and kind of have an interview to see if I'll be able to be their wonderful English mothertongue babysitter. Fun!

My class ends at 5 though, and I have to be at their house at 5.30... interesting. I'll probably have to leave early. I'm just really excited, because I miss being around kids, and I have this fascination with Italian children because I think they are all geniuses. So pray that everything goes okay, because I'd like to actually have some spending money in the future.

I think I want to go to San Lorenzo all the time. It's close to La Sapienza (Roman University) so there are tons of young Italians hanging around... and I was was walking around the area two nights ago and I saw a band dressed up in 60s fashion playing Beatles songs. What more could you want?

Your general, boring update.

My feet are always dirty.

Some may not know this, but Rome is a pretty dusty, dirty place... as in we get winds from Africa (supressing Joni Mitchell song) that bring us lots of desert dust. So you must sweep and mop perpetually... but even so, walking around barefoot in the house, on the balcony, open-toe shoes... dirty dirty feet.

I love it.

My Italian is not getting any better, but I am trying to study and do more reading/writing, and my friend Steven I set up a little study group... I've decided that I must learn passato remoto perfectly, because it is used mostly in Sicily, and I always strive to be more Sicilian. Forza.

Anyone else thrilled that Inter lost last night? ;)

Tomorrow morning I have a class at Galleria Nazionale Dell'arte Moderna... we talk about a painting as we are looking directly at it. Amazing, no?

Baci!

Picture post!

Alright, pictures! My camera decided to play broken for about a week after we got in so I haven't had much to post, but it got over itself a couple days ago and I've been toting it around. So yes, pictures! Click on 'em to see them at full size.




Alright, so this is pre-break. The black and white is to allow you to truly experience Heathrow airport. Jackie and I sat at this cafe for maybe three hours, jetlagged and hungry as we waited for our connecting flight. They served us cream with our coffee and it was served WARM. That was probably the only good thing about that place. ANYWAY!




Aaaand this is the view from our balcony! That's San Giovanni di Laterano right there (which is where Oscar Wilde spent his last Easter, by the way) and part of the piazza, which actually stretches from in front of the church and down its right side (in front of our building). The building in the foreground on the right is the Santa Scala which is the building that houses the staircase that Jesus supposedly climbed on his way to see Pontius Pilate. There's a bell tower on the top of the building that rings at the most random times and for the most random amounts. Let's just say that it's not meant to be a timekeeper -- we're still trying to figure it out. You can't see it in the picture but further to the right of the Scala Santa, the building attaches to part of the Claudia aqueducts which were built from 36 - 50 AD. Very cool.




And instead of the obelisk built by Thutmose III, restoration efforts have left our view with Zac Efron. Which Jackie is not upset about.



Here's Jackie being studious in the courtyard of her school.




And here's an example of what our piazza is capable of. Saturday was the 10th anniversary of MTVItalia which brought HUGE day-long concerts to both Rome and Milan. We bounced in the middle of the day to escape the screaming teenagers in their stylish duds.




Iiiiiinteresting juxtaposition.




As you can tell, I was very amused by this all.




Very.




Here's Jackie strutting her stuff on the way to the Fontana Trevi




Aaaand here she is -- at midnight when it was more or less calm and enjoyable and sans gladiatori picture ops.



Hi!




Archs over the street on the way home.

And that's it for now -- more to come once I get my hands on the stuff Jackie has on her computer!

Love,
Stef

Pics

Relaxing after a fabulous meal. Freya, Rita, Steven.














Steffi, Neil, Freya... notice the pictures on the wall... all of your faces!














Stef sipping un cafe'.



















Circo Massimo! The exhibition was called 'Maximum Silence'.











Typical meal in the Di Croce house... pasta, bread, cheese, vino, and tomato concoctions!















This is the ceiling of our bedroom.
















Our view from the balcony.

Goethe makes me see the light.

I had a class today in Goethe's house. It's a small museum that has a few of his transcripts as well as tons of etchings and tiny treasures all around. I was inspired though. I decided to add yet another class to my schedule so that I'm taking Art Gallery Management as well. It sounds interesting and I'm thinking that maybe in the future I'd like to set up my own gallery... we'll see.

Annnnyway, my classes are as follows:

Painting Techniques
Survey of American History (blah)
Italian Reading and Composition
Arts of Modernity
Arts of Antiquity
Art Gallery Management

Yes, six classes, but I think I can handle it, especially because for Painting there are no academics involved. I plan on being a big nerd this year anyway (and i just found out that my current GPA is a 3.1, the highest it's ever been!).

I just want to do so many things... I want to be able to take as much advantage as possible of the classes offered here.

Dork.

ps- I was just informed that Zac Efron is performing 'Ladies Choice' in my piazza on Friday. Which means that I will be right front and center screaming my head off.

Internets.

So for now, we only have internet at school... this is something we are working on. Eventually we will have it in the house.

So, interesting things... we have officially been here for a week and I am floating on the idea of being here for so long. I love waiting for buses and having conversations with new people in Italian... there is something so freeing to walk out of your apartment and have access to an entire city in minutes. I love wearing wonderful clothes every day and finally having my red lipstick permanently on my lips. Che bella vita!

My new favorite thing to do (also because it is reminiscent of my last stay in Rome) is to wake up in the morning, make my coffee and sit on the floor with the windows open. The sun is so strong and warms the tiles and I stay in my pjs, all barefoot and sleepy and look at the statues on the top of the church.

Tonight we are going to Circo Massimo to see an exhibit called 'Maximum Silence'. It's a bit lengthy to explain, so I promise to post some pictures tomorrow.

Love!

Here. Safe. Sound.

Ciao tutti!

We are finally here and kind of settled in. We have no internet, but Stef has been surviving without it better than I thought ;)

Right now we have no pictures to send, mostly because our cameras are out of batteries (go figure), and we still have to buy some adaptors for our chargers. The area we live in is really different than where I was last year, and I freaked a bit, but after walking around a lot we found everything we needed right in our neighborhood.

The funny thing is that our piazza is sort of the MSG of Rome. There is constantly some concert being set up there. This week, MTV Italia is hosting TRL right outside our window, so all we hear during the day is a bunch of screaming Italian teenagers singing along to Avril Lavigne. Next week there is a HUGE concert there with a bunch of famous Italian pop artists, so we are probably going to have a bit of trouble getting around that day. Boh!

The bus that we take all the time drives us right next to the Colisseo every day, so we've been developing our relationship with the building... last night on our way home we walked right up next to it to touch the walls... nothing quite like running your fingers across ancient Rome.

Still a bit nervous about making some money for rent, but I think we'll be okay. I'm hoping to save up enough to buy a vespa, because every single time I see one (which is like, every 4 seconds) I realize how convenient they are (as well as pretty awesome and fun to ride... wouldn't I look so cute on a little shiny red vespa with a camel colored leather seat?).

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnyway, things are going good... meeting new people already and just enjoying good food and wine. Ummm, Roma is amazing.

Welcome :)

Hi guys!

So this is our blog -- instead of sending out a big huge email with a bunch of attachments to clog your inboxes, Jackie and I thought that this would be a fun and easy way for you all to keep tabs of our Roman adventure. Bookmark this page and visit often to see our pictures, videos and stories -- make sure that you leave comments, too! If you look on the lefthand menu, you'll see our profiles, the archive so you can easily find previous entries, and the "tag list" where we'll group together different posts so you can find them easily by topic (for example, I'm categorizing this entry under "contact info" so if you want to read all of the entries that have information about how to get in touch with it, you can click on that heading under the tag menu).

As of right now, we don't have all of our Italy contact information, but you can definitely email us at:

Stef - themusicofsilence [at] gmail [dot] com
Jackie - lipstickmyname [at] hotmail [dot] com
(replace the stuff in brackets with the @ and the . ;o) )

We'll be updating as soon as we get all of our Italian information down pat.

-- With love

6 more days...

...and I haven't started to pack. :)