Parents and Pompeii

That's me in front of Caecilius's house. That's right: my main man L. Caecilius Iucundus has a wikipedia page. And it's huge (yay Latin!).

First off, my blog past the 1000 page view mark this week. I'm just going to ignore the fact that between my mom, dad, and myself, we're probably responsible for about 100 of those (at least).

Okay, speaking of them, I guess I should do the update of how their trip went, from my point of view at least (they can comment and we'll see if I had it, more or less). Thursday was a very fun morning. We went by Ponte Sisto, dad got a cannolo with cream, I got a big cannolo siciliano. Both were tasty. Then we went into the Pantheon. We then went to Tazza D'Oro, which is one of the more famous caffes in Rome. It is supposed to have the best granita di caffe, and it was very, very tasty. From there we strolled up the Via del Corso to Santa Maria del Popolo, where we looked at the Chigi chapel and some Caravaggios. From there we climbed to the Spanish Steps, then walked to the Villa Borghese. Busy, busy, busy. Saw the Apollo and Daphne by Bernini, my favoritist sculpture, like, evar. At least that thing is still standing. That's doing better than my second favorite painting, like, evar.

From there we walked down the Via Veneto to Piazza Barberini to hop on the metro. McGinnis Family Death March 2007 had a respite as we rode the subway to St. John Lateran, where I had never been. It was big and fancy and churchy. Moving on. And moving on from there required some serious work. We walked down, through San Clemente, past the Colosseum, up past the Circus Maximus, past the Round Temple, across the river, and into Trastevere and to the apartment.

I would imagine at this point my parents were about ready to die. They seemed to be handling themselves all right, though. We had dinner in the 'hood. Not only that, but like right down the street close, at what is supposed to be one of the better gnocchi places in Rome (according to wikitravel). Anyways, it was rather tasty stuff. I won't quibble with wikitravel. Dad and I chilled at Bar San Calisto. He had another granita di caffe, which apparently led to bad sleep for him, while I had some delicious gelato.

Friday = Morning of Pain, Afternoon of Joy

Morning of Pain refers to a bad walk down to the Vatican by my parents. I sent them down the wrong route through the Janiculum Hill. I was dragging my laundry back to Medag at the time. We then met at the Vatican Museum to go into what we thought would be the St. Peter's scavi tour. We was wrong, and we was wronged. They signed us up for the new necropolis tour under the Vatican Museums, which is totally boring and worthless. And 90 minutes of total boredom. After this, my dad was rightfully pissy, because his morning was a steaming pile of dung.

We walked back to Trastevere through the right route on the Janiculum, so the view was there and pretty and whatnot. I realized our luck was turning, however, when we were able to see the Tempietto when it was supposed to be closed. Then we ate lunch at a delicious Sardinian restaurant (fried cheese for me! I love that stuff), and then we went back to the apartment. I promptly crashed for a 90 minute nap. I felt great afterwards. We went out, hung out in the hood, went to some stores (grocery store for pocket coffee!), and drank cokes in the local piazza. We then walked around to Piazza Trilussa for dinner. Nobody started eating until 8:30 around there, and we were about the first to start. We ate at some swanky winebar that had meh dinner and delicious desserts (I had fruit crepes, my mom had good cheese, and my dad had strawberries and crema gelato). Back to the apartment.

This morning I rose early to go hop on a bus to go to Pompeii for my Cities Towns and Villas class. I said goodbye to my parents, and we went off. We spent about 5 hours there. I've been, and I didn't take any good pictures. I have nothing witty or interesting to say about Pompeii. It's old and stuff.

Right now I am listening to Notre Dame playing USC. I am a masochist.