If the Pope could be a woman, there would be no difference between the Pope and the Potato.

I woke up at 0730 for breakfast. My host made me 2 eggs sunny side up, with toast, and this weird looking melon that tasted so amazing. After that I took a fat nap. And woke up to another new roommate snoring. I'll tell you about them later.

At 1100, I took off for the Vatican. I bartered for a shell necklace on the way there and got it from 8€ to 5€. Then, I stopped at il Mercado en el Campo dei Fiori. It's a plaza with little shops where people who all happen to be Indian try to sell you Italian things like leather purses, jewelry, food, and limoncello. I accidentally had alcohol today because I didn't know what limoncello was and I swear I saw a 12 year old drink it, but it's rum. I tried lemon, watermelon, raspberry, chocolate, and hazelnut. If I were an alcoholic, limoncello would probably be my poison of choice. I stifled the taste with a peach afterwards and it tasted like heaven.

However, if I could die by any food, it would be gelato. I found my favorite place. It's called Blue Ice, and there's is probably the cheapest at 2,50€ for two flavors in a small cone. I figured out that frutta di bosco means wild berry. My deductive reasoning made me realize bosco sounds like bosque which is forest in Spanish, and fruit of the forest.. yeah that was the ah-ha moment of today.

Once I actually made it to the Vatican, I hopped in one of the walking tours for a hot second as they explained the window the Pope appears out of every Sunday to bless the city, then I left to go inside the Basilica di San Pettier. People get super creative out in the Vatican to cover up immodest clothes. Suddenly they'll do anything to get into a church. It's pretty astonishing though, for anyone who enjoys art history, Italy is incredible. Kind of disappointing that the whole Vatican is basically a theatrical church. They only reserve a small section of the basilica for an actual service. The guards also look like jesters which was pretty ridiculous.

After I mailed some post cards with the Pope's face on them, I took a perimeter walk of the Vatican. I was looking for the Sistine Chapel, then I found out from some guy in a van that the only entrance was through the museum. And I realized that just because it was on my bucket list when I was 13 doesn't mean it still is, so I decided not to go. After the walk, I headed back to Rome.

For dinner, I had the best spaghetti di carbonara at a restaurant called Strepitoso. It sounds like a virus but it tasted amazing. I love sitting outside the restaurant with my chair facing the street so I can people watch and enjoy my meal at the same time. Gotta love Europe. Of course, I had another gelato before heading home. Along the way I passed the Plaza and Trevi again. I swear people cross the street with their eyes closed here because there's no one someone could look at the gap of air and confidently tell their family of 7 "attreversiamo!" I just wanted to use that word. But crossing the street is crazy and so is the bathroom line at McDonalds.

When I arrived back at the apartment, i met one of my airbnb mates struggling with the door. None of our keys work so we just hope that someone who has working keys arrives or leaves the building at the same time as us. Javier is from the DR which is so cool cuz I've been there 3 times now and I still dislike it. Miguel is from Brazil and I've always wanted to go. Javier is a student like me, but studying industrial engineering. Miguel is a 40 year old dude just traveling the world. And there's also a Chinese girl who doesn't say much and only speaks a little Italian. Our host came in when we were sitting in the room and talking, and even though we all don't super know what she was saying, we all were laughing as she made fun of Javier's super loud snoring in the afternoon. But there's a funny thing about Javier and Miguel. Before I left, Connor joked that I would meet the love of my life while traveling around Europe and he said their names would be something like Javier or Miguel, and I told him he's racist. Yet here we are. The first guys I meet have those names. The world is a very funny place.

Solo travel

Pros: can eat gelato twice a day without the slightest bit of judgement, enjoying quiet meals to myself, stopping to look around at random things with no consciousness of others' time, probably one of the few people in the world to say they circumnavigated a country (Vatican city) by themselves

Cons: can't order 2 pastas or 4 gelato flavors and try a little of all of it, I have to rely on my own knowledge all the time

Grateful for: authentic Italian food, free water, my bartering skills, kind people, trying to communicate in a room full of people who don't speak the same language

Whenever all the hagglers try to sell you overprice water but your host already gotchu.

Question: does anyone actually buy these?

Roman advertising game strong

i learned that carbonara is a sauce