Italian "Rules"

Hello everyone! It's been a while but over the weekend I've noticed a couple things here in Italy that I think are pretty interesting. Here in Roma, people don't seem to be really into any type of rules. It's more like organized chaos on a regular basis. Two things I've realized there are really no rules about are :

1) Dogs
2) Alcohol


That being said, dogs here aren't ever really on leashes. Sometimes when I'm walking on the busy road to school a couple are on a leash but for the most part they just walk along side there owner and play nicely with the other dogs that go passed. This weekend was so nice out so on Saturday and Sunday I walked up to the park (which I later found out is the biggest park in Rome... and it's right up the street from our apartment-how cool!) Now the park was just insane. Dogs were running everywhere just wildly but they just play nicely and never seem to bother anyone so I guess they don't need leashes. But there is one thing about the "no rules about dogs" thing that kind of bothers me. No rules about dogs means no rules about cleaning up dog poop. And it's everywhere. You really have to pay attention when your walking.

One night this weekend some girls and I went down to a little local area called Trastevere and went to a cute little bar and hung out for awhile.  Most of the bars here kind of remind me of coffee shops but with alcohol because they're really well kept and are cozy. But some of them are raging like the Thirsty Turtle was in College Park (sigh .....R.I.P.)  Anyways, this little area is kind of like a Shady Side area I guess and everyone just kind of walks around from bar to bar but with just open drinks in their hands. And no one even cares! There's no sort of open container rule or anything and I don't think they believe in carding anyone so I'm not even exactly sure what the drinking age is here.... I'll need to look that up.

Apparently there are rules about when bars have to close...and I guess the rule is 2:00 AM on Sunday nights. Good thing for me Italians aren't that into following these rules because the Superbowl started so late here (remember I'm six hours behind!) So Sunday was easily the longest day of my life because I had to wait until after midnight for the game to start! Last week I had found the Steelers Bar called La Botticella so me and a friend of mine who I met on my flight out of Pittsburgh headed down there at around 9 and got the last seats in the bar! It was packed which was so awesome because it was almost like being at home.

Italian Terrible Towel with the Colosseum!

Jesus wrapped in the Terrible Towel..

The bar was great though. And at 2 o'clock I was getting nervous thinking that the owner was going to kick us all out, but in true Italian fashion he did whatever he wanted. He shut the gates down over the windows (all the stores and apartments have this big heavy things that look like a mix between gates and blinds that pull down when the store is closed or you aren't home) and told everyone to be quiet if they heard police. So we all sneakily stayed in the bar for the end of the game which I thought was pretty cool...except until the end when I had to deal with the idea of a loss.... and the fact that it was now almost 5 a.m. But none the less it was time well spent. 

Now I'm caught up on my sleep (I had to take a little nap today) and I have been doing some homework. After being on winter break for over 7 weeks its a little hard to get back into the swing of doing homework again so I took a break to update you all but now it's back to the books. I hope everyone is recovering from Sunday...physically and emotionally. Preseason will be here before we know it! And I just want  to say thanks again for keeping up with me and all my adventures over here...xoxo