There’s no theme or witty title for today’s blog – just some random stuff.
The usual morning stop at Bar Rosa for cappuccino and cornetto (with vanilla pastry cream today) yielded a couple more dog sightings – this time a Jack Russell terrier begging for a piece of his owner’s cornetto
and a dachshund who wouldn’t demean himself by groveling for a treat.
Our lesson today centered on a two-letter word that does not have an English equivalent: ne. It is used as direct object pronoun when referring to a specific quantity, a non-specific quantity or none of something but it is never used when referring to all of something. Confused yet? Well, it’s impossible to explain and even a little difficult to conceptualize after listening to the teacher explain it for about an hour. Let’s just say that if you don’t speak Italian, you don’t need to understand it. We spent the rest of class reviewing direct and indirect object pronouns and even played a little review game that resembles dominoes.
My mid-morning break cappuccino was “special” today!
And we finally received our textbooks today. Most of my classmates are returning home at the end of this week but I’ll get some good use from them as I’ll be here an additional two weeks.
I’m becoming a regular around here – I received a “sconto” (discount) on my lunch at Nonna Maria. I’m obviously a fan of the Cacio e Pepe pasta ( see earlier blog for details).
Straw dispensers are really colorful here. Plastic straws haven’t been banned yet here, as you can see. And Aperol Spritz mania has gripped Italy, too.
On the floor below my apartment, there is an interesting sign on the door –
Hmmmm……master of occult science and constructor of talisman…..maybe that’s where those strange sounds I’ve been hearing at night are emanating from????
After lunch and a seminar of Italian idioms and tongue twisters, I got some gelato and took a long walk to burn off the calories from the gelato and to reach the 10,000 step goal on the Fitbit. Here are two photos of one of the old gates to the historic center.
And you will never see this sign in the States. 
And this is really ridiculous! I guess if I’m craving Skittles, peanut butter, Heinz ketchup or marshmallow Fluff, all I have to do is walk down the street.
I arrived back at the apartment around 6pm and settled in for the evening. The lunch and gelato were pretty filling and I’m not really hungry. So it’s a cup of tea and a container of low fat yogurt for dinner and a couple of hours of homework for the rest of the evening.
Camino Musings 