More Church Ceilings...

Hello again. Today I spent most of the afternoon wandering around. For a class project, we had to choose a piazza and sit and observe it for a while, so I chose Piazza Della Rotonda (in front of the Pantheon) and hung out there for a bit today. I was afraid I'd be the only stupid-looking idiot with a camera, but as it turns out, the numbers were in my favor. There were lots of people that looked like this, with headphones, lanyards, and fanny-packs:

So the Piazza itself was ridiculously touristy. I was looking around and saw a beautiful, charming, salmon-colored stucco apartment building, and went to take a picture until I figured out that it was a McDonalds...

It was hot this afternoon, which was surprising because the morning and early afternoon were cool, and I was wishing I had brought a jacket when the sun popped out! So then it got hot and I thought about taking a dip in the fountain in the middle of the piazza, that is, until I saw this sign:

I also found the most amazing stores! One in particular was a stationary store (una cartoleria) with the most incredible leather journals and books, pens, stationary, leather bags, everything I could ever dream of and more!

And of course, there were churchs. I will spare you eight ceiling pictures and only put up this one, the most impressive of the lot. And I didn't get kicked out this time, thank you very much.

Okay, I kind of lied. Here's another picture of a ceiling, but it's in the same church, so it's technically the same ceiling. They painted the ceiling to look like there is a dome at a certain point - a ceiling painted ON a ceiling! How clever is that?! It certainly fooled me.

In other news, it seems like Christina and I will be moving within a couple of days! I can't wait to get my hands on a kitchen of my own here. Everywhere I go there seem to be amazing specialty food stores and for me, at the moment, it's like shoving sweets into a Catholic's face during lent and telling them they can't eat them because Jesus says no. In my case, it's like shoving gourmet food in my face while I'm in limbo and telling me I can't cook with them because Fiorella says no. I took a picture of this window which, from  afar, looked like a candy shop! But it's meat! Even better...

AND I found this restaurant that my beloved advisor Stacy Pies told me about: no written menu, only the chef's suggestions based on their fresh ingredients that day. Dad, when you get here, we are definitely going to hit this place up. Ristorante Lagana!

Overall, a lovely afternoon in Rome, discovering charm amongst the tourist traps, and then taking pictures of all that charm so as to render it all the more touristy...