Day 22: Holy Moly have we really been here that long??

I apologize in advance for the barrage of nonstop photos on facebook and insta... Actually I'm not that sorry. :)

Here's what's happened since last time: 

Thursday Sept 12: 

Had no classes today, but walked with my roommate to school to get some studying done. I supremely underestimated the amount of 'going out' clothes I would need for this trip, so a visit to Brandy Melville was necessary. :)

With two new dresses and a skirt/crop top combo in tow, we made way back to our apartment to get ready for dinner with our roommates Italian friends.

Of all of the restaurants in Trastevere, they picked (I kid you not) "T-Bone Station," the American restaurant around the block. T-Bone Station is part Chili's/TJIFridays and part stereotypical American dishes like hot dogs, chili fries, and an assortment of more or less stadium foods. But, it was still delicious. REALLY delicious. Danielle and I split an order of Nachos Supreme. Our new italian friends were completely disgusted with the concept of guacamole.

"Why do you eat the green?!"

After that it was time for the infamous G Bar then back home for the rest of the evening.

Friday Sept 13:

Our bus for the Campania trip through CEA was leaving at 8am out in front of our house. But first, COFFEE.

Uno Cappuccino Bellissimo

By the time the bus pulled up, all ~80 of us had to pile in for the 3 hour drive to Pompeii. Of course the caffeine had zero effect on me and I knocked out for the entirety of the bus ride.

Granted, I had already done the Pompeii tour with my family when we went on the cruise in 2008:

One thing I missed on the last family version of the Pompeii tour was the tour of the 56+ BROTHELS and the hundreds of phalluses carved into the pavements, decorating the walls that pointed visiting sailors in the direction of the whore houses. Seriously, I am not making this up. Pompeii Brothels

By the time the tour was over, I was melting in my Maxi dress. Thank goodness for my trusty water bottle, which I filled up at the ancient fountains around the ruins, with water being pumped in from ingenious aqueducts from before the time of Christ. Nuts. 

The granny bun was soon in full effect:

From Pompeii, we got back on the bus towards Sorrento, where our hotel was. We stopped at the lookout point and took some amazing photos:

You can make out Capri in the very back!

You can also make out the Royal Caribbean ship in the distance, which I am pretty sure will be the cruise ship we will be on for Spain!

Once we checked in, we had dinner at the hotel and the rest of the night to, as our advisor said: "drink all of the water we want!" 

{Break out Brandy outfit #2}

We made our way out to main street of Sorrento to see some of the night life. BUT, we were much too early. Even though we were out walking around at about 9pm, the real night life doesn't get started until after 11 in Italy. SO, we walked around the city. The weather was perfect; 70ish degrees and warm. So weird that it totally reminded us of main street in Disneyland. Everything in Sorrento seemed to be miniaturized, very clean, and pedestrian. Too fun. We settled on a kind of empty dance bar for some random dancing. On tables of course :) :

The night ended with the English Inn, a very very Americanized pub and bar that had the best of early-mid 2000s Rap and Hip Hop music. We all had wayyy too much fun dancing our brains out.

Too. Much. Fun.

Saturday Sept 14:

Free Breakfast. 

Ferry ride to Capri.

Somehow my roommate and I were under the assumption that there would be hiking involved (?). Wrong. Everyone else was in their cute beach clothes with beach towels and we were in our grungy norts and nikes. Woops. Assuming that we would be hiking, I literally did not bring anything with me on the island. Just the clothes on my back and my water bottle. Mistake. I had zero dollars with me because I left my wallet on the bus and they wouldn't let me get it out. Thank goodness for roommates. We split a pizza in Marina Grande and then boarded a guided boat tour around the Island. EXCEPT, we definitely missed the 'party boat' with all of our friends on it and had to catch the second one with the less than enthusiastic Providence College kids. Ughh.. 

But their crummy attitudes could not mess with the beautiful views, amazing water and unmistakably wonderful sensation of getting a nice tan.

Casually swimming in the Mediterranean

I am such a sucker for boats and the ocean. I was in heaven this whole boat tour. Literally too good for words. The water was gorgeous and the boat tour took us into caves and grottos to look at the coral reefs and stalactites that make the island look straight out of a movie. Incredible. 

Once back on the island we had an hour or so to kill. Gelato time duh.

Ferry ride back through Napoli.

Bus ride home:

We got back in Rome around 9pm and rallied to go out to GBar. Given that that time last week my roommates met a professional basketball player, I wasn't about to be a big baby again and go back to sleep. More of Venesha's italian friends came over with pizza, bacardi and Jager for all of us. Perfalerf. 

We went out and these are the only pictures I have from the pizza shop. Note: we had pizza 3 times that day. Normal. 

'Blowjob Shots' (aka Kaluha, Baileys and cream) set on fire

Sunday Sept 15:

Sunday= Homework day. It rained which was helpful. 

Monday Sept 16:

Class. 

The one good thing that came out of Monday was my killer pair of house slippers:

Our floors, and consequently my sheets, get SO disgusting. These bad boys were worth the 1 Euro investment. 

Tuesday Sept 17:

Tuesdays are my favorite class day. The morning started with Art History at the Museo Nazionale Romano. I am like a little kid in a candy store with anything art related. Today the student presentations included frescoes and bronzes. Heaven. I love Greco-Roman classical art because the level of craftsmanship is absolutely unreal. I also love art humor:

Ryan Gosling for the win

teeny tiny tiles

Note: I took this photos with my iPhone. Classical Sculptures all look incredible in black and whites. The details and craftsmanship is absolutely insane. To think that each of these pieces below once started as giant blocks of marble is mind boggling. Discobolos by Myron is one of my favorites. 

After the lecture, we had to book it to the Metro to get to our Food and Wine class on time. 

We did sans lunch. But I lucked out because today was our pasta workshop.

Yup.

We tried two kinds white wines and two pasta dishes that were incredible. Our professor has an italian friend who is part chef part classical ballerina named Claudia who made us Orecchiette with Broccoli. (Similar recipe here) and Rigatoni all'Amatriciana (Similar here). 

Uh-maz-ing. 

So so so so good. And free which always makes things taste better. 

So that's all folks!

A dopo!

Devotissimo Suo,

M

Day 16: Is this real life?

I just finished my second week of classes... (No Thursday or Friday classes) and they were all awesome. Will go in to more detail, but first I have to recap the weekend:

Saturday Sept 7:

On Saturday, Danielle and I went to the store and got cheese, wine, grapes, proscuitto and a baguette for our roomie picnic at the Trevi Fountain. Our goal was to make it there by 'sunsetty' time, which didn't quite happen. Still totally worth it though. 

From there we wandered to the Coliseum to check it out all lit up at night. Not bad:

By the time we made it back to our place, it was close to midnight and I decided to go to bed. Mistake.  3 of my other roommates went out to GBar 2 blocks behind our house and met a pro Basketball player and his entourage AND scored a date with an Italian man. I told my roommate she's not allowed to let me say no. Ever. Again. Grr. 

Sunday Sept 8:

I knew I was going to be doing homework all day on Sunday so my roommate and I thought we would go on a run. We went down to the Tiber River and just started going South. Down on the river there is a bike lane/running road that is only there during the summer months when the river is low. Even though we have been walking to the point of exhaustion, running totally works different muscles. By the time we thought we should turn around, we found ourselves wayyyyy farther than we thought. We mapped it out when we got home: 3.5miles. Not too shabby. 

Monday Sept 9:

Nothing cool happened. Haha. 

Tuesday Sept 10:

Art History and Food and Wine. The two best classes in the existence of the world. 

In Art History, we had an on site lecture AT the Colosseum, followed my Trajan's market and Trajan's Column:

Afterwards, our Food and Wine class was also on site. We met up at CEA then took the Metro (um, yuck) to a small market next to Termini Station. Our assignment was to take notes of the kind of market , prices, goods and population and compare it to the next market we were going to: Eataly.

This first market Esquilino was in what I can only describe as the Chula Vista of Rome. Mostly made up of Bangledeshi people and Asian minorities, this market was on the smaller side with vendors in booth selling different types of food. This picture I just found on google images gives you a good idea of what it looks like:

Definitely not Ralphs

The food was cheap, but the people made it a little uncomfortable. There were plenty of Gypsies creepin around and the vendors immediately peg you as American and say things to you that are a little uncomfotable. Being a tall blonde doesn't help so much either. 

"Ohhhhh you so beauuuuutiful" 

"No grazie"

I did manage to snap this pic of an Octopus for sale:

From there, we got on the Metro again (yuck, again) and got off at Piramide to go to Eataly.

Foodie. Heaven.

I walked in and fell in love. Eataly is the Nordstroms/Neiman Marcus/Ritz Carlton of Grocery Stores. Talk about a 180 from the last place. I was DYING. 4 Levels of specialty food products with Bistros in each corner of each floor. Not kidding. 

All pasta, gelato, desserts, mozzarella are made on site. Incredible. The only thing I could say while I was in there was that I could die happy inside that place. I literally wanted one of everything that they were selling. The one thing I had to get was obviously in the dessert case. 

Chocolate.

Covered. 

Tiramisu.

Pop.

A Very Well Documented First Bite thanks to Rachel 

This was probably the best thing I have eaten this whole trip so far. It was so so so so delicious. Then it was gone... Wahhh

I want to live in Eataly. Seriously. But we were on another foodie mission after class. Our roommate Ali turned 20 yesterday and we had to go hunt down the cookie factory that my cousin referred us to on Via Della Luce to get bday dessert. 

 Biscottifico Innocente:

Looks completely irrelevant from the outside, but once you get within 10 feet of the door, you can SMELL the amazingness coming from inside. We ordered a box of at least 20 cookies (tutti cioccolato) for only 9 euros. 

Happy Bday Ali!!!

We had dinner at La Carbonara at Campo di Fiori, (Kinda a tourist trap) and then enjoyed all of these great cookies! Yesterday was a great day for food.

Wednesday Sept 11:

Only one class today, (New Testament and Catholicism) on site in the Roman Forum. Since I have heard this information at least 3 times already, I brought my good camera along and took photos during the 2 hour lecture in on and off cloudy/rainy-one-minute-then-blistering-hot weather.

Enjoy. :)

Roman Forum

Lookin' like a bag lady

Vestal Virgins

Arch of Titus

Devotissimo Suo,

M

Day 10 Update: When in Roma

Only 10 days in and I feel like I could live in this city for the rest of my life. I am seriously loving it so much that I don't even want to take the time away from exploring my new home to write out this blog. (Hence the procrastination.)

SO let me recap from last post with more high low updates. 

Wednesday Sept 4:

Started the day off with our New Testament class at the Church of San Clemente. Kind of a trek to get there by 10:30 am with it still being almost the height of tourist season. The site is actually quite incredible and the history is really amazing. So nuts to think you are walking on herringbone pattern brick that was laid, (on the most bottom level), in the 1st Century AD. BUT, I won't bore you with the history. If you are interested, here is the link to the website: http://www.basilicasanclemente.com

Some of the best (and nerdiest) moments for me is when I can flashback to learning about all of the 12thCentury Mosaics in Mrs. Talle's AP Art History class in high school and then see it in person. Here's a photo I took inside Basilica San Clemente:

Class got out at noon and my roommate and I took a bus to another bus to another bus to get home and CHANGE. Wearing leggings and a sweater in order to be suitable to enter the Church was not the business in 90+ degree heat. Later that afternoon I had my Italian class where we learned the oh-so-helpful "Vattene!" which means go away in english. 

From there we had our Pizza and Gelato crawl leaving from Campo di' Fiori. 

Our second stop was near Rome's infamous 'Cat Sanctuary' at Torre Argentina. "Known as Largo di Torre Argentina, this archaeological wonder was excavated as part of Mussolini's rebuilding efforts in 1929, revealing extensive multi-level temples that lie sunken 20 feet below modern street level. Besides several different temples, Torre Argentina also contains part of the famous Theater of Pompey, upon whose steps dictator Julius Caesar was betrayed and killed in 44 BCE. Today, volunteers at Torre Argentina care for approximately 250 cats. After the site was excavated, Rome's feral cats moved in immediately, as they do all over the city, and the gattare, or cat ladies, began feeding and caring for them. " You can check out more here: Atlas Obscura

Here are some of my photos:

AWWW suh cuuuute! 

Mean Kitty

Ok this is completely unrelated but I think it is so so so  funny. Lolz. 

Our tour ended up right near the Pantheon where we got a good group pic of all the ladies on our trip:

Let's hear it for tha LADIEZZ

From there, we (comically) made way to The Drunken Ship (it is exactly how you would imagine a place named Drunken Ship to be)... 

WHEN IN ROME: Order Power Hour at Drunken Ship and make way to Scholars for Karaoke Night. Power Hour = as many beers as you can drink in an hour for 10Euros. I won't mention how many I had, but let's just say I got my money's worth. :) Thursday nights at Scholars (Irish Pub) are way too fun for anyone's good. We sang, we drank, we were merry.

Thursday Sept 5:

On Thursday, I actually met up with my great cousin Laura! An Italy Guru and great travel resource, she met up with some of my roommates and I at Caffe Ciampini which makes its own gelato ON SITE. Heaven. 

It was so great to catch up with her and talk about family, friends and our mutual love of Roma! Too cool. :)

From there, we worked our way towards the Spanish Steps and the 'Rodeo Drive of Rome.'

WHEN IN ROME: (still on my bucket list) Dress up like a million bucks and shop on Via di Corsi like you could buy the place. Dolce&Gabbana, Burbery, Fendi, Prada. Drool. 

Later Thursday afternoon we went to a discount grocery store and got SO MUCH FOOD FOR SO CHEAP. I got wraps, eggs, green beans, butter, bread, peaches, proscuitto, parmesan, yogurt and a bunch of other stuff for ONLY 12 EUROS! And,........ I think that it marked the beginning of my Nutella obsession. 

Nutella toast, Nutella Crepes (yes that happened at 1am last night), Nutella PIZZA! I am not kidding, I have had more Nutella over the last 2 days than I could ever put into words. 

After a repeat of Wednesday almost, (G Bar, Scholars, etc.) I was exhausted. 

Friday Sept 6:

After an early wake up from our housecleaning service, the roommates and I made our way out in search of the International il Feltrinelli (bookstore) that had some of the girls' textbooks. WE WALKED ALL OVER THE CITY TRYING TO FIND IT. We never actually did, but in route we stopped by all of the major landmarks: Spanish Steps, Villa Borghese, Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain. We must have clocked in at least 6 miles, but it was totally worth it. 

When we had lunch with my cousin she said that the first time she threw her coin into the Trevi Fountain she was 14. I threw my first coin at 15, then again at 19, and now for the third time at 20 years old. The legend stands that if you throw a coin with your right hand over your left shoulder you will be returning to Rome. I sure do hope so. 

Devotissimo Suo,

M

Week 1: SO MUCH TO SHARE

Rome Sweet Rome!

St.  Peter's Dome in the back 

First Day of School! First Day of School! Primo giorno di scuola! I walked with my roommate this morning to her 9 am class and plan on just killing the hour and a half in the student lounge blogging of course!One week ago today I left the US for Italy. Nuts. 

I feel like I have already been here a lifetime.
Since the last time I wrote so much has happened. But I want to give you a snipit of the highlights:


1. Apartment know how
2. Gatsby Party
3. Andy Steves Tour
4. Beach Day

There is so so so so much more that I don't even have the time to think back and write everything out. It has been go go go since we've been here and with the exception of last night, have not been in my bed before 3am. Cray Cray.

Our Apartamento

I seriously love all of the girls I live with already. There has been no drama, no bitches, no weirdos in Lungotevere Farnesina. Thank god. My roommate and I are more similar than I could ever imagine and we get along swimmingly. :)

Our location is prime. We are in the CENTER of the young roman night life and people are so so jelly. Who knew that an apt of seven girls could turn out so well. Wednesday night we had a bunch (like 20) of other students over to pregame at our place before we went out to the infamous Gee Bar. Once we all made it out, the streets were PACKED (at 1am no less) with American Students, British and austrailian students and italian locals). 

2. A Little Party Never Killed Nobody

Gatsby-ed Out

At G Bar, we received wristbands and postcards for Romesultimate Gatsby Themed Mansion Party. So down. This company meets up with students all over the city (for pregames at various bars) and takes them to said 'mansion' for an exclusive party more or less. Costumes are essential and we were all over it.All of us girls got ready together, drank wine, ate cheese, grapes, crackers, rposcuitto like the classy ladies we are and got ready for an adventure.

 The plan was to meet up with some girls from our program then meet our guy friends at the bar. We waited for said girls FOREVER. We didn't end up leaving our neighborhood until 11:30. Grrrrr. AND when they finally showed up, they were NOT in costume (its go big or go home in my mind) and were wearing heels. Seriously? Thats a death sentence wtih these cobblestone streets. Mistake.


By the time we got on the 280 to go north to Prati (where we thought the bar was) these girls were already hating on the situation. "How do we know where we are going" & 'What stop do we get off at" "We want to go back to Traste-verde" Kill me now. By this point I was exhausted and had just enough wine to make me sleepy not excited. And truth was, we didn't know where we were going... but thats the fun of it.


Using my VERY broken italian I asked the bus driver if he dropped off at Ponte della Musica, he did, so we were in luck. We kept the gatsby postcard with us and showed the address to people along the way to try and get directions. These girls were NOT having it. AT ALL. After about 30 minutes of walking around North Prati trying to find this place, they were DONE. One of them stormed off to find the next bus and the other two followed. Whatever.

I looked at my roommates and said I was still down to try and find it if they were. And they were. We looked at the whole situation as a win-win. Etiher we find the place and have a great time, or we don't find the place and remember that one time we wandered around Rome in Gatsby costumes looking like fools.

By the time we got on the 280 to go north to Prati (where we thought the bar was) these girls were already hating on the situation. "How do we know where we are going" & 'What stop do we get off at" "We want to go back to Traste-verde" Kill me now. By this point I was exhausted and had just enough wine to make me sleepy not excited. And truth was, we didn't know where we were going... but thats the fun of it.

Ponte della Musica

After about 5 more minutes of this, we were ready to take the next bus home and saw the 280 headed out direction. Perfect, this bus would drop us off across the street from our place. They bus pulls up and it is PACKED. WTF. The doors open and at least 40 tipsy 20 year olds come rolling out FOR THE GATSBY PARTY!!!!!

I ALMOST PEED MYSELF I WAS SO EXCITED!!!


We got into the 'mansion party' and had such a blast dancing to Old School American rap music, having dance battles, laughing and having a kick ass time. I feel like it will be one of the best memories of the trip for sure. My feet were destroyed, but it was SO worth it, a million times over. 
We were all over their website: Rome's Ultimate Party

Dancing our asses off

3. Riding More Than Mopeds

On Saturday, we needed to errands badly. We needed school supplies, to get Danielle a bathing suit, and other house items (like a combo flat iron/curling iron for only 20 euro, who knew). After walking around Prati for the afternoon we came back under the assumption that we would be catching Andy Steves (son of Rick Steves, travel mogul)'s Passegiata of Trastevere ending with an all you can eat/drink dinner. The meet up was at 7pm, outside our place on Piazza Trilussa so we wanted to shower, change, get cute.... We got home from shopping at 6:50!!! All I could do was change my top, grab my camera and head out. Ugh exhausted.

Regardless, we rallied the troops and started on the tour. One of the first things we learned about was italian PDA which I have seen far too much of since being here (like dry humping in the grass at the park and making out on top of cars).Andy said that typically, guys live with their parents until their 30s or 40s in italy and since they can't bring women back to their place, they "ride more than mopeds" in secret spots throughout the city. Funny.

Our tour continued to Campo di Fiori the piazza where Carbonara was invented, to Piazza Navona, to the Pantheon.

Incredible

#artsy

From there we got an all inculsive dinner for 15 euros. Cheese bread antipasti followed by bread again followed by two types of pasta followed by pizza followed by watermelon, with red wine followed by white wine followed by "sexy" wine. When you get all of that food and wine for 15 euros, (and drinks at the bar start at 8 euros) you best believe I am going to get my moneys worth. Went glass for glass with a friend, Mistake. Mi amo vino. 


THEN from there, we followed the group to Scholars (local bar) and watch the Notre Dame game on the bajillion of tvs, ordered drinks and quizzed each other on first impressions. Too. much. fun.

3. Cali Gurl Needs her Beaches

On Sunday morning we were up and ready to go to the beach. Danielle and I got up before everyone else and headed out for coffee at Campo di Fiori. Combination of being hungover and starving was not a good idea for the 45 minute train ride to Santa Marinella beach. At home I am so used to driving out the 56 or down to mission blvd and getting to the beach no problem. This was a trek.

But, as soon as we could see the coastline out the window I knew we made a good choice. Santa Marinella is beautiful and the italians with their bathing suits make for such great people watching. The water was crystal clear and the perfect temperature for the scorching beach. We swam out to the jetty, floated around, laid out, then tried to find lunch. At 4pm. Fail.

Nobody serves colazione past 1 especially on a sunday, so we settled on some really gross pizza that looked like cafeteria food. Yucky.

Santa Marinella

So Cali

Took the train back at 430 with 3x as many people as when we left. We had to stand the.whole.way.home. Grr

Today was the first day of classes and it went really well! I have a New Testament class at 10:30 (where every Monday is a lecture and every Wednesday is a field trip) and Italian at 4 (sempre italiano, non inglese). Rough.

Tomorrow is my fun day with Angels and Demons Art History course and The Culture of Food and Wine. Pretty excited!

Other than that, tutti e buono!

Devotissimo Suo,

M