Meanderings through Trastevere (On second thought, all of Rome)

Ok so I want to start this post with the recognition that I complain way too often on here, particularly about walking. So before I throw a few negative comments out there, I would like to start with a wonderful story about walking.

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!)

Busing Across Italy: Amalfi Coast

Ok, so I did not have my computer all weekend because I was on the Amalfi Coast with a school fieldtrip. Again, there is too much to tell but you have to start somewhere….and the beginning is a very good place to start.

Friday started with a 30 min walk at 6:40 to reach the bus at 7:15.  One of my roommates and I were actually on time, and we snagged two seats each, quite a luxury. Ironically neither of us were able to sleep so kindles it was. Every time I looked up though I would just be struck with the realization that I was in Italy, and that this was not just like every other bus ride I have ever taken. Three hours in we reached Pompeii, which was spectacular. People talk about how well preserved it is, and they aren’t kidding. There are still frescos on some of the walls and most of the marble in the baths was completely intact. For a moment I wished I lived in Pompeii (they literally had more solutions for urbanization than we do now…) until someone reminded me that the majority of the citizens were dirt poor, and that either way I would have died there….right.

(And morbid tidbit: I learned that those who died in Pompeii actually suffocated to death slowly on the poisonous gases released from Vesuvius, not instantaneously from the pyroclastic flow which I was sure I had heard in grade school.)

So now I will skip to highlights: (Which are in bullet form because I am too lazy to write another ten paragraphs of stories...)

Meeting a lot more people on my program (including more Chi O's).

Free 4 course lunch, with soda and water! (big deal)

Hotel with air conditioning, breakfast buffet, coffee, and a casual 5 story pool overlooking the Mediterranean.
Unbelievable views in general.

Five course dinners both nights at the hotel (including meat!!)

Our four person intimate dinner which dissolved into complete silliness and verbal misunderstandings. I have not laughed that much since leaving America. (Holy mackerel and some Pilgrims anyone??)

Finally finding a swimsuit in Italy. I haven’t had one.

Hearing “teach me how to dougie” play while out (teach me how to throw it….)

Watching Travis ‘dougie’ in a circle of IES kids.
"Playing scarves" in Amalfi's cloister (since we had not been warned to dress appropriately).

Floating in the Mediterranean, meaning literally floating almost without effort – the saltiest water I can remember (since I don’t really remember the dead sea…).

Watching the boys try to best each other in progressive jumps off a rock. (Hands down Travis wins with that flip, glad you’re not dead…)

Boat ride around the Island of Capri, perfect ending to the day!

Negatives. Actually there is only one. For the most part it was the best trip I could possibly imagine. My only complaint is the tour guide, who was with us for over 6 hours. The stories that I could tell from those hours are literally endless, however I will just stick to a few. Background, this tour guide has probably never given a tour in English. Also a fire along our original route caused our 3-hour bus ride out of Amalfi with breaks to become a 6-hour ride without the fun break. Now picture a busload of college kids who have been forced to get up before 7 three mornings in a row. You expect them to be asleep, right?

Wrong, because unknown to them there is going to be commentary on the entire bus ride. The first hour consisted of pointing out houses of celebrities and lemon orchards (note, Sorrento’s main export is lemons…so there are a lot of them!). Then there were ‘cock islands’ named after mermaids which were harped on for a good 30 minutes.  Apparently Esmeralda did not know that rooster was the correct translation, and I didn’t know that mermaids were originally a mix between birds and women rather than fish. 

Then there was the tour of the church and cloisters in Amalfi, which she also guided. After that we hit the standstill traffic since the fire was causing evacuations, turning a one-lane/one way road into a two-lane/two way road. Terrifying? Absolutely, especially when your bus is on the cliff side. But did the commentary stop when we did…nope. This change in route also delayed lunch for 2 hours, so sleep would be the best option now? Of course not, she turned of the volume of the mic! (Apparently she noticed us trying to tune her out with headphones earlier…) We literally clapped when she disembarked at the end of the Amalfi coast, and then promptly all crashed until snacktime 2 hours later. Then the bus ride was fine, and we all chatted about the most random things and guessed how long until we would be home (well back to IES, so 30 minutes plus the guess).

Let’s be real though, I can’t even remotely complain about my life. Interestingly enough, however, the things I most enjoined about the Amalfi Coast actually were the little things: nice showers, bearable nighttime temperatures, meat, and the people. Thought the 4star hotel was pretty amazing too…especially since that is the last time I will experience that in Europe for the rest of the term….

Buonanotte belles!

Il Martedi

So I know that I already posted today, meaning that either its been way too long since I posted or that I think what I have to say is way more interesting that it probably actually is. Either way I would like to add two stories: going out on Monday evenings.

I was told, right after finishing my homework, that we were going to everyone's favorite hangout place in the neighborhood. I instantly agreed since I had been inside studying/blogging/cooking since school ended at 3pm. Only this time none of the guys from our program that we normally met were there, granted this was mostly because we had forgotten to tell them we were going. It was a last minute decision after all. Mostly we just caught up with each other (since 2 days apart college students is a lifetime, obviously).

We talked about fall break, and I think I am for sure now copping out of trip planning and going on the cruise that several other people in our program are going on. We talked about the weekends' adventures. My roommates and I went to the vatican whereas my other friends visited the catacombs along the Appian Way. Then something very odd happened, we realized that we were the only ones speaking English. We have successfully found an Italian hangout...even though we only spoke to each other, in English. Soon after this realization someone tried to speak to us in broken English, an Italian (I assume) man offered us a part of a croissant...that he had already taken a bite of. We said no, and then realized just how American we must look, but did he really think we were that stupid? We brushed off the usual flower sellers and then walked home together at midnight. Near the end of the five minute walk home, we passed a park, only instead of it being empty there were Italians dancing something slow and ballroom-esque. We all stopped momentarily, probably wishing we knew the dance and had boys to ask us, before realizing that it would be too weird to take a picture and promptly walking the rest of the way home. It was, however, all in all a great, relaxing end to our Monday night.

Roughing it Abroad

I was recently talking to one of my most favorite people in the world on the phone, and she asked me about the similarities and differences between the US and Rome.  I have thought about this before she asked, but hearing her response to what I said about Italy made me see Italy through the eyes of someone less used to it perhaps. To quote, I am "roughing it" apparently. So I guess I'll share the few differences that I have accumulated in these first two weeks.

I mean the first difference you notice is that there is very little air conditioning anywhere. Of the 15 apartments IES has, only 2 have air conditioning for example (and I am not so lucky as to be one of them...) This is even though it is still in the 90s in September (though, fun fact, apparently this is the hottest, muggiest September that any of my Italian teachers can remember...of course). Anyway this lack of air conditioning speaks to the frugality of the Italians I think, as well as perhaps the luxuries of the United States. Apartments automatically shut off all power if as many as six things (including lights) are turned on at the same time. For this same reason there are no microwaves, no dryers, no garbage disposals, and very few dishwashers. (And I don't even want to know about the heater situation yet, because I can't even remember being cold). These things are even mostly true in the 1.2 million dollar IES apartment some of my friends live in. They have air conditioning, but none of the other amenities, and if they have even lights on while the air conditioner runs the power shuts off.

Yet at the same time, their recycling is so much more complex. There are 4 different categories I have to separate things into, and a different day/placed to drop each thing off at. (And this from a girl who has basically never recycled in her entire life...I guess I deserve it.) It is like Rome is such a weird mix of things hopelessly behind the United States and yet I can't decide if people would even want these other things. Everything here is just less wasteful...

Also fuel here costs about 10 dollars a gallon, so most people opt for public transportation whenever possible. But you will see a ton of mopeds and small cars. I have counted one truck and one SUV so far.   I haven't even discovered how they drive these though, since I have yet to see a single gas station.

To change topics, the way Italians dress is extremely different as well. Now of course I knew this, I was told all about the style of Roman women before going. However that is not quite what I have seen. I mean only high schoolers wear shorts (which in this heat would seem like a necessity) and no one where flip flops. Mostly you notice how few bright colors, large bags (only the Americans have longchamps it would appear, which is ironic since they are from Europe...), or sweat there is. And then you will see a few women wearing stilettos, though more wear wedges since the cobblestone streets here are literally death for heels (like giant gaping holes in the ground). I think I mostly fit in though, which has saved me from catcalls and pickpockets so far. W&L prepared me to rarely wear athletic clothing during the fall and to depend on flats.

The last major difference is that in Italy, the customer is NOT always right. To illustrate this, I will tell the story of how my roommates and I attempted to go to an "american" restaurant last night. We were all craving a bit of America, so when we read the menu, advertising hamburgers, fires, etc we got excited. Flash forward to ordering, when we found out that the employees at the American food restaurant do not speak any English. Small problem, odd, but easy enough to overcome. My roommates orders a buffalo chicken barbecue sandwich. I point at  the option of hamburger and fries, and another orders a salad with 'balsamico' (which took a couple of tries to explain dressing to the waitress). Finally we attempted the impossible, changing an item. One of my roommates is an extremely picky eater, and to save the pages it would attempt to explain her preferences, suffice it to say that she definitely doesn't eat most meat. She was craving a grilled cheese, which was not on the menu, but there was a turkey melt with only cheese, turkey, and bread. We decided to risk it because it seemed so simple to request that there be no meat, and the waitress nodded, smiled, completely understanding. So after waiting an hour to get food (which I guess is understandable since we were over an hour early to dinner - Italians generally eat at 9), things start to arrive sporadically. Buffalo chicken barbecue sandwich equalled a grilled chicken patty with barbecue on the side. I received my hamburger and fries....but only with a hamburger patty, no bun. The waitress told me I had said 'only' hamburger (meaning no drink, since soft drinks were 4 euros), after some begging she brought me a bun. My vegetarian friend was not so lucky, not only was there turkey in her melt, but also bacon..apparently the waitress did not understand at all. She was a good sport though and didn't even try to send it back, mostly because you cant send these back in Italy...it simply is not done. Finally the salad came...but without any dressing. We waited 5 more minutes, no waitress, no dressing. Finally my roommates went inside to ask and after asking for balsamic in Italian several times, finally got a nod of recognition. She was offered olive oil after being told that there was no balsamic. My roommate tried to say that she could not eat the salad then but the waitress told her to deal with it, after continuing to beg the waitress got some from the restaurant beside us. We spent the rest of our meal being glared at by the waitress, who I am absolutely sure spit in our food. I think we have all been cured of that experience for a while...I think I will simply stick to safe (albeit protein-less food), such as pasta. Wish me luck.

Ciao Belles

How to....

So this blog post is going to be about my accomplishments while in Rome...and all of the things along the way.

How to make Italian espresso:
 (and to give you perspective on size, since this looks normal, that espresso coffee cup is actually about the size of a shotglass, so these lovely things allow you to make a single shotglass sized coffee, but with all of the coffee grounds that go into an 8oz cup of coffee in the US.)
So actually it should have been fairly simple once I looked it up, you just put in water and coffee grounds and wait for the heat of the stove to push the water through the coffee grounds and supposedly whistle when it's done. Only I found out the hard way that mine doesn't actually whistle. I left it on and went to go do homework in our living room (assuming it took as long to make as American coffee) and came back when I started wondering why it hadn't whistled and the stove top had tall red flames instead of the healthy nice little blue ones, aka on fire. The coffeepot/maker (?) was so hot that I had to put it into the freezer and wait almost an hour to try again...oops. The second time I didn't leave the kitchen and I realized that it only takes about 3-4 minutes, and definitely doesn't whistle! Though you will see steam leaving the little spout, fun fact.

How to hard boil eggs (and remember which ones are still uncooked)
Mishaps: I apparently dropped them in too high because some of them cracked...oh well they still taste like egg. Second nubie mistake: not separating the cooked eggs from the non-cooked. Luckily I remembered enough of high school physics to figure it out. Meaning that I literally had my roommate spin eggs on a table. If you put a finger down on it while it's spinning and it stays stopped (more or less) then it's hardboiled. If it keeps spinning after you tap it, then it has liquid inside. I know, I'm such a nerd.

How to get American college textbooks in Rome:
Walk really far!
Adventures: the only place with our exact books is a casual mile or two from school (and definitely at least 2 from our house). We went the day of the transportation strike (though let's be real I'm a cheap college student and would have walked anyway) so we had no choice but to walk.
Highlights: to get there you walk past the pantheon and the Trevi fountain (and by "walk by," I mean can walk by if you meander a bit through all of the tourists). This trip also led to my discovery of possibly the cheapest coffee place in town (they don't charge extra for sitting down with your coffee!) I was able to order a ciocolata cappuccino and sit for one Euro! (And then I discovered that you can buy a cappuccino from a machine at our school for 40 cents, even more of a win!)

How to survive 3 hour Italian class:
Bring a snack!

The final how to is still in the works: How to Eurotrip
Yes, this week was/is schedule-all-of-my-europtripping week. So I have decided that as of now I am going to Munich, Barcelona, Portugal and then either UK or a Greece/Turkey cruise and hopefully Vienna. And then of course all of the highlights of Italy: amalfi coast, venice, milan, florence, sienna, and cinque terre. Unfortunately that is really the only thing I have figured out so far...where I want to go (which to be fair was not an easy task either since all of Europe is amazing). So little time, so many cities! Anyway the only I know for sure now about planning trips is that it is really expensive to make a booking mistake on a foreign airline....and of course that I miss my mother planning out all of our trips, because it's hard work!

A domani!

Siestas

In case anyone was wondering gelato was a smashing success, in fact I had it today too and have decided that my favorite flavor so far is tiramisu...because you were obviously wondering.

Anyway last night I met up with two friends and we found a local pizza place where you pay by weight. It was cheap and amazing, and I finally got some vegetables in my diet since I ordered a cold pizza with tomato, spinach, and mozzarella (because yet in Italy pizza counts as a vegetable). We sat at the base of a fountain while we ate and watched an artists paint with spray paint. We then met up with guys from our program (I was actually starting to wonder if we even had guys since I have basically only seen girls). They had a lovely upperlevel/rooflike patio, which will be amazing when it is colder than 80 degrees in jeans (because I actually looked up the weather and it was a low of 75 last night...at 3 in the morning). Next on the agenda was to find a concert....however once again the adage 'when you are looking for something you won't find it' definitely applied and we finally gave up after walking up and down the same street for 40 minutes looking for a particular bus stop and just went to a pub and chatted more instead.

But now to the title of this album: Siestas. I actually don't know the Italian word for them (its probably the same but with one extra syllable) but that is all I did all day. I got to sleep in for the very first time since arriving in Italy. Waking up started the most lethargic day of my life though, because our room literally never cooled off...not in 48 hours at least (one of the downfalls of living on the 4th floor I suppose).  After eating breakfast and coffee (and no I did not yet conquer the Italian espresso maker, but I did discover that the faucet gets hot enough to dissolve my instant coffee!) everyone in my apartment went back to laying in bed...because it was literally too darn hot to do anything else. Further we needed to go to the market, but guess what? - everything here closes from about 1:30-4, even large grocery stores. So we did as the Romans do, and basically had 'fob' time (which for noncampers means flat on bunk, or resting time) for almost 3 hours. I briefly felt like I was wasting a day in Rome, until I noticed while people watching that literally no Italians were even outside...only tourists. And until it gets colder, I have decided that this might have to become a weekly Sunday ritual....sit in bed and try not to sweat.

In fact it was so hot that I broke my own cardinal rule, I wore nike shorts, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes out.  The only other people dressed like this were the other 20 american girls we ran into from John Cabot and it kind of made me realize why Italians dislike Americans... Anyway it finally cooled off enough to get up and none of us had eaten a legitimate meal all day so not shopping was not an option. We bought a lighter and conquered the stove at least, making our first apartment meal: spaghetti with marinara sauce (we could not find an acceptable vegetable that we wanted to cook, so we substituted gelato instead, I'm sure that's the same thing).

And then the best thing happened while we were getting gelato...it started raining! Thank you God for rain!!! I am currently sitting in bed fully dressed (with socks even!) for the first time since arriving, and I'm not hot!! Rome actually gets as much rain as London, but you would never know it because it rains almost exclusively at night. Plus when it rains it pours and then it is as if it never happened, which I think I might just be able to deal with.

Well that is all the mundane details of my life that I will share with you today but I just had to tell the world that I officially LOVE rain. 

Ciao Belles

P.S. Tomorrow starts my first day of officially learning Italian, wish me luck!

My Walking Adventures in Rome (mostly)

So much to say so little time: 3 days here feels like 3 weeks at home. I'll just try to hit a few of the highlights of Rome so far.

Rome has been inordinately warm, and once I got to my apartment it got worse since it has no air conditioning. This is not such a highlight as the bane of my experience here. I have never before wanted air conditioning so badly. Rome is gorgeous but I am ready for fall because so far I just never feel like I cool off, anywhere. I also packed for fall and therefore am running out of things that I can walk around in without feeling feverish. All things considered though I can deal with the heat in order to be in Rome.

My roommates are actual highlights. We entertain each other and have all napped every single afternoon at the same time. The apartment is adorable but extremely old. The drawers always collapse in the wardrobe, the tiles on the floor are uneven, and there is no microwave. A realtor would say it is "cosy" and has "character." (Which it does...but a living/dining room larger than my bathroom would be nice too...)So far we are all afraid of the old gas stove in the kitchen and have therefore not cooked anything yet. Next on my list of adventures actually is to buy coffee grounds and a lighter and figure out how to use the Roman espresso maker (which looks like a miniature tea pot) left in our apartment because I miss coffee!

Most of the week was orientation, which was rather boring and lasted forever but it gave me an opportunity to get used to the walk to school, which is 35 minutes if we do not use any public transportation. I have the walk down perfectly so that we pass a patisserie and I get what I think of as the croissant version of a donut (complete with glaze). The only problem is that while I refuse to wear my tennis shoes because I do not want to be a tourist, my feet continue to walk the several hours a day I am traveling/getting lost. They have gone on strike by developing so many blisters that I can’t wear any of my shoes. We will just have to see who has a stronger will, my feet or my fashion.

Yesterday (Thursday) our entire program went to a gorgeous lake north of Rome. It was absolutely beautiful. On the bus ride there I met a girl who not only knows a guy I know at W&L, but who knows one of the only 2 people I know at IU because get this, she cycles in the little 500 for her sorority and is well acquainted with Cru there! Several other people know people from W&L which has been great, because I just tend to assume that people wont have even heard of it. But then all Americans here seem to be our own little click. When my roommates and I were walking to dinner (people eat at 9pm here) we walked past a group of 4 girls eating we didn’t know. Turns out that they were too, and lived in our neighborhood. We proceeded to exchange numbers and hang out later than night at another friend’s apartment. We were all friends immediately, and so far that has been true of every American college kid I have encountered, regardless of where they go to school. I could get used to these feelings of instant camaraderie!

Today I was supposed to go on an optional fieldtrip at 9am but I am still not used to a 24 hour clock so long story short I set the wrong alarm and missed it. I instead attempted to get to the Ostia beach by myself. It was quite an adventure. Using my trusty guidebook (for the first time) and the advice of those who went earlier in the day I walked to the tram stops, looked for the correct bus stop for 30 minutes and finally got on it. Everything seemed worth it though when I realized that this bus was driving me past all of the major tourist sights first. It brought back so many memories, and reminded me of why I was in Rome, to see the coliseum, forum, Spanish steps, national building, etc. I then took a train (which also didn’t have air conditioning) to Ostia Antica which is the ancient port city of Rome which connects the Mediterranean to the Tiber River. I got too confused on which bus to take to get to the beach, but I did explore the old city until I couldn’t walk any further. It was huge and nothing was guarded. For once you could touch antiquities! So I made my way back home and after figuring it out without the help of the guidebook, I finally arrived back in my neighborhood an hour (or more) later where I promptly laid down to take yet another nap. I was going to get gelato but in Rome (like Spain) everything closes from 2-4 for lunch and naps actually. Gelato will be my late night adventure tonight instead along with finding dinner.

Which is truly an adventure for the record, finding things that is. Last night we wondered around for an hour attempting to find a particular restaurant that we had heard rave reviews about.  U have decided that you only finds things right away when you are not looking for them. Getting lost here is what you do for entertainment though. While I napped my roommates literally went out to wander the area we were last night to try to find the restaurant again. There are just so many beautiful piazzas and churches and fountains that walking is never boring, and your feet definitely want to commit suicide long before you get bored with exploring.

Ok so this is a monstrosity of a post. It is so long, and I completely understand if no one even reads it. But from now on I am going to try and blog more often and only cover one or two events (with monologue-ing of course).