The day started with a pancake breakfast. It was another beautiful day, Olivia and Avery played in the garden while I organized a bit; Josh was out for bike ride with Stefano. I took Avery on a quick errand to the store. He is always so well-behaved when he's on his own. I was still getting used to his cute, new haircut. He looks totally different -- such a boy!
When Josh returned, we went on an outing to visit La Bocca de la Verita at the Chiesa de Santa Maria de Cosmedin. For some reason or another, this old, marble, man-hole cover with man-like features placed in the portico of the church has become world renowned. It dates back to the 1st century AD which, of course, is impressive. Legend has it that if you put your hand in its mouth, it will bite it off if you've told a lie. As such, there was a long line of people waiting to have their picture taken with their hand in La Bocca de la Verita. That's the thing about living in Rome; if the line is long, we'll just come back another day. The kids weren't happy though -- so much had been made of the legend that they wanted to wait and try it out for themselves. We'll make good on our promise to return.
Still, we went inside the church (no line for that), and then crossed the street to visit the Temples of Forum Boarium. These homages to Hercules and Portunus are some of Rome's best preserved Republican temples. The square is a park-like setting with a fountain and grass with lots and lots of wild daisies. Olivia and Avery began picking the flowers (weeds, really) and then fighting over who had more daisies. Just as Josh warned them both to watch out for dog poop, Avery starts walking towards us, crying, with dog poop all over the knees of his pants. We were trying not to laugh, but no one wanted to get near him. He was stinky yet we still crossed Lungotevere for a minute to see the Ponte Rotto. This arch in the Tiber is the remains of a 2nd century B.C. bridge and has quite a bit of detail. Then, we went straight back to the car to take Avery's pants off.
Outside, it was so hot (and not just due to the arguing) that I had to take my shirt off. Here I was, sitting outside, on February 27th, in Rome, in just my tank top. Josh was talking about getting an umbrella for the table, but then we realized that not all the leaves on the trees had come in yet. We are so looking forward to enjoying this lovely garden over the next several months.
When Josh returned, we went on an outing to visit La Bocca de la Verita at the Chiesa de Santa Maria de Cosmedin. For some reason or another, this old, marble, man-hole cover with man-like features placed in the portico of the church has become world renowned. It dates back to the 1st century AD which, of course, is impressive. Legend has it that if you put your hand in its mouth, it will bite it off if you've told a lie. As such, there was a long line of people waiting to have their picture taken with their hand in La Bocca de la Verita. That's the thing about living in Rome; if the line is long, we'll just come back another day. The kids weren't happy though -- so much had been made of the legend that they wanted to wait and try it out for themselves. We'll make good on our promise to return.
Still, we went inside the church (no line for that), and then crossed the street to visit the Temples of Forum Boarium. These homages to Hercules and Portunus are some of Rome's best preserved Republican temples. The square is a park-like setting with a fountain and grass with lots and lots of wild daisies. Olivia and Avery began picking the flowers (weeds, really) and then fighting over who had more daisies. Just as Josh warned them both to watch out for dog poop, Avery starts walking towards us, crying, with dog poop all over the knees of his pants. We were trying not to laugh, but no one wanted to get near him. He was stinky yet we still crossed Lungotevere for a minute to see the Ponte Rotto. This arch in the Tiber is the remains of a 2nd century B.C. bridge and has quite a bit of detail. Then, we went straight back to the car to take Avery's pants off.
It was such a gorgeous day with the sun shining and temps in the 70's. I had a special lunch planned, and the kids set the table outside with our new seat cushions while I cooked. First, the kids ate a contorni of broccoli. Then for the primi, I served gnocchi with ricotta and tomato and fresh basil. Finally, for the secondi, I brought out two huge beautiful branzino cooked on a bed of sea salt with white wine and garlic. Unfortunately, our lunch was spoiled because Charlotte and I became embroiled in a spat when she wouldn't slide down and give me room to sit down at the table. Sadly, it escalated beyond any reasonable level of a disagreement. Charlotte finished her lunch inside.
Outside, it was so hot (and not just due to the arguing) that I had to take my shirt off. Here I was, sitting outside, on February 27th, in Rome, in just my tank top. Josh was talking about getting an umbrella for the table, but then we realized that not all the leaves on the trees had come in yet. We are so looking forward to enjoying this lovely garden over the next several months.
Charlotte has a swim meet this weekend. It could be the last of her short-course (25 meters) season depending on whether the appeal to swim exhibition at Nationals is approved. As a U.S. citizen, she is excluding from being able to compete at the Italian Nationals, never mind that she has qualified in all her events. However, earlier this week Josh received a call from her coach who said that the director of C.C. Aniene is going appeal to the Federation on Charlotte's behalf. The request is for her to be able to compete just on an exhibition basis -- she would not score points for her team nor would she be eligible for a medal, but her time would count. We took it as a foregone conclusion that she would be excluded from the National competition -- and the likelihood is that she still will -- but it's so very kind of the folks at Aniene to take a personal interest in her and make this effort on her behalf.
For this weekend's meet, Charlotte has been nervous all week because she's swimming some tough events. Today she swam the 200 Fly. She died on the second half and was very disappointed with her performance. It did look very painful, but she finished, and in fact the time wasn't such an embarrassment. She did improve 12 seconds over her swim in this event last year.
Josh and I went out for a quick bite after we dropped her off at home. It was our third try at a Prati sushi place, but we struck out. We never feel like waiting for a seat at the sushi bar. So we went to the restaurant where we ate the last time we couldn't get in to the sushi place. It's called Tre Quarti and the food is really very good. Then we rushed home to catch the second heat of the men's slalom event -- where an Italian won!! Not since Alberto Tomba, 22 years ago in Calgary, has an Italians won another Olympic skiing gold. Guess what we'll be reading about in all the newspapers tomorrow?
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