NOTE TO READERS

NOTE TO READERS: The Rome 2014 trip begins with post #30. Posts #10—29 were Rome 2013. Posts 1–9 were Florence 2011. If you'd like to be notified of new postings by email, let me know at gulliver.initiative@gmail.com

Sunday, December 23, 2012

#7: Happy Thanksgiving from Italia

                                                                                                                Thanksgiving 2011


Well, I'm all set: fare il mio compiti a casa...to do my homework. Thanksgiving is almost over here. But some of you are just finishing your morning coffee. This is my toast to all you, friends and family. 

Buon Ringraziando

I just returned from the Galileo Museum. The place was filled with all sorts of early instruments for measuring every type of natural phenomenon from the movement of the planets to changes in barometric pressure to the flow of electric and magnetic currents, things we all took for granted in eighth-grade science. Plus, there was a short video showing how they made all those old globes with correct longitude and latitude. Molto interestante.

On my walk home, Venus was shining over the statue of Dante in the Piazza di Santa Croce. And I thought the best part of the museum was that Galileo's right middle finger was encased in glass in one of the exhibits. It's pointed right up to the heavens. Right on, dude, the earth does revolve around the sun!

You want something to be thankful for? Did you know that in Italian supermarkets, you have to pay 1 euro ($1.50) for the use of a shopping cart?

And if you have a bathtub for a nice long soak instead of a shower stall the size of a cardboard delivery box for a refrigerator, give thanks, molto thanks. 

But hey, I've figured out how to shop and I'm clean. So I shouldn't complain. But I tell you, I would love to have...I crave...a piece of...I can hardly write the word without rushing out to buy...a piece of bread. BREAD. But tonight...great pasta senza glutine...and a toast to all of you...or youns as we say in Pittsburgh (Peetsboorg). 

In the absence of bread, I have turned to arachidi (ah-rah-KEE-dee). And before my sister Mary goes into a state of nervous prostration, this is not Italian spiders but peanuts. 

Meanwhile, (stay tuned for the story of il mio ginocchio (not to be confused with Pinocchio) and the German doctor and his molto uptight vife, and why I decided not to go to Venice. Or maybe I will, but probably not because I don't want to miss the farewell dinner for my Australian and Japanese classmates. 

Life is good. Mainly because of all of you. Ciao, and enjoy your tacchini.

Hey, Ross, notice on the above picture: la mia nuova borsa arancione on the sofa. 13.5 euro. A steal, if you ask me. And the shopkeeper didn't chase me down the street!








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