August 2006 - London, England - Casandra's Birthday

Dinner at Tayyib. Easily the yummiest and the spiciest North Indian/Pakistani food we've ever had. Dinner was a great opportunity for Casandra to meet the weddding couple and the rest of the Nayak extended family and friends.

Here's Ravi Nayak - world traveller extraordinaire - with dad.

And the wedding couple - Mel and Amit just one week before the big day and one night before the bachelor party!!!

Dinner was also a great opportunity to catch up with friends (particularly Erika who flew across the pond to join us).

We want to thank Nithin, Raj and the rest of the Nayak family for hosting such a wonderful dinner party.
(Where's the afterparty?!?!?!?)

The afterparty was at Raj's club the Pool - http://www.thepool.uk.com/ - London's coolest bar in the very trendy Shortage.

The girls consider kidnapping Mel and dragging her to Amsterdam. Don't we look ready for a girls' weekend?

Time for the "stag do". The boys head for the airport straight from the bar. Watch out Tallinn, here they come!

August 2006 - London, England - High Tea

We started my birthday with high tea at the Savoy on the Strand.

The Savoy is very fancy as you can see from the tea room and the place settings.















Joining us for tea were Nithin and Jenny,

April and Erika.



Jenny, being such a foodie, took quite an interest in the tea sandwiches and presentation.

After tea, scones, clotted cream, finger sandwiches and champagne, we settled in for a nap in anticipation of our big night out.
For dinner the Nayaks planned a great dinner at Tayyib (a Pakistani restaurant in East Acton not to far from Jack the Ripper's Brick Lane). It was a great opportunity for us to get together with all of the other wedding guests.

August 2006 - London, England - A Walking Tour

This week we headed to England to celebrate Casandra's birthday and attend the wedding of Melissa Smith and Amit Nayak (little brother to Kenny's friend Nithin).

On our first full day in London we took a walking tour with April (Kenny's sister) and Erika (Casandra's best friend).

Our walking tour took us through Covent Garden, down the Strand, by Trafalgar Square and Whitehall (shown on right and below),
Westminster Abbey (shown below),


and Parliament (shown below).

Look blue skies in London!!!!

Girls love a man in uniform . . . or 2 . After flirting with the soldiers, we continued our walk down the South bank of the Thames providing great views of Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye.

August 2006 - Rome, Italy - Gelato, Jewish Ghetto & Jazz

We only spent a couple of days in Rome this week. We still managed to find Giolitti (supposedly the best gelateria in Rome), tour the Jewish Ghetto and make it out to Villa Torlonia for a piano concert.

Jewish Ghetto
We took an evening walk through through the Jewish ghetto made up of 2 1/2 acres of short buildings which housed over 2 thousand jews during the Spanish inquisition. The ghetto contains a majestic white synagogue surrounded by wonderful italian kosher restaurants.
The ghetto abutts to the Teatro Marcello to the north and the Tiber river to the south. The Teatro built in the 1st century A.D. contains temples to Roman Gods.

Villa Torlonia

We attended an evening piano concert at Villa Torlonia which looks like a gingerbread house with an elaborate display of stained glass windows. The inside of the Villa has been turned into a stained glass museum while the outside is frequently used for summer concerts. As you can see the kitties in Rome are quite cultured and this particular kitty sat through quite a bit of the piano concert.

The front grounds of the Villa contains Roman ruins.

August 2006 - Rome, Italy - Borghese Gardens & Gallery

There are several museums located in the Borghese Gardens. Among the most famous are the:

Villa Giulia (Museum of Etruscan Art)

After wandering through the lush and expansive Borghese Gardens we came upon Villa Giulia. This was originally a summer home for popes. The mansion has been converted into a museum of Etruscan Art which contains some of the most famous pieces unearthed in Italy. The Etruscans were a very sophisticated and advanced society from the hill towns of central Italy that pre-dated the city of Rome which was founded in the 8th century B.C. by Romulus. Historians believe that the Etruscans brought ancient Greek architecture and polytheism to Rome. Archaeologists have discovered Estruscan pottery, art, tools, jewelry and tombs which show that they were an educated people with a variety of craftsman, farmers, doctors, overseas merchants and a nobility (a few of the 7 kings that ruled Rome before the formation of the Republic were Etruscans). The Etruscan art shows that they lived lives of leisure with a profound love for beauty, knowledge and romance. Below is the most famous piece of Etruscan art - a sarcaphogous depicting a couple lounging on their wedding day - a wonderful example of the Estruscans' belief in romantic love between husband and wife.

Villa Borghese

This Villa was originally built as a summer retreat for the Cardinal Borghese. The Cardinal was an avid art collector and a notorious man who used his power to force art collectors to sell him their most treasured pieces. He was able to amass one of the greatest collections of Baroque and ancient classical sculptures in the world. He designed Villa Borghese to honor classical art and showcase the Baroque art as surpassing the art of the ancient Greek and Roman times. The villa was later owned by Cardinal Scipione who converted it into a museum. As one of the first museums in the world created in Baroque Italy, it contains some of Bernini's greatest works including David, Daphne and Apollo, and The Rape of Persephone. Below is a view of the villa's gardens which contain ancient Greek and Roman statues.

August 2006 - Rome, Italy - Castel Sant' Angelo

We spent the hottest day we have experienced in Rome to date in a dark damp castle which was originally the mausoleum to the Roman Emperor Hadrian. The castle has experienced multiple additions since the 2nd century A.D.

The castle has not been used as a mausoleum for quite some time and instead various popes have taken advantage of this fortress to store their treasures. Most recently, the castle is used as a museum and gallery by the city of Rome where we saw an exhibit on Raphael and other Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture. The lookout and rooftop provides spectacular views of Rome.

August 2006 - Rome, Italy - Capitol Hill

On our way home from a horrid trip (via tram, bus, and subway) to the mall in the Roman suburbs (in search of reasonably priced household goods), we stopped by Il Campidoglio, also known as the Capitoline and Capital Hill to once again soak up the beautiful views on another gorgeous day in Rome.

Here, you are looking up La Cordonata - Michelangelo's glorious staircase that gently rises and widens up to La Piazza del Campidolglio (the Capitol Square) - one of the most impressive squares in Rome. The building in the center with the tower is the Palazzo Senatorio, which used to house the Roman Senate and now is the office of Rome's mayor. Flanking this palazzo are the Palazzo Nuovo (left) and Palazzo dei Conservatori (right), comprising the Capitoline Museums, which house many of Rome's greatest ancient Classical, Renaissance, and Baroque treasures. In addition to designing and sculpting the embellishments of the staircase, Michelangelo designed the square itself and the facades of the three palazzos.
Here's a closeup of one of the two restored Classical statues of the Dioscuri - Castor and Pollux -that stand on pedastals at the top of the bannisters of Michelangelo's staircase, towering over you as you enter the square (looks a little Davidesque to me).And, here's a replica of the remarkable 2nd Century A.D. bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, perched atop a pedestal designed, of course, by Michelangelo. The original, which is now incased in glass in the Palazzo Nuovo, survived the inquisition's destruction of all things pagan, including classical masterpieces such as this, only because the horseman was thought to depict Constantine, the Roman Emperor who issued the Edict of 313 A.D., which legalized Christianity. Here is the symbol of Rome - the She-Wolf suckling Remus and Romulus (the founder of Rome). Sitting atop a tall Ionic column, this is a replica of the Etruscan bronze statute dating from the early 5th century B.C. that is on display in the Palazzo dei Conservatori. From the ledge just beyond the column holding the She-Wolf, we got a truly awesome view of the entire Roman Forum in the valey between the Capitoline and Palatine hills.Here you can see the vestiges of ancient Roman Fora and Temples to the Gods. And here's the Arch of the Emperor Trajan.

There were also great views to the west from Capital Hill. Here's just one of the many domes of the city framed by some umbrella pines in the foreground.

August 2006 - Rome, Italy - Kitties Everywhere

For all the crazy cat ladies in my life . . .

Here are some pictures of kitties all around Rome. As you can see, the city really values its population of feral cats which number as many as 300,000 living in 10,000 colonies.


Here is a kitty in front of Trevi Fountain.

Another kitty in front of Castel St. Angelo and the bridge by the same name.

Kitties are most commonly spotted at the ancient ruins. Here are some that reside at the Colosseum and at the Roman Forum. And below is a kitty at Torre Argentina where Julius Caesar was murdered. These ruins have been converted into a cat sanctuary.

The cats at Torre Argentina are spayed and neutered and cared for by the gattare (crazy cat ladies in Italian).Our favorite kitty of all is the fat cat that lives in the stair well of our building. Everyone feeds her and it shows. She is very friendly and always begging for attention.

Hey, fat girls need lovin' too!!