Grayson and Jason

Saturday was a delightful day. Grayson and I met up at 11 to wander around Rome since Jason was with his family. We walked around trastevere for a bit then went into the historical center. After some trotting we stopped for lunch and ate way too much bread, caprese salad, gnocci and pasta. but it was deliciously worth it.
Next stop was the first gelato of the day (after walking off lunch for a bit).

After gelato we decided to sit for a bit and think of some goal for the day. Grayson said that the only really famous Romam attraction that he hadn't seen was the Spanish Steps. So it was decided - The only issue was that neither of us really knew where they were. So, out with the trusty map. It actually to me ten minutes of searching - apparently Spanish Steps is a colloquial term and not on the map as a monument. I decided that 'Piazza d'Espagna' was a likely location so we headed in that direction (or kind of in that direction. My map skills are slightly sub-par) Once we were headed in the correct direction we could see some stairs at the end of the street we were on (which was the super ritzy shopping street, window shopping was lovely)

At the end of the street we came upon a giant set of stairs, though still not entirely convinced they were the 'Spanish Steps'. We walked up them and nearly passed out from the effort in the 40 degree weather so we stopped in to the church at the top and sat down for a breather. The breather turned into a half hour just sitting enjoying the pretty church interior. On the trek down the stairs we decided that giant steps plus piazza d'espagna probably equals the

Spanish Steps even if the sign on the steps didn't say so, We checked it off the list of things to see. (I later checked and we were right, obviously)
After we had finished with the steps we decided it was time for gelato again. We had walked into a place which had candy in the window earlier in the day only to discover a gelataria which had 100 flavors. 100. seriously.

When we turned in the direction of Gelato (right by the Pantheon) we discovered that we had been in the far end of the piazza right next to the Spanish Steps several hours before without even realizing it ( we saw the column at the end and mentioned how you become so used to seeing awesome monuments in Rome you hardly even notice some of them.

So, 100 flavors of Gelato. First decision and easiest was what size to get. 4 euro cup, 4 flavors. delightful. Then deciding the flavors. Not so simple. After some browsing we decided that Grayson would get 4 chocolately flavors and I'd get 4 fruity ones and we would share. So we ended up with; pink grapefruit, lemon, raspbery, mandarin, black forest cake, kinder bueno, bounty bar, and something with a weird name but which looked yummo.

Sugar overload. but sweet sweet lord it was delicious.

After gelato we went back to my appartment to check emails and the like. Kathryn my friend from home and her friend Katie are in town for the week and I made plans to meet them and had to check faebook for their confirmation. Kathryn very nicely invited Grayson to come over too so we made the trek over to the colosseum for supper. We sat and ate delicious pasta and wine and chatted - it was so nice to be with newfoundlanders again, Grayson was baffled by our slang - even more hilarious thant the way we say 'bar' .

The night finished with Jason and Grayson at the bar "The Drunken Ship" which is basically a little piece of North America in Italy. it's always full of american tourists/students and it's pretty infamous but its reputation is orse than the place actually is. We had a few drinks and talked to random strangers (we found another student archaeologist girl!), pretty normal time.