I can finally say that I have cooked my own authentic Italian dish! Marielle, Patee and I have decided that since food is so expensive, we are going to assign each other one night per week to cook a meal for the three of us. Not only will it save us some money, but it will also make Patee and I learn how to cook! I looked up recipes on a Web site and found a baked pasta with three-cheese sauce and grilled chicken - and I successfully made it tonight, though it did take about three hours for me to figure it out - oh well, you gota start somewhere! And it was delicious, if I must say so myself. :) The food here is soooo expensive, which really sucks. It is almost impossible to find a lunch meal for less than 10 euro - even the jars of peanut butter at the grocery store (which are half the size of the ones at home) are 6 euro!!! It is ridiculous. I figure that the lunches are as expensive as dinners because Italians eat their BIG meals in the afternoons. We still are getting used to this, but I don't know if we ever will! Unfortunately we are eating our weight - it is so hard to eat healthily!
Last Thursday, Patee, Marielle, Stacey, Rebekka, Samantha, Shannon and I all took the train to Rome together. It was a long four-hour train ride, but we brought our 68-cent boxed wine, which made it go by faster. Yes, there is 68-cent boxed wine here, as there are also wine juice boxes. It's amazing and almost impossible to not drink a glass of wine every day because it comes with any meal you order ... and it's not uncommon to see someone drinking a glass of wine with their croissant at the bakery in the morning. Gross - they mind as well substitute wine for milk in cereal.
When we arrived to Rome, we found our hotel, which was called Papa Germano, and right near the train station, which was extremely convenient. I didn't necessarily like our location in Rome in general because it was pretty far from the nightlife and from Vatican City. The seven of us went to dinner, where we tried the supposedly famous Roman dish of spaghetti all'amatriciana - a spicy thin tomato sauce with chili peppers and bacon. It was delicious, and recommended in my guide book. Speaking of the guide book, I don't know where we would be without the guide book Caroline got for me - we'd probably still be trying to find our way to our apartments. It is seriously our Bible while we're in Europe.
On Friday, Patee and Marielle accompanied me on the train to Formia, which is where Grandma and Grandpa's families are from. I am so lucky that I have two best friends who would do such a thing for me because they realized how important it was to me. Even though we had no idea what to do there and where to go, we had a blast. Formia is absolutely gorgeous and is pretty
much just a small, modern city of beaches. The three of us had to ask a lady who was walking her dog where we should go and she pointed us to the main street, where we found the fisheries. Supposedly Great Grandpa used to be a fisherman on this fishery, which is so amazing to me that I got to see it. People looked at us so weird because Formia usually only receives tourists during the summertime, since it is a beach city. It was refreshing to hear the Italians speak only Italian to us because sometimes they will speak English to us, even when we are trying to speak Italian to them. It is frustrating for us because we really want to learn the language and practice in normal conversations in our daily lives, but the Italians seem so impatient with us! Anyways, the three of us pretty much sat on the rocks of the fishery, took pictures and just talked. It was so nice to relax by the sea, which was pretty clear, and to bond with Marielle and Patee even more. It meant so much to me to be able to see the city where my ancestors lived and worked, and it meant so much to me that Patee and Marielle would do whatever it took to get us there. It was a good way to reflect and think about my ancestors and remember Grandpa, who I really miss so much, especially being here. I want to take Mom and Dad back there and look for the cemeteries where our ancestors are buried. I did find two cemeteries on a map, but we didn't have the time to go searching in them. We also walked around the main street to look for some lunch or a wine bar, and of course every single shop and restaurant were closed for siesta time! It's even worse than Florence's siestas because literally every single restaurant and shop were closed in Formia. It's so inconvenient, but part of the Italians' culture and laid-backness. Below is a picture of me in front of the sea in Formia.
When we returned to Rome from Formia, we decided to go with the flow that we had been on all day, and just fly by the seat of our pants. So, we went to an "enotecha," which is a wine bar. Wine bars are on every corner of the street, and we hadn't been to one yet. We were the only ones in there and ended up having three glasses of wine each. The server, we later figured out, is a famous Italian actor and musician. His name was Leonardo and he showed us pictures of him at Grammys and other award ceremonies, and he played music for us. He also fell in love with Marielle (ha), and gave us free desserts to take home. He asked us if we liked Obama, and we gave him our answers, and he told us that he hated Obama! He is the first person we have met in Europe to not like Obama. It was very interesting to hear this, and actually pretty refreshing!
That night, the seven of us went to eat at Miscellanea, which is also recommended in my guide book. It was delicious, and its wallls were covered with lists of universities that had been to that restaurant before - and NC State was on there! Marielle and I were so proud!
On Saturday, five of us met up with the tour guide we had hired and we visited the Vatican
Museums. I had no idea that the Vatican was a museum filled with art. After 11 years of Catholic school, I thought I would've known that by now, but I was comforted by the fact that no one else I was with knew it was a museum either. We all thought that it was a place for the Pope and Cardinals to do work and live and stuff. Anyways, we walked through a few hallways of art and through the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel was extremely beautiful and impressive and is the site of where the papal elections take place, which I did not know. I took a lot of pictures, even though we weren't supposed to (oops!), and our tour guide yelled at me, but oh well - when else will I ever be back there? She gets to go there all the time, and everyone else in there was taking pictures. :)
After the Vatican, we went to St. Peter's Basilica. It was a beautiful Church, but I personally thought that there was nothing impressive about it compared to all of the other basilicas we have seen. I guess I'm just now getting used to these humongous and beautifully-built churches. We saw St. Peter's Tomb, and the Pope's altar, where he says Mass. We also were able to see La Pieta - the sculpture by Michelangelo of Mary holding Jesus after he died. It was sooo beautiful and probably my favorite part of the Vatican and St. Peter's. Our tour guide told us that Michelangelo depicted Mary as very young in this sculpture, and no one really knows why. I would've never noticed that if she hadn't told us that. She also told us that a few years ago a crazy man ran up to the sculpture with a hammer at Mary's head. Now there is a huge glass case surrounding it. Why are people so crazy?
We walked through St. Peter's Square, which is where the Pope speaks to audiences and holds Masses. I loved it there! I also bought Grandma a BEAUTIFUL rosary from there and think she will really like it, especially knowing it came from the Vatican. To the left is a picture of Shannon, Samantha, Pot, me, Stachay, Rebekka and Marielle in St. Peter's Square.
Later on, Patee, Marielle and I went to the Catacombs, which was so cool! Since burial inside the city walls was forbidden during ancient times, Christians dug maze-like catacombs where they buried their beloved ones. I learned that this was an alternative solution to the pricey land. Anyways, it was literally like a cave inside of there and I was really impressed with it. It was my favorite part of the day, and probably the entire trip.
On our way home from the Catacombs, the three of us got on the wrong bus (oops!), which led us to the where the busses stay overnight. Luckily, there was a bus stop for us to get on the right bus, which took an additional 30 minutes, while it was also dark outside. About 15 minutes into the ride, Patee looked at me and told me that there was a man about to board the bus who looked like trouble. Well, the second he boarded I could smell the liquor and alcohol. He walked up and down the aisles, yelling in Italian and literally popping his eye balls out of his head at people (LITERALLY!!!). It scared the hell out of the three of us. The bus driver told him he had to get off the bus because he obviously very drunk and on a million different drugs. He refused to sit and kept yelling in Italian, until a man went up to him and talked some sense into him so he would sit down. Two minutes later, he walked around again, making people move away from him, including Patee and me. He started talking to the bus driver, who was yelling at him to sit down, and then the crazy guy started talking about Obama. This really scared the three of us because we thought he was targeting us as Americans and was going to do something crazy. He made eye contact with me and started yelling and popping his eyeballs out of his head in my face, and the bus driver stopped randomly and made him get off. It was the scariest thing ever, and Marielle and Patee were crying by the end of it. A nice little Italian lady came to comfort us, which was so sweet of her. It made us startled the rest of the night - we went to McDonald's and wondered what in the world drives people to that point. Yes, we went to McDonald's in Italy. They have cheeseburgers for only one euro!
On Saturday night, we girls went out together and met up with the other people from our program who were in Rome for the weekend too. We had such a fun last night in Rome, even though Marielle fell on the cobble streets and ripped a hole in her jeans, hahaah.
On Sunday morning, we went to see the Ancient City, which included the Colosseum. We hired a tour guide for only 8 euro, which was so worth it beacuse we also got entrance to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The Colosseum was awesome - I found it most interesting to see
what was below the floor - it was a bunch of stones and grass, which is where the they stored the animals before going onto the stage. The stones actually used to be elevators, which carried the animals up to the state in seven minutes! The Palatine Hill was kind of boring to me, but it was also really neat to know that I was standing on the ruins of a palace. It amazes me that some of this stuff is still here today. After that, we saw the Roman Forum, and we also found a little public garden with orange trees! Marielle and I picked some oranges and tried them, but they definitely were not ripe then, which was disappointing. We had to spit them out because they were so sour! Later on, the three of us went to the Spanish Steps and Trivi Fountain. I LOVED the Trivi Fountain - it reminded me of the Lizzie Mcguire movie when she was in Italy. I thought it was so beautiful and the detail of it was amazing! The picture below is of Marielle, me, Rebekka and Pot in Palatine Hill.
Overall, I had higher expectations for Rome and was not as impressed as I thought I would be. Art is really boring to me, and I try very hard to appreciate it and understand it, but I have no appreciation for it. I feel like a lot of the sights we saw had a lot to do with art, which may be why I wasn't impressed. I also felt extremely uncomfortable and unsafe in Rome. There were signs everywhere that warned us of gypsies and pick-pocketers, so we knew we had to be extra careful, but there is something about Rome that made me uncomfortable. I was really excited to get back home to Florence - I think I finally just feel like a resident now and like a part of the city and culture. Our apartment has gotten so cozy and a home to us and we absolutely love it. So anyways, it was very refreshing to get back to Florence. We are going to Venice this weekend with the LdM program for the Carnivale, which is a big Catholic celebration like Mardis Gras. We are going on Saturday and Sunday, so we have Friday to catch up on sleep and relax after this week (we have to meet at 4 a.m. for the bus to Venice on Saturday!). We are buying masks for the Carnivale at the dollar store so we can fit in with everyone else - it is also supposed to snow in Florence AND Venice this weekend! Exciting (I think)! Stacey's and Sam's birthdays are on Thursday, so we are going back to Dante's for dinner and then we are celebrating their birthdays the rest of the night. We are going to Valencia, Spain, the next weekend, where we will hopefully get to visit with Katie. She told me that it is absolutely beautiful and it's on the Mediterranean, so we will probably be warm and get a tan. I am so excited!
I have my wine tasting class tomorrow again! It was so much fun last week - we have FIVE glasses of wine in every single class! It is all so neat, but so hard! We learned a lot about the ages of wines and what is better - for red wine, it is better to have it aged. If you lean your glass towards a white background and it is dark, ruby red in the nail of it than it is not aged enough and therefore not as good. If it has an orange tint to it, than it is a good glass of aged wine. Interesting, huh?
I really miss Mark a lot and wish he could be here. Only 16 days until he is here to experience this amazing city with me! And soon after Mom and Dad will be here with me also! I have so much to look forward to and am so thankful for this opportunity.
Ciao!
Last Thursday, Patee, Marielle, Stacey, Rebekka, Samantha, Shannon and I all took the train to Rome together. It was a long four-hour train ride, but we brought our 68-cent boxed wine, which made it go by faster. Yes, there is 68-cent boxed wine here, as there are also wine juice boxes. It's amazing and almost impossible to not drink a glass of wine every day because it comes with any meal you order ... and it's not uncommon to see someone drinking a glass of wine with their croissant at the bakery in the morning. Gross - they mind as well substitute wine for milk in cereal.
When we arrived to Rome, we found our hotel, which was called Papa Germano, and right near the train station, which was extremely convenient. I didn't necessarily like our location in Rome in general because it was pretty far from the nightlife and from Vatican City. The seven of us went to dinner, where we tried the supposedly famous Roman dish of spaghetti all'amatriciana - a spicy thin tomato sauce with chili peppers and bacon. It was delicious, and recommended in my guide book. Speaking of the guide book, I don't know where we would be without the guide book Caroline got for me - we'd probably still be trying to find our way to our apartments. It is seriously our Bible while we're in Europe.
On Friday, Patee and Marielle accompanied me on the train to Formia, which is where Grandma and Grandpa's families are from. I am so lucky that I have two best friends who would do such a thing for me because they realized how important it was to me. Even though we had no idea what to do there and where to go, we had a blast. Formia is absolutely gorgeous and is pretty
much just a small, modern city of beaches. The three of us had to ask a lady who was walking her dog where we should go and she pointed us to the main street, where we found the fisheries. Supposedly Great Grandpa used to be a fisherman on this fishery, which is so amazing to me that I got to see it. People looked at us so weird because Formia usually only receives tourists during the summertime, since it is a beach city. It was refreshing to hear the Italians speak only Italian to us because sometimes they will speak English to us, even when we are trying to speak Italian to them. It is frustrating for us because we really want to learn the language and practice in normal conversations in our daily lives, but the Italians seem so impatient with us! Anyways, the three of us pretty much sat on the rocks of the fishery, took pictures and just talked. It was so nice to relax by the sea, which was pretty clear, and to bond with Marielle and Patee even more. It meant so much to me to be able to see the city where my ancestors lived and worked, and it meant so much to me that Patee and Marielle would do whatever it took to get us there. It was a good way to reflect and think about my ancestors and remember Grandpa, who I really miss so much, especially being here. I want to take Mom and Dad back there and look for the cemeteries where our ancestors are buried. I did find two cemeteries on a map, but we didn't have the time to go searching in them. We also walked around the main street to look for some lunch or a wine bar, and of course every single shop and restaurant were closed for siesta time! It's even worse than Florence's siestas because literally every single restaurant and shop were closed in Formia. It's so inconvenient, but part of the Italians' culture and laid-backness. Below is a picture of me in front of the sea in Formia.When we returned to Rome from Formia, we decided to go with the flow that we had been on all day, and just fly by the seat of our pants. So, we went to an "enotecha," which is a wine bar. Wine bars are on every corner of the street, and we hadn't been to one yet. We were the only ones in there and ended up having three glasses of wine each. The server, we later figured out, is a famous Italian actor and musician. His name was Leonardo and he showed us pictures of him at Grammys and other award ceremonies, and he played music for us. He also fell in love with Marielle (ha), and gave us free desserts to take home. He asked us if we liked Obama, and we gave him our answers, and he told us that he hated Obama! He is the first person we have met in Europe to not like Obama. It was very interesting to hear this, and actually pretty refreshing!
That night, the seven of us went to eat at Miscellanea, which is also recommended in my guide book. It was delicious, and its wallls were covered with lists of universities that had been to that restaurant before - and NC State was on there! Marielle and I were so proud!
On Saturday, five of us met up with the tour guide we had hired and we visited the Vatican
Museums. I had no idea that the Vatican was a museum filled with art. After 11 years of Catholic school, I thought I would've known that by now, but I was comforted by the fact that no one else I was with knew it was a museum either. We all thought that it was a place for the Pope and Cardinals to do work and live and stuff. Anyways, we walked through a few hallways of art and through the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel was extremely beautiful and impressive and is the site of where the papal elections take place, which I did not know. I took a lot of pictures, even though we weren't supposed to (oops!), and our tour guide yelled at me, but oh well - when else will I ever be back there? She gets to go there all the time, and everyone else in there was taking pictures. :)After the Vatican, we went to St. Peter's Basilica. It was a beautiful Church, but I personally thought that there was nothing impressive about it compared to all of the other basilicas we have seen. I guess I'm just now getting used to these humongous and beautifully-built churches. We saw St. Peter's Tomb, and the Pope's altar, where he says Mass. We also were able to see La Pieta - the sculpture by Michelangelo of Mary holding Jesus after he died. It was sooo beautiful and probably my favorite part of the Vatican and St. Peter's. Our tour guide told us that Michelangelo depicted Mary as very young in this sculpture, and no one really knows why. I would've never noticed that if she hadn't told us that. She also told us that a few years ago a crazy man ran up to the sculpture with a hammer at Mary's head. Now there is a huge glass case surrounding it. Why are people so crazy?
We walked through St. Peter's Square, which is where the Pope speaks to audiences and holds Masses. I loved it there! I also bought Grandma a BEAUTIFUL rosary from there and think she will really like it, especially knowing it came from the Vatican. To the left is a picture of Shannon, Samantha, Pot, me, Stachay, Rebekka and Marielle in St. Peter's Square.
Later on, Patee, Marielle and I went to the Catacombs, which was so cool! Since burial inside the city walls was forbidden during ancient times, Christians dug maze-like catacombs where they buried their beloved ones. I learned that this was an alternative solution to the pricey land. Anyways, it was literally like a cave inside of there and I was really impressed with it. It was my favorite part of the day, and probably the entire trip.
On our way home from the Catacombs, the three of us got on the wrong bus (oops!), which led us to the where the busses stay overnight. Luckily, there was a bus stop for us to get on the right bus, which took an additional 30 minutes, while it was also dark outside. About 15 minutes into the ride, Patee looked at me and told me that there was a man about to board the bus who looked like trouble. Well, the second he boarded I could smell the liquor and alcohol. He walked up and down the aisles, yelling in Italian and literally popping his eye balls out of his head at people (LITERALLY!!!). It scared the hell out of the three of us. The bus driver told him he had to get off the bus because he obviously very drunk and on a million different drugs. He refused to sit and kept yelling in Italian, until a man went up to him and talked some sense into him so he would sit down. Two minutes later, he walked around again, making people move away from him, including Patee and me. He started talking to the bus driver, who was yelling at him to sit down, and then the crazy guy started talking about Obama. This really scared the three of us because we thought he was targeting us as Americans and was going to do something crazy. He made eye contact with me and started yelling and popping his eyeballs out of his head in my face, and the bus driver stopped randomly and made him get off. It was the scariest thing ever, and Marielle and Patee were crying by the end of it. A nice little Italian lady came to comfort us, which was so sweet of her. It made us startled the rest of the night - we went to McDonald's and wondered what in the world drives people to that point. Yes, we went to McDonald's in Italy. They have cheeseburgers for only one euro!
On Saturday night, we girls went out together and met up with the other people from our program who were in Rome for the weekend too. We had such a fun last night in Rome, even though Marielle fell on the cobble streets and ripped a hole in her jeans, hahaah.
On Sunday morning, we went to see the Ancient City, which included the Colosseum. We hired a tour guide for only 8 euro, which was so worth it beacuse we also got entrance to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The Colosseum was awesome - I found it most interesting to see
what was below the floor - it was a bunch of stones and grass, which is where the they stored the animals before going onto the stage. The stones actually used to be elevators, which carried the animals up to the state in seven minutes! The Palatine Hill was kind of boring to me, but it was also really neat to know that I was standing on the ruins of a palace. It amazes me that some of this stuff is still here today. After that, we saw the Roman Forum, and we also found a little public garden with orange trees! Marielle and I picked some oranges and tried them, but they definitely were not ripe then, which was disappointing. We had to spit them out because they were so sour! Later on, the three of us went to the Spanish Steps and Trivi Fountain. I LOVED the Trivi Fountain - it reminded me of the Lizzie Mcguire movie when she was in Italy. I thought it was so beautiful and the detail of it was amazing! The picture below is of Marielle, me, Rebekka and Pot in Palatine Hill.
Overall, I had higher expectations for Rome and was not as impressed as I thought I would be. Art is really boring to me, and I try very hard to appreciate it and understand it, but I have no appreciation for it. I feel like a lot of the sights we saw had a lot to do with art, which may be why I wasn't impressed. I also felt extremely uncomfortable and unsafe in Rome. There were signs everywhere that warned us of gypsies and pick-pocketers, so we knew we had to be extra careful, but there is something about Rome that made me uncomfortable. I was really excited to get back home to Florence - I think I finally just feel like a resident now and like a part of the city and culture. Our apartment has gotten so cozy and a home to us and we absolutely love it. So anyways, it was very refreshing to get back to Florence. We are going to Venice this weekend with the LdM program for the Carnivale, which is a big Catholic celebration like Mardis Gras. We are going on Saturday and Sunday, so we have Friday to catch up on sleep and relax after this week (we have to meet at 4 a.m. for the bus to Venice on Saturday!). We are buying masks for the Carnivale at the dollar store so we can fit in with everyone else - it is also supposed to snow in Florence AND Venice this weekend! Exciting (I think)! Stacey's and Sam's birthdays are on Thursday, so we are going back to Dante's for dinner and then we are celebrating their birthdays the rest of the night. We are going to Valencia, Spain, the next weekend, where we will hopefully get to visit with Katie. She told me that it is absolutely beautiful and it's on the Mediterranean, so we will probably be warm and get a tan. I am so excited!I have my wine tasting class tomorrow again! It was so much fun last week - we have FIVE glasses of wine in every single class! It is all so neat, but so hard! We learned a lot about the ages of wines and what is better - for red wine, it is better to have it aged. If you lean your glass towards a white background and it is dark, ruby red in the nail of it than it is not aged enough and therefore not as good. If it has an orange tint to it, than it is a good glass of aged wine. Interesting, huh?
I really miss Mark a lot and wish he could be here. Only 16 days until he is here to experience this amazing city with me! And soon after Mom and Dad will be here with me also! I have so much to look forward to and am so thankful for this opportunity.
Ciao!
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