the beehive, basilicas, and limoncello.

We pulled into the train station in Rome a little after noon. Unfortunately, I hadn't planned anything to do...because I thought we'd be arriving much later. But here's what we did do.

We found our hostel, named The Beehive. It's the cutest little place. As their website says, "The Beehive Hotel is a family owned, grassroots endeavor put together by two people who love this city, enjoy being hospitable, and want visitors to feel like they have a friend and a home in Rome." I like it a lot and am excited to be here for three nights.

They're all about organic, all natural things. Their cafe is all organic, all vegetarian. Seriously, on their breakfast menu, they have "scrambled tofu and mixed vegies and toast." I just might have that tomorrow for old time's sake. 

We spent quite a bit of time using the internet to finish up planning our itinerary for the next two days. It will be a crazy next two days. Then we went out and bought some cheap pizza by the slice. It wasn't bad, but nothing to get too excited about. 

We decided to go explore the part of Rome by our hostel.

Piazza della Repubblica

Right next to this plaza was an old basilica, named the Santa Maria degli Angeli. It was constructed between 1569 and 1679. It was beautiful.

some pictures of the inside.

the outside of the basilica and two sculptures that I just really liked for some reason.
I found them in the dark, old section of the basilica.

I'm not sure why, but I just LOVE this sculpture.
It was in the front part of the basilica.

There was a temporary exhibition going on at the basilica. It was all about Galileo and the balance between faith and science. Basically, it was disproving the idea that Galileo was secretly an atheist. That it IS possible to reconcile the idea of God with science. It was powerful. A phrase from one of the plaques said:

"Galileo is famous for his 'and yet it moves'; he should be famous for his 'and yet I am a believer."

Here's a direct quote from Galileo that I really liked.

I am certain 

that nothing

which concerns

the government of human affairs

is neglected

by Divine Providence.

-Galileo Galilei, Opere VII, 394-95

Galileo, I agree. You are one smart cookie. 

sculpture of Galileo in the courtyard of the basilica.

We left the basilica and saw many a fountain. Here are a couple of them.

There is an intersection with Rome with four fountains--one on each corner.

The Fontana del Tritone.

And finally, we saw the Trevi Fountain.
We're going back there tomorrow night. :)

We went to a restaurant to get some good pasta. I tried gnocchi for the first time and it wasn't bad at all. Just potato dumplings in tomato sauce.

After we had finished eating, I was talking to the waiter. I was trying to figure out how to pay the bill (do we just leave the money on the table? take it to the cash register? give it to the waiter as he was walking? wait?) but he ended up teaching us how to say a couple phrases in Italian. Then all of a sudden, he said

"I get you glass of shot?"

I said, "Uh, what?"

He said, "Just a minute." And then he ran back into the restaurant.

He came back with two shot glasses of limoncello, an Italian lemon liqueur that's 35% alcohol. 

Katelyn and I looked at each other. I thanked him and told him that it was very kind of him but that I didn't drink. Katelyn didn't know what to do. He gestured for her to try it. She tried it.

She described it as "cough syrup on fire
with a lemon drop in it. Awful."
She couldn't finish it.

We thanked him and left back for home. End first day in Rome. :)