things i will not miss about rome

• gypsie beggers (kids included)
• the way one roman enters the room and says " 'na serrrrrrrraaaa" and everyone needs to respond in the same tone
• the roman rules (no capuccino after 11am, leaving in august, etc.)
• waving the finger and tisking instead of saying no
• "don't you have the 60 cents?" (me: "no") "do you have 1 euro?"
• dinah, the crazy rottwieler who barks everytime ANYONE passes her door
• words like, "allora", "cio'e'", "quindi", and the infamous roman "ehhhhhhhh...."
• romans who are afraid to eat anything BUT italian food
• the diversity of restaurants, or lack thereof
• that dude with 1/2 a leg who is always asking for a euro or a cigarette
• italian music
• the italian "cool" kids in thier sweatpants and huge sunglasses playing soccer in the streets
• italian post offices
• italian "lines"

i'm sure there will be others.... wait until until we finally get back to the states, and i do these lists:

• what i REALLY miss about rome
• what i wish didn't happen in america
• what i really, REALLY miss about rome
• what i wish i did in rome
• why i wish we never decided to move back here....

like i said, it's not an easy decision. i don't think it will be for a long time. we shall see indeed

today i got an email from a friend who visited us in rome. he had just read the blog and finally it was confirmed that we were in fact heading back to the states. check it out:

now I've got mixed emotions as I'm sure you do too. I'm happy that I'll get
to see you more (selfish reason), I'm happy that Luca will be closer to his extended family, but a little part of me is sad. I'm sad since I know how much you love Rome and what a great place it is. I'm sad for all your Italian friends that will miss you, just like we missed you here for the past three years. I'm sad that you couldn't become an Italian citizen,and for all the things you still wanted to do or see in Italy.

i guess that kind of sums of up the shit that's going on inside my head these days. today we went to the capitoline museums, which we have never done. not when we were here as tourists, or in the past 3 years. it was fun acting like tourists again, and seeing new things in rome. maybe we need to make a list of other things to see here.

and maybe head to scotland....