Thanksgiving Update

Rome from Palazo Venezia

Happy Thanksgiving from Paris! I’m on the hunt to find a turkey today, which is actually a lot more difficult that one would imagine. We’ll be having a belated, Saturday thanksgiving. It will be a franco-american thanksgiving, full of stinky French cheese and fois gras, and fruit-tartes and eclairs instead of pumpkin pie. I’ve never actually cooked a Thanksgiving dinner, so am hoping it turns out okay.

The past few weeks have been full of travel. I went to Normandy two weekends ago. It was cold and rainy, but beautiful. The highlight was hiking through fields in the pouring rain to reach the cliffs with the rocky beaches down below. Breathtaking. It wasn’t a long walk, but the mud puddles were unavoidable and the rain was blowing sideways and in every direction.

Normandy

I only spent one night there, and then went to Rome the following day. I love Rome... The food, the architecture, and the energy of the city. It’s definitely one of my favorite big cities. I stayed for a week in the historic center, only two blocks from the pantheon. As I was just there in March and had already done all of the “must do” touristy things, I spent the week wandering random streets and neighborhoods, and not really having any set agenda, which was great. Getting lost on side streets has always been my favorite way to see a city.

I met some great people while there too. I was able to visit the vatican (my favorite place in Rome) with a seminary school drop out which was perfect, as he could answer all of my “who’s that statue of” and “what’s the significance of that?” questions. He grew up in Southern India, and told me he had joined the seminary because he liked the idea of living a life of poverty and helping people. He dropped out because he found the church to be full of contradictions, which lead to a discussion on what Jesus would have thought of the Vatican (we both decided he would have found it a bit flashy). And then we went a step further, and tried to determine how much money could be raised if the Vatican decided to auction off one of its statues - even one of the small, not so important ones. It’s always interesting having deep conversations like that with people you’ve know for less than 24 hours.

I explored the dodgy areas along the Tiber river with a Turkish friend and the seminary school drop out, and spent about an hour taking photos of interesting graffiti. One of the guys was an amateur photographer, so taught me how to use my camera the “real” way, rather than just on auto, like I usually do.  We visited the Jewish Ghetto and tried unsuccessfully to find some good vintage shops, spent a rainy day in Camp di Fiori, and explored the cobble stone and vine covered streets of Trestevere. I went up to Villa Bourghese for the first time, and spent about two hours walking through the parks, sitting by the little lake, and taking in the view over the city. And then of course visited the Colosseum, went to the top of Palazza Venezia (my favorite building), and climbed the Spanish Steps.

Nights were spent gorging ourselves on gnocchi, prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella, eggplant parmesan and pasta dishes, all washed down with cheap wine, sambuca, and limcello. I even learned how to salsa dance (sort of).

All in all, a great time.

Pics can be viewed via FB:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2850773&id=4901962&l=ea2fcac95a