ROMA

It’s been a productive week.  We’ve both been a little bit under the weather, but it hasn’t stopped us from continuing our travels and other adventures.  The week started off with our first silks practice at the vertical dance studio in Mestre.  Yes, it’s the same space where Sadie had her Italian debut as a hoop performer, except this time we went during the day and had the whole place to ourselves.  

The practice itself went great.  Sadie is a natural at silks and even after taking some time off, she could still do all her tricks.  It’s amazing to watch her up there!  She’s taught me a few moves, but most of the time I still look like I’m a tangled up marionette doll.

We also starting piecing together some things for a little duet act that we’d like to perform at some other venues while we are here in Italy.  Between Sadie’s dance and aerial skills and my gymnastics, we think we can put something unique together. 

We head back tomorrow for round two...

Full Mast in Rome: Inspired by the video portion of our exhibit at the Biennale

The rest of the week was spent in Rome.  One of Sadie’s closest friends from NYC came out to visit with her boyfriend, so the four of us took the train to experience Bella Roma.  After living in Rome for a year I know the city pretty well and Sadie, only having been in Venice for five months now, has already taken three trips to Rome.  It’s always been one of my favorite cities, but Sadie has found a love for Rome too which makes going there even better.  

Outside of Colosseum

We toured the city as much as we could in the short amount of time we had together.  Rome is not the kind of city you can see in a few days.  If you can appreciate what Rome has to offer it can take much more than a few days to soak it all in.  There were a couple highlights from the trip though that are worth mentioning...

Sadie and Alexis outside of Colosseum

Me giving Adam terrible directions

While checking out the Colosseum, we were approached by two guys who spoke perfect English.  Ninety nine percent of the time, this would be kids working for a bar in town trying to round up young tourists for an night out of drunken stupidity.  To our amazement, these guys were working for National Geographic and wanted to interview us for a segment on a new show!  They were looking for perspective from a younger generation as to why it’s important to preserve historical monuments and art in a city such as Rome.  How the Romans and other Italians draw there national identity from this history and how it is different from growing up in the States.  We all did our best to sound intelligent for the half hour or so that we were interviewed and I think they actually got some useable stuff.  We don’t know the details of the show, but when we find out we’ll let you all know so you can tune in.

That night we headed to dinner at a restaurant that had been recommended to us by a friend who owns an Italian place in NYC.  Up to this point, our knowledge of great places to eat in Rome was very limited.  Limited to the point where, if you wanted an amazing meal in Rome, I could only point you in the direction of the houses of my three aunts or 346 cousins.  Other than that, I hadn’t found anything that truly stood out.  Le Mani in Pasta changed that.  We made reservations for 8:00pm and when we showed up we were the only people in the tiny place.  Our immediate reaction, was that we had been given a poor rec.  If this place was so good why was no one around??  

We sit down and without even opening a menu, we are each given a glass of prosecco to start out.  I like what I’m seeing so far...

From there, the waiter comes over and in a very blunt and lovable way that only a Roman can do, basically tells us what to order.  Who are we to argue!  Figs and prosciutto appetizer (quite possibly two of my favorite foods on the same plate...perfection).  Sadie is a vegaterian and hasn’t had the pleasure of enjoying the incredible flavors of prosciutto, but she knows of it’s otherworldly qualities because I insist on eating it at just about every meal that we have together.  

Plate of pasta w/ truffles!!

From there we got two pasta dishes.  Gnocchi with a radicchio and clam sauce and a tagliatelle with white truffles.  They were both incredible.  We tried to savor each bite, but those dishes stood no chance.  They were gone instantaneously.  One of the things I’m most proud of that Sadie has learned about Italian culture since she’s lived out here, is the practice of scarpetta.  It is the using of a piece of bread to mop up all the goodness that is left in your plate after having eaten your meal.  My proficiency of the scarpetta technique is at the Olympic level...impressive and disgusting at the same time.  When I’m done with my meal, the plates are generally placed right back in the cabinet needing no extra cleaning from the dishwasher.  Sadie has caught on quickly and is now in the running as my true equal in scarpetta-ing.  I really am a lucky guy!

Castel St. Angelo w/ Ponte St. Angelo

What week is complete without one of us making a fool out of ourselves in one way or another.  This week, it was my turn.  We had a few hours to ourselves one night and were taking in the sights and shops along Vid del Corso, the main drag of Rome.  Outside of the Nike shop, we saw a commotion so we headed over to see what was going on.  We quickly find out that, the one and only, Kobe Bryant, is at the store to help promote his possible move to an Italian team while the NBA is on strike.  

Crowd outside of Nike waiting for Kobe to come out

People are going crazy.  Thousands and thousands of fans packed outside the store waiting to get a glimpse.  It was hard to see over the sea of people so, I suggest that Sadie go on my shoulders to take some pics from a better angle.  She gets up and starts snapping away.  Unfortunately, he hasn’t emerged yet so I have Sadie come down.  As I lower her down, making every effort to make sure she gets safely to the ground, I feel my shorts give away and have no way to stop the inevitable.  Yes, that’s right, my shorts ripped almost in half.  The hundred or so people directly behind me all heard and saw it happen frame by frame.  Making things worse, was the fact that I was wearing a pair of colored striped underwear that I would have preferred the whole world not see.  Well they saw...all of them.  This was not the kind of tear that could be hidden.  They all just laughed and pointed at the gigantic split down my shorts basically saying, “Who cares about Kobe, did everyone see this guys shorts just rip in half?!!!”  Sadie is hysterically laughing on the ground at this point and also manages to snap a few pictures of my misery.  I stealthily ninjaed my way out of the crowd to my saving grace...a Levi’s jean store next to Nike.  Oddly enough, I had been in the market for a new pair of jeans so the timing couldn’t have been better.  After picking out a new pair of pants, we headed back out just in time to see Kobe pull away in his van.  Great timing...

Ridiculous rip!!

Besides the little pants episode, Rome was amazing as usual.  We are both still feeling a little sick, but that isn’t stopping us from traveling.  We head to Florence this week so stay tuned for the next adventure of Dave and Sadie...

Ponte Sisto w/ St. Peters in background

Alexis and Sadie along the Tiber