Long time, no update. Patrick hasn't written about his class yet, so I'll leave that to him. I know this though - he loves it and his teacher sounds like a perfect combination of brilliant & crazy.
On Monday, when P. came back to the B&B from class we went downstairs and had a delicious cheap dinner at the little restaurant there. Wine is ridiculously cheap in Rome; cheaper than soda. We had a liter bottle of house wine for 5 euro. Even so, I spent our last night in the B&B awake worrying about the apartment.
Tuesday morning we had our last breakfast (that morning's addition? nutella!) & I packed us up while Pat emailed the rental agency about our place. They'd thankfully let us go drop off our bags early in the day if we could get there while the cleaners were still working. So after checking out and bidding a fond farewell to the old man and his dog, we took a scenic taxi route over.
The apartment is lovely! Yes, the bulding is the ugly stepchild of the block, but our place is perfect. The owner showed us around and we left to get some banking done before lunch-break. Banca di Roma lives up to the stereotypes of European burocracy, but everyone was very nice to us. And hooray for having a bank check instead of $$$$ in euros!
P. & I got a quick lunch near his school & I wandered around the neighborhood until it was time for me to meet our agent at the apartment. She was very nice and together with the owner, showed me all the features of the apartment & garden. So now I know what to do if the hot water fails or I need to pull the shade over the patio. After they left, I went to work inspecting the place & unpacking. The owner seems to love motorcross magazines & naked comics. But there's a fully stocked kitchen, bathroom & bedroom with all the linens we'll ever need. Plus, 2 futons in addition to our bed so guests are welcome.
P. came home from class and we walked around the neighborhood. Turns out all the shops close by 8 so we got a pizza & salad take-away instead. Watched "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" DVD in Italian, listened to a couple CD's from the owner's extensive Queen collection & called it an early night.
Yesterday I slept in while P. went to a cafe with internet access to do some work. Our modem isn't operating yet since the owner hasn't received the username from the company. When he got back we got ready and did some shopping. There's a large farmer's market a couple of blocks away every morning, so we went there to stock up. Eggplant, sausages, cherries, toilet paper, nectarines & blood oranges - all from the vendors. Then we went to the super-mercado for the rest. Canned tomatoes, dry pasta, vino, milk, cereal, nutella, shampoo, beer. They charge for plastic bags so next time I'll bring my cloth bag. We trudged everything home & had a quick meal before P. left for class.
I cleaned the apartment, washed all of our laundry & made dinner. I made a tomato sauce and sauteed some eggplant with the sausages. We ate it all mixed together with pasta. Ah, the life of an Italian housewife.
When Pat came home we took a long walk (aka the gelato quest) after dinner and ended up bringing back some profiteroles from the patisseria instead. Yum - we had dessert & vino out in the garden.
Today we're out at the cafe using the free internet - hopefully we'll be set up at home soon.
