Buon giorno. Its now Saturday afternoon and we,ve had a fantastic time over the past few days. From the Colosseum, wedding cake buildings, to the Roman Forum and the Palatine where it all began a few thousand years ago, weve crammed in what took centuries to build into a few days of sightseeing... with a few lattes in between. One of my greatest pleasures, apart from sampling the local culinary delights, is walking around the city particularly after the sun cools off around 5pm. We,ve discovered some interesting quarters in Rome, including indian and jewish parts. A bit weird to be walking around Rome with the waft of curry in the air, but there you go, I guess you cant been known as the Eternal City without having some flexibilities. My friends and family back at home will be pleased to know that I am steadfastly working through my list of foods to try before I leave Roma. I can now tick off an expresso coffee (have been wired all day), arancini (rice balls with meat and peas), melanzane calzone (a flipped eggplant pizza, but the description doesnt do it justice), and limone gelato (still smacking my lips after that one). Of course the true list is much longer but we wont go there. My italian is improving every day (ive been able to add one swear word at a time) and I even spoke to a local man this morning and he answered in italian and i mostly understood his response - but i decided not to accept his offer of having a muesli icecream. He on the other hand thought I probably said something like, i like your kneecaps, would you like strawberry with that? Cathys italian is coming along very well. She now knows how to order the dining bill "Il conto, per favore" but continues to favour her international "signing a cheque in the air". Both have the same result. We visited Piazza Navona and the Panthenon today. Just how many beautiful statues can one city have? No wonder the locales have to have a siesta each day, they just get so overwhelmed by it all. Yesterday we visited two magnificent churches, opulence in marble and artworks in the extreme but very beautiful. Now i finally understand the love affair italians have with their roman columns and marble lions, and thats just the ones that live in Carindale. Alora, its time for me to go an learn the Roma soccer teams game chant. Ciao for now, love Krista XXX