December in Rome

Last Thursday was "Immaculate Conception" day for Catholics and therefore, was a national holiday in Italy. I had another "ponte" or "bridge-weekend" and had Thursday and Friday off.  These random holidays are really starting to grow on me, not that they hadn't already!

Anna and I decided to be somewhat productive and go on an adventure Thursday.  We took the metro to Ottaviano and go to Castroni, an International grocery store that I have been encouraged to go to by many people. I was a little under-impressed. Yes, they did have ketchup, mayonnaise, cake and brownie mix, syrup, pancake mix and a few other "American" things, but I guess I was expecting it to be 1. bigger and 2. more options. They had a whole section for pasta and sauces... I can get that in any grocery store!! We were still glad that we went and checked it out though.



It just so happened that there was a Subway restaurant around the corner from the grocery store, so of course we had to go there too on our "American adventure day." It was a delicious piece of home.  Italian food is wonderful and I rarely miss things from the states, but a good Subway sandwich tasted fantastic!

There was a large Christmas fair going on in the street we were at, so we walked up and down looking at trinkets in the many stands and bopping in and out of the stores. This area of town was near to where we stayed as a family when we visited Rome last May.  I always get excited when I find places that I went to last year.

We soon realized that we were very close to St. Peter's and after a short, 10-minute walk, there we were, in front of the Vatican on a random Thursday afternoon. Sometimes we take for granted living in the Eternal City  and forget how lucky we are that we can be in any part of Rome and run into random ruins or the colosseum or on this particular day, St. Peter's. La dolce vita, indeed!