Back to the churches...

Today I happened upon a veritable oasis in the center of dirty, polluted Rome! Well, not so much happened upon as systematically sought out a route to... but anyway, the weather was steadily promising enough to allow me a long stroll through the Villa Borghese, what I described earlier as the "Central Park of Rome". I'm not sure I'd make the same comparison now that I've been there, other than it's relative size and status as a large park in the middle of a bustling metropolis. The Villa Borghese seems more natural; a lot of it made me feel like I was in a natural oasis of a forest, not a manmade greenery. It had its extremely well-landscaped bits too though, which were equally impressive.

Everyone was laying out in the beautiful weather on blankets, having picnics, reading, sleeping... so in that way, parts of it really were like the Green in Central Park! They also rent bicycles by the hour so you can bike through the park. And go-carts! And tandem bikes! And 6-person motor-powered bikes! And I've heard they also rent segues! I didn't see any today though. What I was most surprised about were the persimmon trees that were growing on one side of the park. They grew right next to a high stone wall, so people standing on the hill above the wall were picking the persimmons and eating them! I didn't try it.

After walking around and getting what seemed to be hopelessly lost in the park, I came out of it near the Spanish Steps! Which isn't close. So the park is really big, needless to say. I hadn't been in that touristy of an area on a Sunday afternoon up until now. I'm not really sure how I avoided it this long, but I wish I hadn't stopped when I saw this mob of people on the streets below!

I pushed through the ground, however, and found a new church, and thus a church ceiling to add to my collection. This one is called San Lorenzo in Lucina. I should probably start doing more research on each church I take pictures of, but I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of the Catholic churches in Rome have similar histories. Besides, I'm only using them for their ceilings! Wham, flash, thank you ma'am! 

My roommate Carolyn got home this evening around six. I wasn't expecting her until later, so she scared the crap out of me! But after a weekend without a whole lot of human interaction, I greeted her in an eager manner (possibly over-eager): "CAROLYN, HI!"

While I was cooking dinner, I pulled a rookie move and put the pan and the oil on the heat too early, so by the time I was finally ready to add my onions to caramelize for the sauce, the oil was past its smoking point and spat angrily at my wrist. Blisters galore. Ouch. I guess I got what was coming to me...you would think that years of cooking would teach you timing skills, if nothing else.