What does one do on a Thursday evening in Rome? Well, one could go to the opera as we did the other night. It was Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, performed not in an opera house, but at the Terme di Caracalla (ruins of ancient Roman baths)! What an amazing setting.
We were seated kind of far from the stage, but it was still fantastic. The scenery (and I don't mean the stage set) added to the drama of the story.
Apparently operas are staged at the Terme di Caracalla every summer. I met a woman who saw Aida here a few years back, and she said there were live elephants on stage!
They know how to put on a show here.
On another note, we have home internet access now! That only took, oh, two months or so. You see, in order to get home internet, you have to have an Italian bank account. In order to get an Italian bank account, you have to have a codice fiscale (an Italian I.D. number). It takes a while for two people to get their numbers. And another while to find a time when they can both go to the bank during business hours, during a week that's not the week of the G8 summit. Then, after setting up the account (a multi-day process because the bank manager has meetings to attend), you have to go to the ISP office and sign up for internet. From that moment, it takes 4 weeks for a technician to come to the apartment to check your phone line. Then a second technician comes on another day (during work hours, of course) to actually install stuff. Our internet package also includes phone and tv, but the tv technician hasn't come over yet. (It's August, the month when all Italians take vacation.)
Sorry for going on like that. Anyway, the important thing is that now we can post photos! Here's another of the Terme di Caracalla.
