Week Won: walking on the mundane side of Rome

We  have already been in Rome for a week! It was a bit of blur with mostly mundane activities, punctuated by some tourist excursions. The picture is a typical street view from our neighborhood. Most European city apartments don't have laundry dryers and Rome is no exception. Laundry hanging is a common sight. Mine is drying on our patio right now. Small cars and scooters are rampant, too. 

We found the grocery store. We adjusted to the new time zone. With coffee of course! These stove top coffee pots make the most wonderful espresso. Yum! Now it's time to plot and plan more adventure...hopefully that won't include any more food poisoning. Once is enough for me. Week Too - bring it on!

Making friends at Cafe Sabor

The joy is truly in the people! As we left the Picasso Museum we stopped for a coffee at Cafe Sabor. There were three English women sipping their coffees and us. We ordered and then Rich noticed the oversized champagne flute filled with wine corks. The Cork Trick Master came alive!

Our proprietor came to the table and Rich demonstrated the trick. Our host spoke no English, but no matter. Who needs language with the cork trick? The man tried so very hard to do it. He was willing, lively and fun and we were all laughing - including the three ladies who now wanted to know the trick too.

Finally the man mastered the trick with a slight alteration (apparently he suffers from arthritis and used his pinky instead of the middle finger to catch the cork). Triumphant he returned behind the counter. But when the three ladies struggled with the trick, he came out and assisted them!

We left the three women - who were visiting the one woman's son at university - to their day of shopping and we decided to explore. We had many interactions with people today - at the bakery, at a Tapas Bar, in the lobby of our building - and I can't imagine remembering Barcelona without them!

The Ladies who Coffee

A trunk full of coffee cups and saucers would have been more representative of my experience, but A Divadlo Pokračuje is the restaurant where a group of international ladies happened to be having coffee. The International Women's Association of Prague (IWAP) was founded for wives of company men who have been transferred to Prague. There are associations like it around Europe. This morning I was attending the IWAP American Coffee meeting.

In America we have an expression "The Ladies Who Lunch" and this group has some reflections of that. I met some fascinating people and was inspired by the retired postal worker who moved here because she could, and has now accomplished great fluency with the language. And she's a scrapbooker too so one must be impressed!