Italia!

Italia! Italia!

Accompanied by close family friend Bria Gray, I went to Ben Gurion Airport on January 29th in the middle of the night for an early flight to Roma! Bria and I arrived and took a taxi to meet our moms at a beautiful little apartment they rented for us for the week. We were staying just around the corner from the Roman Forum! First things first, we went down the block to a small corner store and bought some bread and mozzarella, yum yum breakfast. The mom's got 6Euro cappacinos and decided they'd have to cut down on coffee intake in order to not go under (6Euro = $7.80). BUT they found out that if you stand and drink your coffee inside the cafe, then they charge you less because there is no service fee added - too bad that every time we were in a cafe that week our feet were too tired to keep standing!

After shaking off our jetlag, we headed to the Jewish Quarter to see where our brothers and sisters from another mother once practiced their Judaism. We used Rick Steve's Audio tours (an app that my mom found, so we downloaded free tours of everything before going - great find mom!) and learned about who used to live there and when. The synagogue was the only in Rome that was not ruined during Nazi occupation because of some agreement Mussolini made. The mom's bought leather purses from some guy on the street who we then saw the next day posing as a beggar (with no purses). Haha.

Sistine Chapel ceiling

The Pope's Church

Vatican City

On Thursday we went to the wonderful Vatican City to hang out with the pope. Unfortunately he had to cancel on us, so we just went to the Sistine Chapel and listened to Rick Steve's explain all the beautiful Biblical paintings on the wall (stories of Adam, Moses, Noach, and more). Beautiful fresca paintings by Michelangelo. In the evening we went to see the Pantheon, made wishes at Trevi Fountain and ate some of the best pasta and arrabbiata sauce I've ever had!

Trevi Fountain

On Friday we went on a SEGWAY TOUR!!! It was so fun! We saw the Colosseum, Roman Forum, an old horse racing track, and more! At the beginning mom was scared, but by the end she asked our guide if there was a place where we could just go fast. Hehe, very fun day!

SEGWAY!

On Saturday we went shopping at and around Campo Di Fiore - a cute outdoor farmers market in a plaza square. We were greeted by rain and took refuge to sip cappuccinos and eat pesto pasta. We ended the night with the Spanish Steps and some gelatti!

Spanish Steps with Bria!

On Sunday we walked the two mile long flea market in Trastevere. The on-going debate on how to pronounce the name of this big street and neighborhood was finally settled. We bought last minute chachkies to bring back for friends and family and then ended our trip with some fabulous thin sliced pizza. Bria and I said goodbye to our mommies, as we were flying back to Israel and they to the states. But just to our luck, Bria and I felt right at home once we boarded our carpool van to the airport. The van came 5 minutes early, so it took us a few minutes to get our suitcases down the stairs and ready to go. The couple already in the van was impatient and commented that it took us so long to get in and that they had a flight to catch. They were Israeli and on the same flight as us - which was still hours and hours away (our moms wanted to make sure we got to the airport with hours to wait). After we told them (in Hebrew) that we live in Israel, their attitudes changed and they were super sweet to us.  Good ol' Israeli culture.

Throughout the trip I was training for a half marathon, so I woke up each morning and jogged through the streets of Rome. Each corner I turned I saw some ancient building or excavation site that held so much history. What an amazingly beautiful city, complimented by an equally beautiful language and food! Retuning home was a hard reality, especially without mama by my side, but I got back to Sde Boker happy to feel the tranquility that I have learned to love in the desert. 

Went running at an ancient horse racing stadium.