"Chin Chin" and Elvis baby...

Sunday!

We got hit hard with the jetlag last night and neither of us could get to sleep.  We tried at 2am...then again at 4am to fall asleep and then finally after talking about everything under the sun like we were new college roommates, we fell asleep at 6am. 

Consequently we missed 10am mass (oops).  We did however wake in time to eat pizza and hop on the bus downtown for 6pm mass at Saint Mary Maggiore.  On the bus ride there we stared in awe at all the plazas and squealed with glee at the fact we knew where we were in this big city from all our exploraton the day before.  And in St. Peters Square, Teena leaned over the bus to take a picture and there was a group dressed in...vibrant clothes including a man dressed as Elvis (with Queens makeup I think) shoutly,   hey...Elvis baby!  Very comical.

We headed off the bus and walked the .5 mile or so to the cathedral.  An incredibly stunning piece of architecture and art.  We sat through mass sandwiched on all sides by little old women.  The kind you see making pasta in the kitchen and beating rugs over balconies 3 stories up from a busy street in EVERY italian movie.  The kind who say things like...ai ai ai and ciao bellisima with their wrinkled hands in the air or on your face sweetly and you want to pick them up from their stooped over position and take them home with you.  I was especially touched when the four elderly women in front of us turned to share the peace with us like we were their friends since 1915 from the villa next door.  We could have done without the person in the back whose phone kept going off though...probably an american ;)!

The music and chanting were beautiful and right when the silence for prayer started, the rain outside started as well.  The soothing sound of rain through the windows near the incredibly ornante ceiling made us feel a bit homesick but was a very special moment.

After which we had another very special moment of fancy coffee and our first desserts of the trip.  I had limone and mango gelato (mouth just starting watering again) and Teena had a pastry/cookie sort of thingy with all kinds of yummy goodness in and outside of it.

We strolled up and down the bustling streets at 9pm, even ventured into the train terminal for a peek and then just like any confident woman in new york, we hailed a taxi on a back alley and said....Hotel Amalia, 66 Via Germanico per favore.  And he understood us which was fantastico.

The evening ended with hand picked chianti and a trip to a plaza where we quite literally sat on the edge of a famous fountain...drinking wine out of plastic cups until 1am...and learning that you say "chin chin" when you toast cheers with plastic cups...why you ask (cause we did) because its the sound the glass would make.  Then to get a road stand hamburger from a man from bangladesh with quite possibly the best teeth on the planet.  And after we told him that, he would not stop showing them to us.  Teena and I are going to eat hamburgers on ciabatta bread with olives and artichokes from now on.

Chin Chin all, we love you!

Jenn and Teena