Ash Wednesday is fast approaching so today in Rome, it was Carnival (Mardi Gras)! They had parades (which we missed), music and festivities in all the large open squares (which we hit) and little children dressed up in costumes just like American kids do for Halloween (which we couldn't miss.) It was the cutest thing. The difference from Halloween though was that the kids just walk around the streets throwing confetti at each other, there isn't really any candy involved in the day. But everyone was out celebrating, that was for sure. In fact, it got a little nerve racking around sunset when the hoards of teenagers were hanging out in huge crowds making lots of noise. But the police were out in force too, so hopefully nothing got out of hand. I think the biggest employer in this town must be the police as there are thousands of them all over the place. In Norway I think I've seen one police vehicle in six months. But here, there are at least three police cars that pass by for every block we walk, and more officers standing on street corners just watching people. It would almost feel safe if every store front didn't have big garage door like things over all the doors and windows that they pull down when they are closed for business. Crime must be something here to have things shut up so tightly. But we haven't had any bad experiences, so that's good. Even today when we went to the big Sunday morning flea market, which is known for it's pick pockets, nothing happened. Kaleb thought it would be funny to put a small pack of kleenex in my back pocket, like it was a wallet or camera or something, and just see if I still had it by day's end. I did. But he kept stealing one pack of kleenex I had in my coat pocket, presumably to perfect his own pick-pocketing skills, or just to get a reaction out of me. I'm not sure which.
We were up at the crack of dawn today and took a bus to the seedy part of town to go to this flea market that has to beat all other flea markets in the world. It went on for miles and we barely made it through half of it in three hours and then we were exhausted. I bought a lot of treasures, however, so I was glad for that. Some nice scarfs, a leather wallet, crystal from old chandeliers, prints of old art sketches of Rome, some nice old serving utensils and an extra piece of luggage, just in case. Kory found lots of things he would have loved to buy but getting them home posed too big of a problem so he came out empty handed.
We tried to take a tram back to the center of town but got tired of waiting for the one with the right number, so we decided to go on an explore and just take the next one that came along and see where it took us. As it turned out, it was a good thing we were so adventuous because the tram's last stop wasn't far from the Pantheon, which we intended to see anyway - an incredible structure built over 2000 years ago (see photo of Kaleb running around inside it). We then went on a long walk north and ended up in a huge square just at the edge of the old city walls by a park. We watched people for quite a while as the kids were in costumes for Carnival, music was playing and people were just out for a stroll on yet another incredibly gorgeous day here in Rome.
We took the subway back to our hotel and rested for about an hour just so we didn't wear ourselves out too much, then took off again, heading back to the Spanish Steps to see what was going on there for Carnival. Massive amounts of people, that's what was there, so we sat on the steps and just watched the crowd. Kaleb chased bubbles created by a guy trying to sell automatic bubble making machines and Kory and I rested our feet. We went to dinner afterwards and had a leisurly stroll back to the hotel.
I have been desperate to post my blog for days and finally found an internet place that worked (others I found were horrible). I certainly didn't expect to have the kinds of troubles I've had with the hotel's network, or the other internet sites, but finally tonight I found a place that will do. I couldn't use their wireless network so I had to bring the laptop and re-type my blogs straight on to the web, not able to copy and paste like I usually do. It was a challenge with an Italian keyboard. I'm almost used to the Norwegian keyboard by now, but the Italian one threw me for a loop. It took over two hours to just post three days worth of blogs and I was happy I could post photos too. Ugh. Such committment I feel to keep people posted on how we are doing. Sometimes I feel like our life is a slow motion reality TV show - without the ratings.
