Monday

So sorry I fell behind! Starting with today (Monday) I have been out for very very long days, wandering around and exploring the last corners of this incredible city. Today I woke up and went running. I ran to Santa Maria Maggiore, looked around there, and then ran to St. Paul's Outside the Walls. St. Paul's was great. Very huge and beautiful but very out of the way. It's far away from most of the sites so there are not a whole lot of visitors. It actually feels like going into a church! I read, meditated, and almost fell asleep and ended up staying there for about an hour. I also bought something I should have bought a long time ago: a map.

I headed back along the river, down a somewhat sketchy major road, and went to Santa Maria in Trastevere. I was going to go to Il Duca for lunch but it was closed! I was walking by this time, running, resting, and running again makes me very tired. Anyway, I crossed the river and found a buffet by Largo Argentina whilst looking for a kebab shop. The buffet was good: for 10 euro, you got water, a pasta plate, and the buffet which had ROSEMARY CHICKEN, some potatoes, some tomatoes, and eggplant and veggies fried with parmesan cheese. So delicious. I got pasta with cheese and tomato sauce and two smallish plates at the buffet and then walked back. On my way back I stopped and got my favorite dessert and ate half of it. I wandered some back streets and eventually got on Via Nationale and then the straight shot back home. I went to the grocery store first because I REALLY wanted watermelon.

For dinner, we had pasta with meat sauce and Jessica made some delicious almond cookies. I also had a huge chunk of watermelon. I ate and watched some soccer and for some horrible reason I ended up staying awake until 2:30 working on my puzzle.

It was a very good, although exhausting day.