a day in the life: part 2

Sunday, March 25

I went to mass at a local parish, Santa Maria de Buonconsiglio.  At the rear of the church were two “walk-up” confessionals.  It was a box in which the priest sat, with the upper half of the front open.  One would stand there in front of the opening and make a confession.  I watched as each Italian stood there for at least 15 minutes, gesturing wildly.  It seems as though they are passionate about EVERYTHING, even their sins.  Confessions were being heard, as far as I could tell, all throughout mass.

After a lunch at home, the three of us took the Metro into town and walked up Via Veneto, through the east entrance of the Roman city wall, and in to Villa Borghese.  We had visited Villa Borghese (and gotten lost) the week prior with Paul, Helen, and Megan – enjoying the works of (mostly) Caravaggio and Bernini in the Galleria Borghese.  On this day, however, we had our eye on a riscio (rickshaw), a four-wheeled cycle we propelled by our own peddling.  

The riscio proved to be a great time – winding around pedestrians, dodging other riscio, bikes, roller bladers and skateboards.

We stopped for a snack – a crepe con formaggio for me, a caffe for Wayne, and a cioccolato caldo for Riley.  This was our first attempt at hot chocolate in Italy.  Is this an American creation?  I don’t know.  But the Italians take it literally – it was as if they took a bar of chocolate, put it in a cup, and melted it in the microwave.  It was simply chocolate, heated.  Hot chocolate.  We ended up throwing it out.

After a bathroom break, we returned the riscio, and got gelato (of course) on our way out.

At home, we prepared a feast for dinner.  I made lasagna (in two batches, as I only had one small pan I trusted in the oven), then washed and reused the pan to make something from a box that we found in the store we nicknamed “lava cake”.  One major thing missing in Italy is brownies.  We have found applesauce, an abundance of very good garden peas (that we can’t even get most of the time in the states), good fresh milk, wonderful coffee, fantastic bread, and even Skippy peanut butter.  But no brownies.  I suppose no place is perfect :)