Valentines Day

After an early morning breakfast, I ran back to the Piazza Michelangelo lookout to watch the sun come up over the hills on the  east side of the city.  It rained last night and so the air running through my lungs was wonderfully cool and moist.  The view of the  sun pushing through the misty leftover clouds made the tough steep climb completely worth it.  I made my way back to the river and with it being so early and very few people about,  I ran up and down the river, crossing many bridges for a few miles.  At one point, as I was running across the world famous Ponto Vecchio (a normally very busy location) I had to pinch myself and smile to remind myself of where I was.

Later in the morning I went with the girls to a couple of museums.  Alli really wanted to go to the Gucci Museum.  Yes, that Gucci...there is a museum dedicated to the fashion designer.  And so I said why not and put on some of my finest clothing to go to a museum.  We were in one room displaying some beautiful dresses made specifically for famous women over the years when one of the security guards asked me where I was from.  I told him I was from Canada and he said he " could tell by my style" referring to what I was wearing.  He said that I must be from Montreal.  WELL, I laughed about that one all day long.  We went to another, less popular museum ( the name of which escaped me at the moment) which housed a few famous sculptures like Donatello's David and a few works by Michelangelo.

We bought some takeout pizza and had lunch at the apartment fallowed by what is becoming our customary afternoon nap.  Later in the afternoon we to a church near the lookout that I mentioned earlier.  We went to the 5:30 mass which is done completely in Gregorian Chant.

This silly boy forgot to make diner reservations on Valentines day and so we weren't able to get into my first choice of restaurant for the evening.  Fortunately, Trattoria  Anita was able to squeeze the three of us into a table for two.  One thing to note about restaurants in Italy is that the non touristy places will have a small cover charge per person.  The advantage with this is that your reservation  gives your that table for the whole evening.  When people eventually leave, you don't see bus boys in a rush to get the table ready for the next party.  This particular restaurant opens its doors for super at 7:00 PM and is open until around 11 PM.  We skipped the antipasti tonight.  For my first course I had the asparagus rissoto and then I got away from beef and had a pork chop.  They served it with a piece of lemon.  I never thought to squeeze juice on a pork chop.  It was very good.

Today they filled most of the Piazza Santa Croce, outside our window, with about a foot of sand.  Big dump trucks and a loader worked on it all morning.  Apparently, on Feb. 17 a big traditional, very violent form of football with be played here.  Sadly, we will be on a tour outside of the city that day.