eat gelato first

after my parents left on monday i had the pleasure of joining The Millingtons on a day of random fun around Roma. they had read an article about the 116 bus which is a tiny city bus (it looks like it belongs in the Land of Make Believe from Mr Roger's Neighborhood) that goes all around Rome from Campo dei Fiori to The Spanish Steps to The Vatican and back. you can hop on for a practically free tour of the backstreets of Rome. we weren't exactly sure how you catch the bus so when it appeared around a narrow city street we tried to flag it down. the driver shook his head and pointed to where we were supposed to pick it up and then drove off with us chasing after him. we finally caught up with the bus and jumped on board. we were happily riding on it for about 3 minutes when the bus suddenly emptied and the driver tried to shoo us off. he pointed at the stick shift and said in perfect english: "it's broken".

here is the broken down bus:


luckily i've upgraded myself again to Navigator and am a wiz with my Rome city street map. i played tour guide and walked Jessica and Hunter all over with the type of confidence and know-how of a professional tourist. do you think i could get a job like that? i'd be so good at it!

here are the millingtons. aren't they adorable?


yesterday i met up with them again for lunch at Gusto which was really good. a bit on the pricey side, but the triple chocolate mousse was worth the denaro. although, on the english menu it was called the Tree Mousse. luckily i know how to decipher "english" menus. truthfully, i think it's easier to read the italian menu. plus the english menu never sounds as appetizing. i've been thinking about offering up my services as a professional menu fixer-upper. cha-ching!

last night i met back up with Heather, the wine expert, and a few of her friends and clients. i somehow weasled a free night of dinner and booze out of it (i'm not complainin). i wasn't quite ready to turn in when i got home so i decided to have a nightcap with the TV. luckily, i recently figured out that i can switch the TV to inglese instead of italiano so when i'm craving some trashy american TV i know what to do. the italians seem to have an obsession with 3 shows: Will & Grace, Buffy, and Law & Order. last night i happened to catch an episode of Law & Order C.I. that was worthy of a photo. anyone recognize this man:



how about now:



last chance:



it's Richard Joseph Paul!! how excited was i to turn on my italian TV to see good ole RJP staring back!! some of you may not know the RJP story so you'll have to ask me in person but most of you DO know the story so you can imagine how happy i was to see his familiar face.

after all my free food and wine i fell asleep in my clothes in front of the TV and then woke up late this morning. could i finally be exhausted from all the shopping, walking, eating...?? after my slo-mo morning i did something i haven't done this whole vacation... i ate gelato for my first "meal" of the day.

at first i felt a little bit ashamed about it... was i really going to skip actual nourishment and head straight to gluttony?? i debated it for a short period of time (really short. like microseconds). i even almost walked into a shop where they sell panini but then i did the noble thing and went straight for the good stuff.

gluttony comes first. at least for a few more days.