Fresh Ranunculus from the market and a sunny terrace lunch. A very mellow, yellow day.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Kayleigh from CouchSurfing. Kayleigh is from Vancouver but has been living in Amsterdam and traveling around Europe. She had originally emailed me about staying with me, but that wasn’t in the cards. Instead, I offered to meet up with her for a coffee and later I suggested she go to yoga with me. We met in the morning to head to yoga, but we arrived there and I realized I had misread the schedule. We will go tonight instead!

Instead of yoga, I accompanied Kayleigh to Pizzale Michelangelo- because who could ever get tired of the view? On the way down I took her through the rose gardens and I was able to see the city from a bit of a different viewpoint.

Just like the rest of Europe (but maybe a bit warmer than some parts) it is still freezing cold here- as can be seen with this interesting lizard-like character.

I wanted to show Kayleigh Santo Spirito and my new favorite hang-out joint and we decided to take a more scenic route to get there.. Little did we know we’d be doing some mountaineering

In spite of her self-proclaimed dislike for being in front of the camera, I managed to photograph her pretty face several times.

Exploring all the way…

Kayleigh, being the experienced adventurer that she is, suggested we enter through the slightly ajar doors of this ancient fort. We were astonished by the stairs leading up. How many thousands (or more?) have climbed these steps for them to be so worn. It is a bit overwhelming to think about.

The fact that we were obviously trespassing (even though there were no signs that said so) with the fear that we would hear sirens at any moment was forgotten upon seeing, yet another, amazing view of the city.

The best view of the Duomo that I’ve seen so far.

And finally, the much anticipated Volumne. The first time I walked in here I was completely wowed. The place is a jazzy, artsy, film noire soul-full kind of incredible. The bar/cafe was once a late 19th – early 20th century bottega. I f you look at the wall behind Kayleigh you can see the old artisan tools on display. Upon further inspection around the place you’ll find many charming, wooden scupltures- as the bottega once belonged to a wood sculptor.

***

Highlight of the day:

- Answering the door to a old man urgently trying to tell me something in Italian. When I told him I didn’t speak Italian, he just kept fervently going on and on. Finally, I said “ciao” and started closing the door.

- If that weren’t interesting enough, Susan and Andy came home to note written on the front entry for the building.. in Italian. So they came up and we translated it via an Italian English dictionary and here is what we got: Gentlemen condominiums, which will be closed the water please avveria their a barbeque for a loss of water in the bottom of toce john. Ummm? What we got out of that was at some point we think they might be turning the water off.