Day 3 - Running in Ruins, Shopping & Dining Underground

Molly, Lynn & Beth

Jacob: This morning we got to sleep in. We all ate croissants for breakfast from the bakery across the street. Then we all went over to a park across the street and Ben and I played soccer and ran around. Charlotte tried to kick the ball too. Charlotte collected rocks and my mom was running. She gave one to my mom and said it was her running race rock. (Molly: Lynn, Mitch & I had the coolest run ever this morning! We ran amongst ancient Roman ruins, including the ruins of Ludus Magnus, the ancient Gladiator training school. This is an incredible neighborhood!)

Jacob: We all walked around and explored the neighborhood. We went to a shop and bought homeade pasta...we got fettucini and tortellini. (Molly: the shop keeper didn't speak English, so I asked if he spoke French and he did, so we were saved and we were able to buy what we wanted.) My mom asked him how to say our names in Italian and he said Jacob is Jacamo and Charlotte is Carlotta. Charlotte was begging for a tin of candy, when we bought it we all tasted one and realized it was black licorice, so we spit it out.
We came home and ate toasted bread with olive oil, buffalo mozzarella cheese, and little tiny orange tomatoes cut up on it, and basil. Then Ben and I played computer games for a while. My mom and Aunt Lynn gave us valentines and chocolates.Our apartment has a big square courtyard, and in the middle of it is a pond with fish. Charlotte brought down breadcrumbs and we all fed the fish. We wanted to take a bus to a place we saw yesterday that sold soccer jerseys. The bus took us to the wrong place and we had to walk for miles. Finally we got to Campo di Fiori and I got two jerseys - Totti and Ronaldinho. We went to a toy store and bought Charlotte a pinocchio, and Aunt Beth got her a doll (she named it Bella). We got some other gifts too.
We went to dinner at Casa Grotto, and we sat in a room that looked like it was underground. We ate tons of pasta - fettucini, spaghetti, tortellini, linguine, we were so full and then they brought us a whole bunch more food - chicken, potatoes, and lamb chops. Charlotte slept in her stroller the whole time, and right after the waiter took away all the plates and food she woke up and said "I want some food. Are we in Italy? I want pasta, and chocolate." Then my mom told her we already had dinner and she said "Then I want gelato!"
We took another bus and then a train. Then we walked for a long way. We were all joking, and laughing, and running around even though it was 11:00 at night. Now we're home and we're eating stinky cheese and bread. Charlotte is chasing Mitch and Ben and trying to make them eat stinky cheese. I can't wait for tomorrow because we're going inside the Colliseum!