Italian Men Seem to Love Me

Il secondo giorno a Roma. So.. today was extremely eventful so I felt another update was necessary. We woke up, and my apartment (the 7 of us- myself, Jackie, Katrina, Caroline, Megan, Michelle, Kayla) plus two girls from the upstairs apartment (Cat and Natalie) went to the open air market nearby to buy some fruit and whatever. We also headed to the supermercato and bought cheese, bread, and arancia rossa juice (blood orange juice-- soooo good). After that, the heat was terrible.. so we just spent the next hour or two relaxing, chilling out on the nice, cool marble floors of apartment 123. We made plans to go to the Pantheon neighborhood and sightsee for a bit. So around 4 we headed out, hit up St. Peter's square because it is our backyard and friendly neighborhood commute (stopping at Old Bridge gelateria on the way--fragola, straciatella, melone), walked past Castel san'Angelo (which, na zhal, is closed on Mondays- as are many important churches and monuments for some reason), and mostly enjoyed the views and the beautiful blue skies over Roma. So then (using my memory and a map provided by JCU) we found our way to Piazza Navona.. the 4 rivers fountain is under renovation and is blocked off by scaffolding, but never fear! They'll def be done sometime while I'll be here :) So then we got to the Pantheon, looked around, etc. So did you know that the hole in the very top of the Pantheon dome is 90 feet across? and that its diameter AND height are each 120 feet? After looking at the Pantheon, we decided dinner was a good idea, so we followed Rick Steves' advice (cheers to him for donating Rome books to ND) and headed to Miscellanea, run by this guy named Micky who supposedly served foreign students "sexy wine.." also rumored to be cheap, near the Pantheon, and not touristy. Check, check, check. Aweeessommmmeeee. I was the one leading the group toward 110 via delle paste and as I was looking for this place, a rando italiano comes to me saying in italiano "I know what you waaaaaant, you come with meee" and takes my hand and leads me as I'm like insisting to know where the heck he is taking me.. and so I was like "Miscellanea?" him:"Siiiii signorina! Free drink for you, on the house!" me: OK! He did indeed provide free drinks in the form of "sexy wine," which is strawberry wine with a little fizz kick to it.. soooooo gooooooood. He also kept teasing me and told me my eyelashes were too long and beauuutiful, that I must have purchased them alla farmacia (lies, I told him) and then he starts creeping and kissed me on the cheek, and then later on during dinner a different italiano like grabs my hands from behind me and starts clapping them (someone was a little tips, a little tips- and it wasn't me). Everyone got a good laugh at the affinity of rando italiani to me.. but that was before Giolitti, the BEST gelato place and still my fave ever in the whole world. I happen to know the little secret that if you flirt with the gelato scoopers at Giolitti, they will, in fact, give you more gelato. And whistle, and say "mamma mia.., bellissima" etc. So this was molto fun. Walked the hour back to the Medag, pausing to take pictures along the way of Rome by night, all lit up, pretty and sparkly. Il tevere glistening and reflecting the lights, all shiny and beautiful even after all these thousands of years... la cittá eterna.