"I love seeing my buns on your heads!"

This week was a good and tough week. Sunday, after saying goodbye to my parents, I met Jake for dinner at Abbey Theater, an Irish pub near Piazza Navona. We got some amazing burgers! So good, even by American standards. I brought my own bottle of Heinz ketchup with me (thanks, Mama and Papa). They had ketchup there, but we were worried that it would be the weird sugary Italian kind. 

Monday was my photography exam, which I think went pretty well. Tuesday was just internship and Italian. In Italian we had to have a mid-semester discussion about how well we had adjusted to Rome. Basically it was us listening to this one kid complain about how hard it was to go out with Italian girls. Wednesday was the big exam day: Politics and Archaeology. Neither were too hard. That afternoon for Italian we had a field study in the Flaminio area in the north part of the city. Will, Joe, Jillian, and I decided that we could walk there because it was finally good weather. It ended up taking over an hour and then the field study was just us walking around for two hours. Lot's of tired feet that day. Thursday was more internship and Italian and later we all went out for Aperativi to celebrate the end of midterms. Jillian did mine and Kim's hair with her signature puffy, poofy bun. We all looked great! 

Yesterday, Alana (from Princeton) came to Rome!! She was staying with her friend Susanne also from Princeton but we all went out for dinner and then walked around Trastevere for a bit. It was great to have a little bit of home come visit. Kathryn also met us for dinner so it was a big "let's talk about high school" night. This morning we met back up at St. Peter's. It was craaaazy crowded because there was apparently a Papal audience today. Alana and I went to Old Bridge for gelato and then to the Vatican museums. We walked around for miles and then got to the Sistine Chapel. It was stupendous. I felt almost nervous to really see it. After we went and met Susanne and her friend Peter for lunch and then I came back to my apartment. 

I am off to Malta tomorrow morning for spring break!!! So excited!! 

Road Trippin'

The next (Saturday) morning, we caught and early train home to Rome where we went pretty much immediately to get a rental car. We drove out of the city, or tried to at least. We made it but did get lost within three turns of the rental center. Papa was really happy because we got a red Cinquecento. I was hoping for one of the really old and impossibly tiny ones from the 1970s. I was actually hoping to get one next year for school but as Mama points out it would be impossible to get it repaired in Atlanta. Any car that has the nickname "FIAT -- Fix It Again Tomorrow" cannot be that reliable. Also, it would be comical and terrifying to try to drive that on the 85. 

Anywhoooo, we drove out of the city towards Montebuono where Mama, Papa, and Daisy had lived way back when. It was a little hard to find but we got to drive through a bunch of old Italian hill towns. When we found it, we drove by all the big tourist destinations. Namely, their house and the blind hairpin corner where Mama had broken the car. We also went to see Stefania (Daisy's babysitter from 25 years ago) and her family on their farm. We drove up and there were some kids playing outside who looked very confused at seeing strangers and a women came out looking skeptical but within 30 seconds, shouted "Sei Lolly?!?" They showed us around the farm, we had coffee, and looked at all the photos of the family members. The last time we had seen them was 13 years ago. 

After that we drove to Otricoli to visit Stefano and Donatella again. We unfortunately didn't know their address and drove around the town a bit. We finally got out and asked a woman if she knew where they lived. She thought about the name Donatella for awhile and we asked about Stefano. Then she was like "AHH, Siiiii, Stefano!!" She said that they lived a few towns over in Gualdo though. It was funny that she still knew them though. We got there eventually and Donatella had cooked an amazing and gigantic dinner! There was a great zucchini and ricotta pie thing, pizzas, eggplant rolls, homemade sausages and wild boar (cooked by her parents), onion casserole, two kinds of salad, and a fruit almond cake that was So Good. 

After dinner we hit the road again and made it back to Rome. Getting from the autostrada to my apartment was a little difficult but I was actually able to direct and I was very proud of that. I got us from north of St. Peter's to the river, then the gianicolo, then Monteverde! Quiet an accomplishment for someone who still gets lost in Princeton. 

Mama and Papa left this morning. Sad. It was so great to have them around and I am going to miss them a lot!! 

Napoli + Pompei + Amalfi

Thursday morning I went and met Mama and Papa at Termini. Kim came with me because she had to pick up a friend who was visiting. Unfortunately on the bus, I realized I had forgotten my passport and had to go back and get it. Oh well, we ended up getting a taxi there but we saw lots of 150th celebrators on the way to the Gianicolo.

The train to Napoli was amazingly fast and fancy first class! We got there in about and hour and the second we got off the train there were some sketch guys offering taxis to Pompei. We did not go with them and instead got an actual cab to our hotel. The hotel was amazing and really modern on the inside even though it was very old on the outside. We stop at a caffe for lunch that was really disgusting. The first bad food since I have had in Italy. We then went to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli. It was probably one of the best museums I've ever been too. They had all of the Farnese pieces that had been missing from the palazzo Farnese in Rome (where I went the week before). After the museum we went down to the bay and saw the Castel Nuovo and the Palazzo Reale. We also got coffee at the oldest caffe in Naples which was also one of the oldest in Italy. For dinner we went to this great place pretty close to our hotel. The food was amazing! Right when we were finishing, a big group of about 15 young people came in and Mama and Papa bought them around of champagne or something to help celebrate the holiday.

The next morning, we got up early and had breakfast at the hotel. There we met Caroline and Valerie who were from Northern Canada. Caroline came up to us to ask us if we knew where in Napoli she could buy some electric hair rollers since she broke hers plugging them without the adaptor. We found out they were going on our tour as well. The rest of our tour group was a german couple who were very quiet and did not really speak English or Italian and a very stylish Italian couple. Our first van driver was named Mario and an ex-Carabinieri and he talked like Chico Marx. When describing the problems with Napoli he said "Yooh hava da stupida mah-ther end da stupida fa-ther anda yooh make-a da stupida keedsa." He had so much energy and was so loud but was able to convince us to switch our afternoon tour from Vesuvius to Amalfi because then he would get to drive us. Fortunately, our afternoon driver turned out to be Michele who was friendly, calm, and spoke good English like a person not a cartoon character. 

Pompei was really amazing even though it was raining the whole time. A cool thing about the streets was that they had raised curbs and raised stones for crossing. Designed to avoid stepping the the nastiness in the streets, but useful in the rain. Also because of the clouds, we really couldn't see Vesuvius at all. Lunch was funny because it was at this huge restaurant just outside Pompei that was completely designed to get tour tourists. To get in you walk down a long hall that had all souvenir tables. We ate in the huge banquet sized room filled with four person tables. There was also a huge group of around 50 Asian tourists. The waiters came in with huge platters of pasta and just went down the line. It was really funny to watch. After lunch, we had to wait just inside the restaurant a bit for our driver to come back for the Amalfi coast part. While we were waiting, we kept watching this stray dog try to sneak in and he got in about three times. He would come up to us happy and wagging his tail and then the waiter would come and shout "Isci, Isci!!" (which we guess is a Napoli dialect of "esci" for "go out") and the dog looked sad and ran out. I wonder how many times a day the dog comes in and gets chased out because both him and the waiter seemed used to it. There were stray dogs all over Napoli, both outside by the souvenirs and restaurants and also in the ruins. We saw one just chillin' inside the baths. There was also one eating a big plastic bag full of spaghetti on the ground. 

The Amalfi drive was beautiful even in the rain. Right away we were really glad not to be climbing to the top of Vesuvius (especially since we learned that it is over due for a very violent explosion). The drive went from about Sorrento to Salermo. We stopped a bunch of times to take pictures. The mountains went straight down into the water and there were all these little houses built right on the edge. They all had about 700 stairs from the road to the water. It would be terrible to have to do anything there because nothing is close or convenient. The mountains were covered in fog and looked like something out of national geographic. It would be amazing (but probably crazy crowded) to go back an see it on a Sunny spring/summer day. In Amalfi, Papa and I went in the church (Saint Andrew, I think). The outside was guilded gold but the inside was all white and marble. We got there about 10 minutes before it closed though and did not have too much time to walk around it. It turned out that it was the church out bus driver had gotten married in. That night, we went back to city and had dinner at the same place from the night before. The waiter remembered us and sat us at "our table." The food was delicious again and he kept bringing/recommending house specialties. 

Hurray for Garibaldi!!

Thursday was the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy and as such, it was a pretty important holiday. It is only a national holiday every 50 years so it was pretty nice to have the extra long weekend. Wednesday night most of the national museums were open late and were free (as well as all museums on Thursday) so Kim, Jillian, Will, Adam, Andre, Maria, and I all went to Trastevere around 10 after dinner on Wednesday to the Museo di Roma. There was an exhibit of neorealistic photographs and live opera music. At midnight we heard the fireworks go off but couldn't see them from where we were. 

There were apparently a bunch of things happening Thursday in Rome including 150 cannon shots on top of the Gianicolo (where there is also a gigantic Garibaldi statue) but Mama, Papa, and I all went to Napoli instead! There we heard some concerts and saw all the piazzas decorated for the holiday but it seemed a little bit smaller than in Rome. The museums were all free and we saw a lot of families out and about together. 

The 'rents are in town!!

I just said goodbye to my parents after a fabulous week long visit. I will try to remember all that happened since. They came to Rome last Saturday in the morning and I met them at their hotel (right at the top of the Spanish steps, pretty fancy, huh?) and we walked around the city a bit. I don't remember it raining but it probably was. For lunch we went to a really great seafood place called Ristorante Crispi on Via Crispi. Then we looked at all the fancy shops on Via Condotti and went to a caffe in Piazza Navona. I also took them by peanut/Steeler's bar and we got Daisy and Steve an asciugamano terribile. That night we went to dinner at a restaurant outside the city, I think on the Appian way with Stefano, Donatella, Pier Luigi, Lucrezia, Maria Vittoria, and Matilda! The food was delicious and there were so many courses. I would list them but I honestly can't remember well enough since we have had so much to eat since then! 

Sunday we all went to the Maxxi museum in the north part of the city since it was raining all day. On the tram ride up, we saw a bunch of people going to the Rome-Lazio game. We saw a group of loud but not yet rowdy young Lazio guys. They had all their blue and white hidden under their coats though since they were still in Roma territory. The museum was neat, but I am not a big fan of modern art. For lunch we went to this great little place and ate for what felt like three hours. It was really good though and we finished just in time for dinner. Haha! That night we went to Trastevere and met Kathryn Van Sickle for dinner at a restaurant right in Piazza Santa Maria. 

Monday I had class all day but met Mama and Papa with Kim in Trastevere again. This time we went to a little Osteria/Pizzeria that was so so so so so delicious! Mama told the owner it was the best dinner they'd had and he gave them a free bottle of wine! Tuesday again, we met up for dinner this time in Monteverde. We went to the really great pizzeria La Gatta Mangiona. We got there right at 8 and it was empty but the guy said there wasn't space since all the reservations would be starting soon. We got a place though because we promised to be out by 9. It was probably for the best though because I had my Italian midterm the next day. 

Il Mio Tirocino

As I have previously shared, I'm doing an internship at SOUL -- Sistema Orientamento Università Lavoro. It's basically the career center at Sapienza but it does work with all the universities in Lazio (Rome's region). At first it didn't go so well and I really didn't like it. The first interview was terrifying and the boss/professor/head of the department was really rude. Things are going better though. Everyone (boss included) are really nice. The language has not been too much of a problem. For the most part, I just do research on foreign internships and education options for Italian graduates. For awhile I was doing it at an extra desk in the professor's office but he smokes so much it made me feel a bit sick. I got my desk moved though which has made things a lot better. Today, instead of finishing my research they sent me over to the big annual career fair Sapienza has just to see what it was like. To get there, because it was about a 20 minute walk, I got to ride on the back of a motorino!! Don't let IES know because it is technically against their rules. The fair was neat and I got to "meet" lots of Italians. I talked a bit to the two SOUL people who were at the table. 

Sapienza is pretty far away and it takes at least an hour to get there from my apartment. I try to get there a little early though because then I have time to get a coffee or cappuccino. There are two caffes near the office. One is called Campus Caffe and is right near the bus stop. I've been twice and it has a lot of students and is a little lively. The other caffe is up past the SOUL building but is right next to the Ministero di Lavoro (Ministry of Labor) and is full of old Italian government officials. Very different but I think the coffee is better. 

(I didn't take the picture, but it is in my office)

Gala Dinner

Also during my missing weeks, I got to go out to dinner thanks to my loving grandmother!

Me, Kim, Will, and Jake went to dinner at the little Osteria on our street. It was pouring rain that day so it was really nice to have a wonderful warm meal to look forward to! I like the restaurant because there aren't menues, you kind of just tell them what you want. Usually they just ask pizza or pasta and then you just specify what kind. We got mixed bruschette which I think (as far as I remember) was tomato, artichoke, and olive. Whatever the toppings were, they were delicious. Then we couldn't decide between pasta or pizza so the owner suggested all getting pasta and he would bring us a pizza to share. It sounded like a good plan. We all got Amatriciana which is definitely my favorite pasta, especially here in Rome. The food was wonderful and it was a lot of fun. Jake and Will came home with us for a bit and we played a couple of rounds of bananagrams. We did not try playing in Italian though that may have been a good idea. 

"We should put Shakira's hips into the Bocca della Verità"

Well, welcome back to me!! I definitely have not blogged enough lately. My parents arrived in Rome on Saturday and with them they brought my beautiful new computer!! So happy about that! Now I can finally post pictures and blogs again. The problem is that it has been so long that I don't really remember what I've been doing. I'll start with Carnevale: 

The day my computer died (2.5 weeks ago) I went to the opening parade for carnevale in Rome! It was a really beautiful day and Jillian and I decided to walk to the center from Monteverde. City center was pretty crowded and we walked around for awhile. Piazza del Popolo was packed and we were able to slightly see a flag throwing performance. We then went and bought masks as a souvenir store even though nobody around us was wearing them. Most of the kids around were in costumes, but all of the adults were boring and noble. The parade was really great! Mostly a bunch of Renaissance people on horses. There were a bunch of dancing stilt walkers too. We met this little girl who was dressed up as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She was really cute and nervous but then said in english that her name was Flavia and asked where we were from. She then got very shy and hid behind her dad. We talked to her a bit and got a great picture with her. 

I don't really remember the rest of the week and had to go check what happened by reading my really short blog post from last week. I'll jump ahead to part two of carnevale.

The next weekend (last weeked, I guess) we decided to go to Viareggio because it is the second biggest carnival in Italy and is a lot closer, cleaner, and cheaper than Venice. We (Me, Kim, Will, and Adam) were planning on going on Saturday but then actually googled it and found out the parade for which it is famous was only on Sunday so we put the trip off for a day. It was completely worth it!! I had heard that there were cool floats, but these were just fantastic!!! They were huge with 100 people dancing on them and huge moveable parts that went out over the crowd. There was music and dancing and confetti! It was amazing. We took the train around 10 in the morning and got into Viareggio around 1. As soon as we left the train station we saw people in costumes. 

We walked around and wore our masks (everyone was in a mask or costume!!). On a little side street we saw a table set up outside a hispanic family restaurant/cafe and there was a father and his 5 or 6 year old son selling empanadas for a euro. The little boy was adorable and helped serve. We finally made it to the carnival area which was the street parallel the beach. The parade had not started yet so we walked around the beach for awhile. The parade started off with a bang (they shot off fireworks) and then went for about 3 hours. I really can't describe the scene this was! There was also a ferris wheel with basically no line so we watched part of it from up there. When it was done we went back and watched the sunset on the beach. Living on the east coast I very rarely have seen the sun set over the water and it was beautiful. The purple clouds went along the horizon and then blended with the mountains on the coast. It was a really warm day on the beach but we could still see snow on the mountain tops. After hanging on the beach, we were all really craving seafood and so went and got a quick dinner before catching out 9 o'clock train home. 

All in all, Carnival in Italy is amazing! Do not miss it. 

4 Days Past and 4 Days Future

So, my computer died/crashed this past weekend. It's kind of hard to blog from my iPod, so that is why I really haven't been writing anything. My fabulous parents are bringing me a new one when they come visit next week! Here is a real quick update. I'll post more and pictures when I have time and my own computer.

Saturday: Jillian and I went to the Carnevale parade. So cool and crazy and fun. We bought masks and a huge bag of confetti.

Sunday: I mourned the death of my computer and took two naps. Sonia cooked an amazing and gigantic lunch.

Monday: Class for a long time. Nothing really exciting.

Tuesday: Started my internship. Not really liking it so far, but it will probably get better. Ate sushi for lunch. Also went out to a gala dinner (Thank you, Nonna!). Kim, Jake, Will, and I went to the little Osteria down the street from our apartment. Pictures to come. We also played bananagrams.

Wednesday: Field study at the Senate. There was supposed to be a vote this morning, but it got moved until tonight so we really didn't see anything. Second field study was Palatine Hill. Pouring rain and freezing cold. Rather miserable.

I'll try to predict my future since I might not post again for a few days.

Tomorrow: Internship for about 4 or 5 hours in the morning. Plus the hour and a half to get there. Will probably go out tomorrow night since it is Giovedì Grasso, a big night for Carnevale.

Friday: I will finally have time to take my computer to the apple store!

Saturday: Debating taking a day trip to Viareggio or just Roman Carnevale. Supposed to be a few more parades.

Sunday: Meeting up with Kathryn Van Sickle for dinner.