Last night at around 9pm I came to the realization that I was very tired of making and eating pasta, and was craving pizza. At this point, however, my roommates had definitely all eaten so I decided to go on a solo trip. I got out a guide book and checked the directions to try and find that delightful pizza place that I already blogged about. Relishing in the fact that I was wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt for the first time since arriving in Rome, I set off into the heart of Trastevere. The first 2 main streets I navigated quite well sans map (I prefer to not bring one whenever possible, because I detest seeming like a tourist). And then the streets started to make no sense. After making an accidental square around the main piazza (literally all roads lead back to piazzas...), I spied a different pizza by the slice restaurant and jumped at the opportunity since things start to close around 10. There were not as many meat options, but I got a delightful slice of some sort of white cheese and broccoli I think. After wandering around some more with my pizza, I realized that I was still hungry and gave in to gelato, finding myself accidentally in front of our favorite gelato place. I tried the best combination so far: tiramisou and chocolate!
Anyway the point of this is that Trastevere at night is one of my favorite things about Rome. It is just the cutest neighborhood. Even at 10 it was teeming with people, but not in an obnoxious way, mostly it was locals eating and enjoying the area, though there were vendors and tourists as well. It is exactly how you picture Rome, with a beautiful medieval/renaissance church wedged in there as well. It is a place that I know well enough to never be truly lost, but is such a labyrinth of streets that I rarely know exactly where I am either. And next time I go on a random walk, I promise to take photos!
Ok so last night made me remember that I do love strolling, however today was less strolling and more walk to the death. I literally walked for over 2 hours, meandered/stood for 2.5 hours, and all of this was before 5pm. And this was just in getting to my different classes and a field study...it might normally be more. Which leads me to another fact of Europe: it KILLS shoes. The shoes I just bought here have already lost most of their grip and I literally broke the shoe inserts I brought...already. Though on the bright side my feet hurt much less today that when I was first walking around, so I am getting used to it! Now if it would just cool off in the daytime that would be perfetto...since my roommate actually got burnt just walking around the forum today for our class (yes there is someone here paler than me.) But again on the bright side, there are really very few negatives to walking around the ancient forum being taught by the most intelligent, handsome, half italian/half american archaeology teacher (and why yes I do have a slight crush on him, along with all of the other girls on the program...which is a lot). So suffice it to say that after all of these hills, I am going to have the most intense calves ever....good thing or bad thing?? (undetermined....)
Ciao!
(P.S. I am thinking if it's not too boring that my next blog will probably be about me eating habits here...which are ridiculous. Or Florence, since I decided today to go there this weekend, my mother informed me that this is apparently a very European thing to do, take the train on a whim I guess.)
Bon Voyage (actually that's French...this keeps happening! Since I cannot blog until I get back!)
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