Answering your questions

Many Holy Cross students sent us questions to answer. Here goes:

We don't know what the National Anthem of Italy is - at least we haven't heard it yet. Maybe we will if we go to a soccer game.

The food here is very good. We are eating a lot of pasta and pizza. I have had cheese, mushroom, prociutto(ham), and pepperoni (which is really strips of peppers, not what we have at home). My mom had squash on pizza one time (which I tasted and I didn't die!) We are eating a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables.

It took us about 24 hours to get here. See Paul's earlier blog entry for details.

How do we buy stuff? Either with Mom's credit card, or with euros! It's just like buying things at home, but they are speaking Italian. Luckily, we know our numbers in Italian, so that helps us know how much something costs when they tell us. One thing that is different is that they always want exact change and they don't want to take big bills like the ones we get at the ATM.

What do I like the most? I really liked going to the Colosseum and the Forum yesterday. Paul is writing an entry on that. It was interesting to see how the Romans lived in ancient times.

Gelato - yum! We got gelato on the third day, even though Mom and Dad promised it on the first day. Not fair! I have had strawberry, chocolate, mint, banana, lemon, nut, coffee, peach and pear. Not all of these were mine! I tasted some of these from my family members. So far, my favorite is chocolate.

Churches - they are everywhere! The closest one to us is Santa Maria in Trastevere. Yesterday, we went in San Pietro in Montorio. See a future blog entry about the Tempietto.

The peanut butter is delicious. It tastes like the natural peanut butter from home. I wish there was a peanut butter flavored gelato! Yum!

We have not been pick-pocketed thankfully. There are a lot of people on the streets asking for money though. Here is a photo of a street performer. He has painted himself completely to match the trashcan he is leaning against. He sat as still as a statue and then would move suddenly. We have also seen other street performers like this in Piazza Navona. One was all in white and was dressed like the Statue of Liberty. People would give him coins to have their picture taken with him.

The numbers in Italian: uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque, sei, sette, otto, nove, dieci. We have been playing "Go Fish" in Italian. You have to say, "Pesca!"

That is all for now!

Ciao ragazzi! -Elizabeth