We have learned something today, something very important. And that something is:
You cannot have gelato on Monday.
Why? Because apparently all the gelati makers have Monday off. Sad, but true. Here is our tale of woe:
It did not rain today. It was actually sunny. So I called M to invite her down to our neighborhood so the kids could play on the playground. She accepted our invitation and came over in the middle of the afternoon. The kids had a great time playing and Friend 2 made the acquaintance of a young Italian boy. They played soccer together. Except, of course, here it is called football.
It was colder than it has been. The high today was about 52, so still much better than winter at home. All our American kids were running around in hooded sweatshirts. All the Italian kids were wearing parkas. Actual parkas. I am not even kidding. I guess to them this is cold. M and I were laughing, saying if it got up to 52 degrees at home in January we would probably all be wearing shorts and flip flops.
Anyway, after a good long run on the playground we came back to our apartment for snacks and a chance to warm up. M and I had coffee (delicious, delicious coffee full of milk and sugar). The kids ate a ton of fruit and cookies and proceeded to play a game of hide and seek. Tricky, since there is really nowhere to hide in this apartment. No closets, no good furniture to hide under, no good hidey-holes of any kind. Yet somehow they persevered for quite some time.
We took them out for pizza slices for dinner and promised them ice cream for dessert. Well, after a delicious meal at Pizza Roma we headed through the rabbit warren of streets in our neighborhood to our favorite gelateria Fior de Luna only to discover it was chiuso! Darn. We took M and the boys to the tram stop, and then headed over to Plan B, another gelateria we discovered a couple of nights ago. Also chiuso. So apparently you cannot have gelato on Monday. Poor C-man was really upset. He was hanging in there, trying to be brave, but he had the big sad face on, and I could tell there would be tears before bedtime.
And then, as we rounded the corner to our apartment: Salvation! The bar on the corner has a Good Humor freezer. Except they don’t call it Good Humor here, it has another name. But an ice cream by any other name is still as delicious, so we went for Plan C, cornetto cones from the bar. (That’s a Drumstick or a Champ Cone to you and me). The evening was saved.
It is supposed to rain again tomorrow and Wednesday. Keep your eyes open for the Ark.
Posted by goitaly 
