June 24th: Best Activity of the Trip

Today, we actually woke up at 4:30am (45 minutes before the sunrise) to see an extremely rare astronomical event—watching Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn align above us in a perfect diagonal with the cresent mood in the earth’s place. It was surprising how bright the stars were in Rome–so beautiful! After heading back to bed for a couple more hours of sleep, we woke back up around 8am to get ready for our Rome food bike tour!

Luca’ Food Bike Tour of Rome

We hopped on the train and headed over to meet up with our new friend and tour guide for the day, Luca. Once we arrived at Luca’s Bike shop, we met the lovely family of four who were joining us on the tour of Rome. They were an American family that lives in Switzerland and brought a lot of comedy and joy to our day. We’ve realized that one of the best aspects of these little day activities is meeting other travelers and eating home cooked meals together. In some ways, we’ve also learned about what we wish to continue doing that we see some Americans lacking at. Namely, the three of us have been diligently attempting to learn as much of each country’s language as possible—which after five different languages has become quite confusing… “Grazie’,” I mean, “obrigada,” I mean “merci”…

We started the bike tour at Armando’s coffeeshop, which was a tradition Testaccio coffeeshop where we had a classic Italian breakfast of cappuccinos and cornettos. Next we biked over to the ancient Trastevere district, then to the jewish district, and stopped at L’antico forno (a delicious pizza and bread shop) where we had the most delicious Roman pizza—essentially bread and tomato sauce. IT WAS SO GOOD.

Afterwards, we biked over to Campo de Fiori at Navona Square to hear all the church bells go off at noon. Continuing on our bike tour we stopped the piazza Venezia and, of course, at the Colosseum. After biking around the city of Rome, Luca welcomed us into his kitchen studio where he served us wine, Italian tapas, and the most delicious tomato sauce and spaghetti dish of all time (my favorite pasta dish of the trip). He also gave us shots of limoncello and grapa which made the 10 minute bike back to the bike shop...very funny.

“ Without a plan, we figured out public transportation from the town of Anguilla to the lake on the hour long train there. A 15 minute bus ride complete, we were dropped off at the quaintest town next to the most gorgeous blue lake. "

Surprise Day Trip

After an awesome day exploring Rome, we wanted to cool off with a swim! We thanked Luca and walked to the train station in search of a train that would take us to a body of water. Luckily, a train that had a stop near Lake Bracciano (Lago di Bracciano) was coming in 20 minutes! Without a plan, we figured out public transportation from the town of Anguilla to the lake on the hour long train there. A 15 minute bus ride complete, we were dropped off at the quaintest town next to the most gorgeous blue lake. We jumped in, though careful to not upset the many swans and ducks that swam in the lake too. Viv and I were terrified of them, but Jill seemed to be at home. After a nice swim we dried off on the black volcanic sand, and it was here where we received news about Roe V. Wade being overturned back home. It sucked. Refreshed but depressed, we took the same bus and train to head back to Roma.

When we got off the train, the three of us stopped at the super market for dinner ingredients. We showered off the long day, and Jill made us the most delicious pasta dish. We ate on the balcony and talked through our feelings regarding Roe V. Wade, and just about the future. More than anger and sadness, we felt a restlessness because we couldn’t do anything to fight back. It had been an awesome day in Rome, but our minds were in U.S.

Big hugs and a goodnight, we all felt similarly–lucky to have each other and to have our rights, ready to fight long and hard to get them back for all!