Monday, January 24th:
As Sunday ended and Monday began I found myself, I found myself not wanting to wake up to go to my Italian class (I know its a shock that I didnt want to wake up). After multiple attempts, I finally got out of bed and got ready for class. I just want to share with you all that our apartment is freezing. The central heating here in Rome is nothing like it is in the states, and the way our apartment complex works is that they only turn the central heating on at certain points of the day, so it is constantly cold in our apartment. So after I warmed up, I took a brisk walk to class, and even though it is early, I still find myself looking forward to having my Italian class. After Italian, I went back to my apartment to shower and get ready to head out on a adventure with one of my roommates and some of our friends out to St. Peters.
After a nice shower, we hopped on the metro and headed for St. Peter's Square. In route to St. Peters, we stopped to get coffee (a cappuccino for me, topped with homemade whipped cream, which was amazing). Once we reached St. Peter's, we walked around the square for a few minutes and then decided to climb to the top of the basilica (and yes I do mean climb). It is an outrageous number of stairs and at some points it is very cramped, but the view from the top is definitely worth it. It took a good while to reach the top, and my legs were definitely burning, but as you can see, the view was amazing.
After taking an outrageous number of pictures, we slowly made our way back down to the bottom. Once we reached the bottom, we walked around St. Peter's Basilica, which is very ornate and is one of the most stunning sites in Rome. On leaving St. Peters, we tried to go to the Sistine Chapel, but it was closed, so instead we went to get gelato! On the way we stopped in an international grocery store, where we found, among other things, taco seasoning and peanut butter. Once we reached the gelato shop, we took our time deciding what we wanted. (there are many options so you have to choose carefully). I chose pistachio and kinder bar, which was a wonderful combination.
Afterwards, we took the metro back to our apartment, and I whipped up a nice pasta meal from one of the ready made pasta kits that we bought at the store. After dinner, I worked on some homework and then relaxed until I decided to go to bed. Overall today, was a great day for site seeing and it turned out to be a great day in Rome!
Tuesday, January 25th (Two Weeks)
As the same with all the other weekdays, my day starts with class. As usual, Italian class was very interesting and I am beginning to build my conversational vocabulary. After Italian, I had a small break during which I went and got a cappuccino and a sandwich (hard boiled eggs and salami). After the break we headed back to CEA for my favorite class! The food and wine class. Today, we took a trip out to one of the many open air food markets in Rome. This was very interesting and very educational. We learned a lot about how many of the Romans get there food, and how markets, such as the one we went to, fit into modern Roman culture. They gave us ten euros and we were able to go around and bargain for different types of food. The great thing about these markets, is that the food and other items that are sold are very cheap. The food that we had was very fresh (and also it was very refreshing to have such fresh food) We got bread, cheese, and some amazing strawberries.
After we were done at the market, we headed back to our apartment where I took a small break in before my last class of the day. My last class of the day is my class on the European Union, which I am beginning to enjoy more and more. Although our professor is very difficult, I have already learned so much about the European Union. I know that this class will be very helpful to me in the future.
On to the best part of the day!
After class, we had one of our included CEA events, which was a pizza and gelato crawl. We went to two different pizza places, and then to a gelato shop. The places are some of the favorites of Romans and I had what is by far some of the best pizza that I have had so far.
We had an appetizer pizza, which is a white pizza with olive oil and salt. For the second pizza, we went to small shop near the forum where Caesar was killed. The specialty of this shop is a pizza with pancheta (ham), provolone, and instead of a tomato based sauce, a pumpkin based sauce. (I know it sounds strange, but it was delicious). We were able to get to pieces so I got the pumpkin one and a piece with mushrooms and french fries (or patatine frites, in Italian). After pizza we moved on to a gelato shop with over 50 flavors (by far the most I have seen so far). I chose cheesecake and strawberry (strawberry is fragole in Italian).
The good thing about Italy is the fact that after you stuff yourself with food, you then get to walk it all off, as you walk to the bus stop. So we walked back to the bus stop and then made our way back to the apartment. By this time it was beginning to get late, so I showered read a book on my nook and called it a night.
Today (and maybe from now on) I will end with a bit of information that I have learned about Italian culture. One of the very interesting things (and by interesting I mean annoying things) is that people who have dogs in the city (which is actually a lot of people) let there dogs go to the bathroom and the street and then choose not to clean it up. This is a very common practice and it means that you have to watch your step when you are in the more residential areas (like the one that I live in).
So until tomorrow! Ciao!
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