Dressed to Impress: Day 30

I survived my first two tests! The first was for Intro to Italian Language and Culture, and it was about as hard as I had expected. I feel pretty good about it. The second was for Film Genres, and it was actually much easier than I was expecting! Either that, or I just knew the material better than I thought I did.  

That same night I went to a spoken poetry event at a bar in downtown Trastevere with Danny. He had heard about it through the poetry club, and we thought it started at 10, or 22:00. So we got to this little medieval-looking bar at 10, and with the addition of Danny and me, and including the bartender, that made a total of five people present!. We waited an hour as the place slowly filled up, and finally at 11, the poetry began. It was a lot of fun – very different from anything I have ever done at home. I am about 99% sure it was hosted in a gay bar, so that was a new and interesting experience as well!

Thursday, after painting class, Paige and I walked around on Via del Corso half-heartedly trying to find a coat for our weekend trip to Prague. We happened to find the most beautiful Louis Viton store in a piazza right off of Via del Corso. I was wearing running pants and nikes, so we decided to save that for another day!

Observation of the Day: Time is flying by. I feel like I haven't been here long enough to have any tests, but midterms are in three weeks! 

Si!: Day 26

I have reached a new level of comfort in Rome: today, as I was walking home from campus, three women that I passed started to ask me something in Italian. I responded with “Non parlo Italiano.” To which the woman replied “Oh, inglese?”

I said “Si.”

MY FIRST REACTION WAS TO SAY YES IN ITALIAN!

Then she asked me for directions to the Termini train station and where they could buy bus tickets so they could get there.

AND I WAS ABLE TO ACTUALLY HELP THEM! I knew how to get to Termini and told them they could take the 75 or the H and they could buy tickets at any Tabacchi store on Trastevere!

Observation of the Day: It's the baby steps that make the most ground. 

Food and Italy: Day 25

On Thursday after class, I decided to walk around near Vatican city to find the hotel where my sister will be staying in two weeks. Let me tell you, the roads here are extremely confusing! Trying to find my way back was a nightmare. Thank you Google maps for still showing my blue dot moving even when I don’t have wifi. However, on the way there, I happened to find the best view of the city I have seen as of yet! 

The picture only does it about 25% justice. The rest you just have to soak up in person.

Friday was Cioccolentino! The chocolate festival in Terni, where St. Valentine is buried! It took a little over an hour on the train to get to, but I mean, chocolate.

(Zeppole con cioccolato)                                              

 

Everything was so good! I tried what are called zeppole with chocolate filling while we were there, which is basically fried sweet dough with a sugar coating, and I brought home some truffles, chocolate covered nuts (or nocciola), dried mango and some sort of amazing melon, and a chunk of dark chocolate.

(Candid of Danny and me eating our Zeppole in Terni. Photo credit: Evelyn Hill)

 

Saturday morning I went for a run/mostly walk for the third time. I had gone on Monday and was very disappointed with how my legs felt. I still stayed positive, and walked to the Villa Doria Pamphilij near campus where I was able to run a total of 20 minutes! It felt wonderful – the sun was out and my legs actually felt great! The amount of people there that were running or walking or even biking amazed me!

Then we found Eataly. It was slightly overwhelming. And by overwhelming, I mean there were four floors of specialty sections of food, and in each section there were actual restaurants that make you food! I bought some oatmeal with nuts, cheese that looks really good, and bread (that is amazing) that has pancetta and frommagina in it!

(A building with some awesome graffiti art we found on our way to Eataly)

 I got some homework done, and then we went out to one of the best pizza places in Italy for dinner, called Dar Poeta. We got there earlier than most Italians eat and it was already pretty crowded, but when we left there were lines of people waiting outside! (It also happened to be Valentines Day) I ordered the Patattacia pizza, which had potatoes, sausage, and mozzarella on it. It was, of course, delicious!

Today we went to the open market that is a block behind our building and stretches probably about a mile down the street every. I haven’t made it there yet, and wow, it is definitely something you shouldn’t miss if you go to Rome. You can buy just about anything you need there from coats to beads to make jewelry. I bout a baking pan (our apartment didn’t come with one for some reason) for only 3 euro!

 (I just had to take a picture of this - a hoodie from Wisconsin that I found at one of the vendors at the market!)

I found a theater called Nuovo Olimpia that is just off of Via del Corso. It plays movies in their original language, so I think the plan for the rest of the day is to get homework and other things done around the apartment, and then go watch Birdman at this theater!

Observation of the Week: Almost everything I did this weekend had something to do with food. And I am okay with that. They really do have great food here in Italy. Good thing I can start running again now!

Finding a Rhythm: Day 22

The cinema club met for the first time this week, and I think it has potential. It’s a new club for AUR, so we really get to do whatever we want with it! I’m all for watching movies, but I’m going to try to pull together some people who want to make some shorts – what better place to film than in Rome!

I found a yoga mat for 10 euro at a Chinese store (if you need something, you go to a Chinese store and they will probably have it) so I was pretty excited about that! So I went to yoga on Tuesday, my day off from classes. I also signed up for a Budapest and Vienna trip during Easter weekend with my roommate Bridget! It’s through a company called Bus2Alps and they were having a sale that day, so we got a pretty good discounted price!

Classes went well this week – I’m starting to get into a rhythm, but I need to tweak it a little bit now that I can run, and so I have more time in the painting studio to work on projects. I have two tests/quizzes coming up on Wednesday, so we’ll see how much I have learned then!

Observation of the Week: I love taking 12 credits here. I’m so used to having more than 12 credits, and it gets a little overwhelming sometimes. I decided to only take 12 in Rome so that I am still taking great classes that are applying to my major and to UP classes, but also so I can have more time to learn from the culture around me!

Ancient Rome: Day 18

We FINALLY went and toured the colosseum!

 With a little trick we learned from some of the resident students here in Rome, we bought our tickets that work for both the colosseum and the Roman Forum in the short line at the Roman Forum, with which we were able to walk straight into the colosseum (and not stand in line all day). The Colosseum today looks very different from when it was in use, beginning in 80 AD. 

Today, what was once under the floor of the center where the events occurred is now exposed, and it’s easy to look around and be totally confused where anyone sat, or really where anyone did anything… 

With that being said, it was so impressive! It’s still hard to wrap my head around the fact that I’m actually living in Rome and can just casually go to the Colosseum like I'm going to the movies or something.

 

Afterwards, we still had half the day left, so we explored yet another part of the city we hadn’t seen yet. We walked down Via del Corso to Piazza di Popolo, where we were amused by people making giant bubbles for probably an hour – I don’t care how old you are, bubbles will always be entertaining!

                                  

(Me, Bridget, Paige, and Kasey!)

Then we walked up some stairs that led to Villa Borghese! (This is the view of Piazza di Popolo from Villa Borghese)

The view of the city was spectacular, but the park was a wonder of its own. We tried to discover all of its secrets (which we did not achieve) and found ourselves on the opposite side still wandering.

(Paige, Bridget, Kasey, Caitlin, and me in front of a pond in Villa Borghese)

A bust of Lord Voldemort

A very fancy restaurant in the Villa 

Sunday was dedicated to exploring the Roman Forum, and finishing homework. The Forum and the Palatine were just HUGE. 

 

 

We walked around for three hours and still didn’t see everything. It was a beautiful day to learn about Ancient Rome. There are so many landmarks in this one location that it would be impossible for me to tell (if I knew) all the history on here. But I did learn that Mussolini had this area excavated to try and unite all of Italy when they were still a very young country and the north and south were divided. I believe his intentions were to remind the Italians how united the Romans used to be. 

                   

 

   


        (Places in the Palatine)

Also, the Vestel Virgins are really interesting to learn about; the Pontius Maximus would choose girls between the ages 6 and 10 to become a Vestel Virgin, and then they would be treated to a life of pampering for about 30 years. 

                  (where the Vestel Virgins used to live)

However, if they didn’t follow their rules, like sleeping with a man before they were allowed to, for example, they would be put in a room underground that was then covered with dirt in order to suffocate them. The Romans were really quite nice people.

Nevertheless, it was amazing to walk the same paths that were used thousands of years ago, some even in BC times.

Observation of the Day: When the going gets rough, just remember how lucky you are! I could have stood at the top of Piazza di Popolo in Villa Borghese all day and just soaked in how amazing Rome is, and truly lucky I am to be standing there in that moment.