Capodanno Cinese

1/14/12

I don’t know how these days just keep getting better! Today was the Chinese New Year (well technically it’s not until the 23^rd of January, but apparently Rome celebrates it early). We headed out to Piazza del Popolo to watch the parade. It wasn’t very long, but it was very colorful and traveled all along Via del Corso before ending up in the piazza where we were watching it. We packed lunches and sat along a wall overlooking the piazza. It was very enjoyable to people watch with such a huge crowd in the piazza! Afterwards we went to the adjacent Villa Borghese Gardens. It is the second largest park in Rome and very pretty!

Piazza del Popolo

Twin churches in Piazza del Popolo (actually veryyy different from one another inside)

Looking back on the crowd at the Piazza on our way to Borghese Gardens

Within the park there was so much to see and do! We sat and watched a group of rollerbladders who were very talented. They set up lines of small cones and did so many tricks weaving in and out, dancing around them, and speeding through. There was even a guy as old as 70 still doing it and a young boy who couldn’t have been more than five!

After a while we spotted the bike rental place and decided to rent a 4-person bike for an hour. It was definitely one of the best choices so far!! It was sooo soo much fun to explore the park on the bike as we sped around, huffed and puffed up the hills (while Dave got off and pushed), and off-roaded along dirt and gravel paths. I’ve never been on a multi-person bike, but it was sooo entertaining. We had so many good laughs were able to see a large portion of the park. Eventually we realized that the one we rented was the only one that we saw that didn’t have a motor at all! All the other bikes in the park were cruising up hills left and right and it finally made sense when we realized that they had motors on theirs and we didn’t. That definitely elicited some laughs when we finally came to that realization!

Me and Marj

Dave and Will

Villa Borghese

Once our hour was up we returned the bike and met up with the rest of our group and watched the sunset from the overlook. With still an hour left before the fireworks (for the new year), we decided to go to the piazza and watch the Chinese dancers/aerobics.

Marj, Melissa, Mike, Dan, Kelly, me and Will

Piazza del Popolo with the Chinese New Year crowd (opposite wall is where we chose to sit for the fireworks)

From the overlook we had spotted a perfect place to watch the performances and fireworks, only to get to the wall and realize it was 10 feet off the ground! Luckily we had some strong/tall guys with us who were able to get all of us up onto the wall, but only after a lot of jumping, scrambling, and climbing! Safely perched on the wall, we looked out over the thousands of people in the piazza, watched the acrobats, and had many laughs in the evening twilight. The guys went and got some wine to share, and we drank a glass (well technically out of our waterbottles…but we had to improv a little) while we were relaxing. At six thirty the fireworks started and they were so pretty. Our view was perfect, and I don’t think the evening could have been more memorable!

relaxing on the wall- (30 feet above the piazza on one side, so we climbed up the back)

Afterwards in honor of the Chinese new year we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant  called Ci Lin in Trastevere  near home. It was funny because everyone in the restaurant was either Asian or American!! I have never had a better Chinese meal- my sweet and sour chicken was the best I have ever had. It was definitely the perfect ending to the Chinese New Year. Of course on our way home we had to stop for gelato, which was as delicious as always.

Since they eat so late here, we quickly got ready and headed out for the night shortly after getting home from dinner. We decided to try Testaccio (an area near our apartment which is in Trastevere) for the night. It was the first discotheque we went to and we had an absolute blast. It’s definitely different though that the clubs don’t close down until 5am unlike the 2am of State College and Pittsburgh!! We certainly didn’t stay til close, but we had a lot of fun!!!

All in all- it was a perfect day!