Bella Roma

Yesterday was my first in Rome. It started with an early morning trip via metro and train to the airport, but all went smoothly on the journey. I flew over the Swiss Alps, which were incredible! Kate met me at the airport, and we took a bus and then the metro to the hostel I'm staying in and checked in there. Then we went back to Kate's apartment, which is adorable, and had a little snack before heading back out. We spent the afternoon in a park called Villa Borghese, sitting in the sunshine under the Italian trees (possible laurels? but anyway very different from British ones) making daisy chains and reading. Then we walked around a bit, through the Piazza del Popolo and along the Via del Corso, until it was time for dinner (which they don't do over here until at least 8:30.)

We found a little restaurant district with lots of cute little places with cobblestones and checkered tablecloths, and Kate managed to find one filled with Italians as opposed to tourists, where we tried to order pizza in Italian, and weren't as successful as we could have hoped--Kate ended up with smoked salmon on her pizza, and somehow I ended up with anchovies. But we managed, and had a delicious tiramisu for dessert.

We walked home along the Tiber River around midnight, and saw lots of people at St. Peter's, which was right on the way home, so we went down to the plaza and there was a service going on and lots of people and news cameras, although everything was in Italian so we weren't sure whether or not the Pope had died or if this was a continuation of the vigil. But we stayed for a while, and then went home and checked the news to learn that he had. It's now the next morning and they're holding a memorial mass right now, so I'm going to head down there for a bit. More later, and my love as always.