Day 7 - Arrive in Frascati and Work Begins in Earnest

I stayed up late last night revising the Monday presentation, but also reading more on why space-based infrared telescopes are better than ground-based optical ones for detecting small 30-50 m asteroids. My audience is made up of astronomers, and they will kill me for making rookie mistakes. So I am being a good student.

After a breakfast of granola and milk (no more croissants for me), I packed and checked out. I walked around the neighborhood to see if there is any interesting shopping to done, and bought a pair of Dessigual jeans that at least I liked. Dessigual is a Spanish bohemian brand, and I like it a lot. There are no stores in the DC area

and only two in New York. Don't know if Jason or Kinjal will like my boho-with-suspenders look, but I hope they do! I also passed a store that seemed to sell - or buy, I couldn't tell - happiness (picture). Unfortunately it was closed, so I will never find out.

Mark and I headed to the Termini station at 11:30 - it really is nice that our hotel is around the corner from the train station - and got into the very comfortable and inexpensive train to arrive in Frascati. The town is as old as Rome if not older, and my fabulous Ducati suitcase did not appreciate being on the two thousand year old cobblestones.

Our hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the train station, and is a contrast from the Rome hotel. This one is modern and contemporary and I liked it a lot more. Upon arrival, I accidentally went into the wrong room (311 instead of 211) even used the toilet, before I realized someone else's belongings were in there. And scrammed. Finally found my own room, and spend the next 4 hours uploading pictures and catching up with my diary entries.

Mark and I met up for a catch up. He had a limonade, and I had a milk and Kind bar (trying to leave my cappucino days behind as well - the vacation is over). I had a little mishap with the milk - I choked on it, and made a huge mess. I have a before picture of the milk, but no after. Just as well. It was not a pretty sight.

I worked on the Global Trends report some more. It will be many more hours before that report is finally finished. And then caught up some more on the entries for this

diary. Internet was slow, and it took hours. Then we went for a walk in town and got dinner. Frascati looks like Rome wrt buildings and such (pictures) but is nothing like Rome with respect to the cosmopolitan feel of the city. This is very much a village - most stores were grocery type stores with fresh produce, meats, cheeses etc. Since this was Saturday, the streets were packed with young people. Very young people - teens I would say. It almost seemed like there was nowhere for them to go other than to pour out on the streets. Frascati also seems to be homogeneous - I did not see any race other than white. Also interesting observation - like girls, boys here wore jeggings and really tight stretchy pants (picture). I was glad to see both sexes look equally ridiculous. We returned home around 10 and I headed straight to bed. I really miss home now!

Tomorrow is a big day - we are going to the observatory. Total miles walked today - 5.5.