We have discovered the reason behind all the children in dress up clothes and the confetti that keeps appearing at the playground. Carnevale. Apparently this is what you do in Rome on Fat Tuesday. You dress up like it’s Halloween and you throw confetti at each other and spray each other with silly string. It’s certainly an interesting take on the festivities. And it seems to be primarily for the preschool age population. Although tonight when we were walking around after dinner we saw plenty of older kids dressed up too.
At the playground this afternoon I had a conversation with a very young girl wearing a princess costume. She had asked the C-man what his name was and I understood her (yay me), so I told him to answer her. We chatted a bit. I told her we are American and don’t’ speak Italian very well, to which she replied, “I speak Italian”. Well, I knew that.
Her mom asked if we lived here and I said yes because that is the easy answer and then the little girl, who now that I think of it, never did tell us her name asked why Princess O and the C-man weren’t in school. She asked this through her mother, who also asked in Italian, but more slowly. I told them that in English it’s called home school, and then said scuole en la casa. I’m not sure they knew what that meant though. I don’t think home schooling is a big thing here. Then the little girl spent the next 15 minutes chasing the C-man around and throwing confetti at him. He really wanted her to stop after the first couple handfuls but she wouldn’t so we left and got ice cream instead.
A came over to baby-sit tonight so we went to the restaurant across from Fior de Luna with the big melted candles outside. The one with the sign that says we are against war and the tourist menu. I know the place has a name, but I can’t remember what it is. It’s just the place with the big melted candles out front.
As dinner was winding down I realized that I did not have a credit card with me to pay for it. Oops. We counted all our money and figured we didn’t quite have enough to cover dinner. So Tom very bravely slipped out of the restaurant and hurried home to get some plastic. Fortunately, we weren’t far from home. I meanwhile very bravely sat in the restaurant and slowly finished my glass of water and the last slice of bread in the basket. I had a cover story all planned. If anybody asked I was going to say Tom had received a phone call and was talking outside. I have noticed that even though everyone here has a cell phone and seems to talk on them all the time outside, they never use them in restaurants.
Tom got back, no problem, and then we finally asked for the check. About 10 minutes later they actually brought the check and it turned out we had enough cash after all. Stupidheads. We were lucky we were here, where they are very unconcerned with how long you sit at a table and never, ever bring the check until you ask for it. At any restaurant at home that would have been a real disaster.
And then as we were walking home we saw a Ferrari Enzo parked on the street. Double parked in fact, in front of about three motorcycles and a Smart Car. It was dark blue. I’ve never seen a blue Ferrari before. They are usually red or sometimes that really awful taxi yellow. It was a beautiful car. I wanted to take a picture but Tom said that would be unseemly. So we just walked around it gazing at it in quiet awe, and trying really hard not to touch it because I’m sure it had about 1000 burglar alarms on it. You don’t see many Ferrari Enzos around. Usually their owners get into high speed wrecks and total them. Anyway, we are pretty sure it was an Enzo. Ferrari doesn’t put little nameplates on their car like Toyota or Volkswagon. Too bad really.
Posted by goitaly 
