when it rains it pours

I stepped on flyer today... for another gym... in the Trastevere area!! Whoa, what's with the sudden outbreak of gyms in the 'hood??

This place, Silver Fitness, is offering a crazy low price: 99 euros for a year BUT (there had to be a "but" or two, as in this case) the gym does not open till July and they're only offering a limited number of these 99 euro memberships. So if you want to cash in on the offer, you have to sign up now- sight unseen.

They have pictures and schedules on display on site, but those are all from their Talenti gym, the lady at the desk said this Trastevere gym will "more or less" be the same. Yeah, okay, no... I'm far too skeptical (after living in Rome all these years) to sign up and fork over money for something that is still in the works. For all I know, the place will open 2 months later than planned, will be a hole in the wall, and will have ridiculous hours like 10:30 AM- 1:00 PM/ 3:30 PM- 6:00 PM. Also, I asked if the gym will be open in August and she said "Of course! It'll probably be just be closed for about 10 days". Uhhhh, okay...

Too sketchy for me right now. I'll wait to see what the finished product looks like and then I'll report back to you all.

we have a winner

After searching high & low, I have found a good gym in my neighborhood. Easy Fit Club on Viale Trastevere #205 has proved to be a winner!

Their website is a bit janky and the schedule online is wrong (check out the correct schedule below) BUT the gym is right in soooo many ways: good classes, good teachers, nice facility. My only complaint: the girls at the front desk need to back off a bit, I'm not a fan of people getting all up in my grill and trying to be overly-friendly. Take it down a notch ladies, we don't need to be BFFs.

For now, I've only signed up for one month (59 euros) because I need to make sure my erratic work schedule will actually allow me to go and take classes. They're also offering a summer special: if you sign up now you'll only pay 159 (or was it 149?) from now till September. Pretty sweet deal. Then the regular monthly rate is 60 euros but they only offer year memberships.

I haven't been to Italian gyms in a while so it's rather amusing to watch the locals: from inappropriate gym attire, to complaining/huffing about the difficulty of certain classes, to ridiculous fears of AC, Italians prove time and time again that they are not gym savvy, at all... This morning I was one of two people in class- the other person was also foreign. As the instructor himself pointed out, most Italians don't like waking up early and exercising so an 8:30 AM class is anything but crowded. All the better for me! It's like having a personal training session. Win-win for me!

deep thoughts

As I ran my errands the other day, I watched some AMA employees uncomfortably and unsuccessfully try to clean the street in between parked cars/scooters with their hoses... and a thought came to me: why don't they have alternate side parking like in New York City? It would make the street sweeper's job a lot easier and the streets would probably be much cleaner. Then I chuckled and remembered that this Rome- where people park wherever they want, whenever they want. Alternate side parking would be a joke like all of the other parking rules already in effect...

Only in Italy

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard this commercial for Kinder fetta al latte with Fiona May: "Quando fa caldo e' difficile fare colazione, per questo c'e' Kinder fetta al latte*..."

Seriously? Who the fuck came up with this??

(*When it's hot out it's hard to eat breakfast, that's why we have Kinder fetta al latte)

good flicks

Surprisingly enough, there are some good Italian flicks in the theaters right now. Check them out!

Hai paura del buio

Il primo incarico

Tatanka

Il gioiellino

Dr. Pepper

Look what I happened upon today... good ol' Dr. Pepper! I'm not a huge soda drinker but I do love me some sweet bubbles occasionally. I've personally never seen the Pepper in Rome before, but this one bar on Via Roma Libera #13 is selling it for 3.50 euro. Highway robbery if you ask me but if you ever have a craving for it, now you know where to get it!