Night Photos and Getting Lost

So... Friday night was interesting. As possibly mentioned previously, John and Adam and I were hopelessly lost. We did see all of this great stuff though before getting lost... Enjoy!

The National History Museum

A Cathedral to be Mentioned later...

Courtyard of the Four Fountains

A more dramatic perspective of the Courtyard of the Four Fountains

The Four Horsemen Statue outside of the following church... 

One of the oldest churches in Rome. This is set 30 feet below street level at the original elevation of the city. 

Forum of Trajan (Foro Traiani)

The Vittorio Emmanuele at night

Mercati Traiani and Roman baths beyond

Wonder what this one is... Looks familiar for some reason... Must be in a movie or something...

Arch of Titus

Circus Maximus... Kinda a bad view of it. 

As you can see this is kind of a who's who list of what to see in Rome, except at night. I ended up leaving the other neighborhood off the photo thing because you can see graffiti on run down buildings in the US. There are some interesting graffiti artists that actually do some cool public works. I will try and get a photo collection going. 

Updated Blog Post

Simple message here. I am featuring more of Adam's stuff, I just got the "Okie-dokey" for that one.

NEW FEATURE!

Some of the other guys have been posting things on their own blogs, so I linked them to mine! Just check the top of the column to your right and you can click on the link to their blogs.

Thanks to those of you who are following my European adventure! And a special thanks to those of you that are posting comments! I will be better about feedback from now on.

Buonanotta! Getting late here...

New Post After Two Days... Sorry About the Wait!

Sorry about the lag between posts everyone. I was going to do one on Friday night, but Adam, John and I became inexplicably lost on our way home from the Colosseum. We went through some nice neighborhoods... And then some places that have seen better days. They were not bad neighborhoods, pretty much just abandoned in a really creepy post-apocalyptic type of way. (I'll have pics of it when I feature the work of Adam Aalgaard again.) That was really a new experience for me. That area of Rome is under some urban renewal, and just has some empty parts of it that not a lot of people go to, at least at night on a Friday night. Speaking of night in Rome, when I walked home from studio tonight at like 10 pm, there was a massive amount of people eating out and socializing at the local cafes and bars on Trastevere. (Note: A bar in Italy is just a place where they serve food, drinks, coffee whatever. More of a hang out place with food than an actual bar as we know it in America. Great places to pick up a cheap lunch on the go.) These places have seemed somewhat empty in the past couple of weeks, but Sunday night just must be the night to go out at 10 pm and grab a late dinner or just hang out on the town. Every time we have eaten out, it has been almost a ghost town. We are probably just eating too early...

In other new, the lady at the register of the Billa grocery store thought I was Italian! She only asked me like 3 things, and I had practiced answers for them but you gotta take heart in small victories along the way. And this was one. Look for a photo post later this week from Adam's camera. We went to a church where you weren't supposed to take pictures with a flash and my camera just wasn't having it. I will write more this week on churches and the mystery of the Italian lavatory.

Ciao!

A personal favorite of mine. Bramantes Tempietto... and only 1/2 a mile away!

Not sure what this is, but I think it is a fascist Monument. Something really more modern than Bramante.

Next door is this fountain. Not seen in the picture are the armed guards with big guns. I think someone important lives behind this thing (it is essentially a porch for a house that is hidden behind it)

A camera version of a Mexican standoff

Rome from the hilltops. The dome in the distance is St. Peters. It seems small in the picture, but it is huge and really, really far away. Did I mention it was big?

Mike finding the way home. At the bottom of the stairs is the Tiber river with across to the old city of Rome

Dining and more!

Buonacera! (Evening or dinner time greeting.)

Walking everywhere is great and all, especially because we have been eating like kings... I have no idea how the people of Italy stay so thin with all of this glorious food everywhere! (In their defense their breakfast is almost nothing and lunch is pretty lean most days.) Exploring the food has been just as much fun as exploring Rome itself! Cheese is the greatest thing a person can invest Euros in. The shredded cheese we find back in the states should not be considered cheese at all. Such an atrocity! Their processed meats are amazing too! Bologna is pretty much a delicacy here. We have yet to dabble in the fish market, however when Adam and I went to the store today we saw marlin being sold by the half fish (like 100 lb of marlin...). Pretty dang cool but outrageously expensive. (That possibly could have been the coolest thing I could have bought while abroad... Tiny bit of regret...) Anyway, here is a post dedicated to food cooked by us and by others, at outrageous bargain basement prices.

The salad course of Brad and Cory's meal

Chefs in action on the tiny stove in the biggest kitchen of all Architecture students

Cory and Brad's cavetelli (oh yes)

Dinner...

Brad's pizza at Borchetta

Adams pizza at Borchettos... Yes that is an egg... and yes, it was awesome!

One could live for years alone on the citrus here. So much fresher, and in an off season.

They all try so hard at being blood oranges, but some just dont make it.

Brad enjoying Borchettos... and hamming it up for the camera

Penne with vodka sauce. No actual vodka, just tomatoes, cheese and cream sauce.

Mike and spaghetti with clams in it... Somebody was jealous of him (me, dang that looks good)

Rome through the Eyes of Adam Aalgaard... (pt 1)

You may tire of my rather pragmatic view of Rome through a digital lens, so here is a different perspective courtesy my friend Adam Aalgaard (camera enthusiast).