Baby Moon???

Until I started reading about babies, I had never heard of the concept of the Baby Moon, which is a luxury pre-birth vacation to relax and prepare for the arrival of a new baby. Little did I know our trip to Italy would be preparing me for being a mom, but in a different way. I've done more laundry in the last two weeks than I have done on all of my vacations in my life combined or in a typical month at home. We have all been joking about the heat index and refering to the days with clothing references. The men refer to the days as a 3 or 4 shirt day and the women refer to the days as a 3 or 4 panty day. Did I mention it's hot here?! These are photos from the high tech laundry room I have access to in Rome.

Santo Bambino

There are thousands of churches in Rome and at Santa Maria of Aracoeli you can see the little baby saint. You can read more about the Bambino here.

No, No, No...

When you do something wrong in Rome a person will likely shake their finger at you and say "no, no, no." Since we are in the market for a new vehicle Jason asked if plan on driving a mini van anytime soon and I said "no, no, no."

I find that so many things in this town are small, but the cars are definitely small! In fact, I'm pretty sure we have dinner platters at home that are larger than the wheels on some cars here. I've been inspired to create a photo collage of the cars of Italy. I will post that when I'm back home since I have limited capabilities from the road. Here are a few of my favorite car photos so far.

Toilette?

A pregnant lady always has to go to the bathroom and I'm no exception. It took me a minute to figure it out, but this is the button to flush the toilet. You decide how much water you need to flush down what you put in the toilet. Clever huh?! A few other things to note... most places, other than a hotel/restaurant, will charge you to use the bathroom. The going rate is about 75 cents to $1 USD. If you find a free bathroom you can expect that you will need to have your own toilet paper or good luck with the drip dry. I haven't hit every bathroom in town but I'm told some of the older places, like the Colosseum-- which wasn't originally built with bathrooms, make a port-a-potty after a concert look like a better option.

A Day in Rome

This morning I went to Jason's class with the other program associates (spouses, siblings, partners etc.) It was a short day, we spent the morning at the Trevi Fountain (I love fountains!!!) only to find out it was being cleaned, so we ended up going back again on our way back to our room. We learned from the lecture that the fountain collects about 3000 Euros/day ($4500 USD/day).

We also chilled out a bit enjoying a couple scoops of gelato (30 Euro / $42 USD). We have found gelato and food in general to be expensive.

The custom in Italy/Europe is that no tipping is required. HOWEVER, there are service fees for dining. The service fees for sitting in a clean, air conditioned geletaria during non-peak hours today was about $12. In addition to the gelato we each ordered a bottle of water.

And I have to admit that I had a taste for American food so we ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. I think I can count on my hand how many times I've eaten at a HRC in my life but it was obvious I wasn't the only person tired of Italian food because while we were there we ended up seeing just about everyone else in Jason's class.

There was also a celbrity sighting today. I ran into Michael Bolton at the Cartier store. He's performing in concert here this week. I asked Jason to take my photo in front of Cartier but he refused.

For the cat lovers here is one more photo from today.

Bella - The Amalfi Coast

We spent the weekend at the Amalfi coast. This place is beautiful (bella) and very enjoyable. We stayed in a nice hotel and enjoyed lounging pool side all day. My goal was to keep my feet in the cool water to help deflate them this afternoon. It helped but I still didn't recognize my feet. Also, Jason and I agree the food in this part of Italy is much better than that of Rome. We had some great meals here.

You can also see more photos from our trip to Italy at WeAreInItaly.blogspot.com

Dolorosa!!!

Dolorosa is the word for painful in Italian. Can you see why I'd use that word for today's blog?! I took a photo of these things; they look nothing like my feet but they are attached to my legs so I have to believe they really are my feet-- as gross as they are! I also hate to admit this isn't the worst I've seen them.

I guess walking hundreds of stairs daily in addition to walking up many hills and for several miles each day while pregnant in the heat doesn't agree with me. My feet have deflated a bit but I hope they will get back to normal when I'm home in Chicago. Luckily I was smart enough to bring many shoes with adjustable straps for walking. One week down, two weeks to go... I can only imagine what they'll look like after two more weeks of this journey.