Rain, rain go away

When people tell you the weather in London is cold and dreary, they aren't lying. Having now been in London for nearly 2 months, I've come to completely agree. There are few days where it is not raining and even fewer days when the sun is out. However, I have come to terms with it and learned to look past the weather and love London. However, when leaving London and going to a different country, say Italy, and being greeted by beautiful, sunny, 65 degree weather, it slowly hit me just how much I hated the easterly winds which send rain my way on almost a daily basis.

Mind you, I'm writing this post on a beautiful London morning. I've consider it Mother Nature's lovely way of welcoming me back and easing me into London and its weather after a weekend in Rome.

Rome. Rome. Rome. Where to begin?
Well, any grudge I may have ever had against Rome has been lifted and I loved it!

We arrived late Thursday evening to The Cardinal Hotel St. Peter. Intending to sneak one of us into our four person room, I headed inside to check us in. Immediately the concierge asked me for all the guests' passports. Crap! I immediately asked for new accommodation, which they did not have. Odd, seeing as the hotel was empty. So instead we lied, we told them one of us would be leaving. Crap again! They made us leave a form of identification at the desk. This was when I got nervous. Up in the room, we plotted and again we failed. So at 2am, we decided to go to bed and hope we never heard anything about our 5th roommate. Then the phone rang. Then there was a knock on the door...

Now I could have left you hanging, but I wont! What next ensued was a long drawn out conversation with the only English-speaking concierge working at 2:30 in the morning. While I attempted to explain to him that I could not allow my friend to wander the streets of Rome, that she had no where else to go, that she did not speak a word of Italian, that we were willing to pay extra, etc. etc, he attempted to explain he did not know what he could do. Low and behold, the panic in my voice must have been enough. They allowed us, all 5 of us, to stay and the following night even brought us an extra bed. One thing I learned this weekend: Italians are REALLY nice. Another: That 3 hours of sleep is exhausting.

Highlights (please excuse my attempt at spelling Italian):
Food, The Vatican (Sistine Chapel, yes, Hannah, that was it. St. Peter's: The Cyrpt. The Basilica. The Museum. Met the Pope,) Food, The Pantheon (bumped into Toby), Piazza Navona, Food, Coliseum, Capitalina Museum, Roman Forum (although we didnt realize it at the time), Food, Nap, Dinner, Sleep, Food, Borghesi Gallery, Campo Di Fiori (great samples), Cooking Class w/ Becca, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Shopping, Food, Nap, Dinner, Trevi Fountain...noticing a trend here??

FOOD.
Just to throw in another fun fact about myself here: I'm not the biggest fan of Italian Food. (Insert your gasp, shock & awe here--I know it's weird). It's for many reasons though...

1. I'm not a huge pasta fan

2. When I do eat pasta...

a. I tend to prefer the things in the pasta rather than the pasta itself

b. I am picky and prefer Paradelle, Rice Noodles, Orzo (yes I've commented on the irony of the last two myself), etc as opposed to your standard ziti, spaghetti, fusili, etc.

c. American portions are just far too large for me to even tempt myself with

3. I use to be addicted to Fettuccini Alfredo, I cannot count the amount of times I made some kind of combination of it or blended the sauce with tomato to make a delicious meal, & miss it dearly & can't eat it anymore because...

4. I'm lactose intolerant

So what did I do? Doubled up on my Lactose Pills and indulged. And I mean indulged. The Food was amazing. Unlike American Italian Food it was light and delicious. (which I learned in my cooking class is because of the Garlic--American's dont cut off the stem making their dishes much heavier--now that's something I'm taking home with me!) We made it a point to get appetizers and split dishes, and sharing is definitely something I'm a fan of. Everything we sampled was delicious, and by comparison to London & Paris-cheap! All the more reason to keep eating more and more.

Needless to say, I'm not sure my body could handle this kind of eating all the time. We went for sushi Sunday night as an attempt at detox. But I'll try Italian again, especially the fried dough Pizza & Gnocchi from our cooking class, which I just happen to have the recipe for...