Italian Parliament, Papal Audience.....

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.......

For Real.

The past day and a half have been the most boring days here in Rome. Honestly.

So we were informed the night before, as has become usual on this trip, that we should prepare questions for the Italian Parliament because they have set up a big deal for us and we will get to meet a few of the dignitaries and be able to have a Q & A with them. Ok, well NONE of us saw that email until that morning, and you had 14 people looking like a bunch of deer in the headlights. It was atrocious at how unprepared we were. Lost puppies, and the sad thing was is that even though we met some really great people, to most, this wasn't their thing. A lot of us are not studying politics or social issues, and it was quite embarrassing to have nothing to talk to these important people about. Oh, and even more fun was we were there for 7 hours with only a short cookie break. Our director seems to forget that people need to eat. We almost lost Karen to the low blood sugar at one point and she actually had to go to the infirmary at the Parliament building.
However after that long day of most of us falling asleep at some point in some talk, we did get to see the parliament do a confidence vote, but honestly I forgot what it was on because we were food deprived and tired. But it was cool none the less, and then they put the most interesting speaker at the very end and he only had 5 minutes to talk to us. We were all a bit sad. He worked on the EU financial crisis stuff.
After that we had a group dinner for Eleanor since it was her birthday and it was a very nice and quiet evening out.

Today we went to see the Pope speak at one of the weekly Papal Audiences. It was interesting of course, but not up my alley. I tried very hard not to question or say things, but sometimes my mouth gets the best of me. Most of you know.
Then we had lunch at a cute little pizzeria close to St. Peter's square and then Karen and I joined the Costello family on their outing to the Etruscan Museum and it was so cool and totally over whelming in all sorts of ways. So much so that Karen and I staged another show of Karen and Camille: Life Imitating Art for our PBS show that they know nothing about. Then we got lost. A few times. In the same place. On the same 2 floors. Oh dear. Time to go. :)
After the museum we all took a walk through the Villa Borghesse park and headed to Morrison's for a pint and some much needed American food, and it was DELICIOUS! so much so that we are probably going back.... tomorrow :)

COME ON POSITANO!!!! I am so ready for our weekend get away!!!