Pizza and Gelato. Pizza and Gelato.

Ciao!

No traveling for us this week which kind of made us happy.. we love to be in our beautiful Roma :)

The school week really flew by for me... A couple highlights:

For photography class we went inside of Santa Maria del Popolo and I got to see two more Caravaggio paintings I love and have studied: The Crucifixion of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul on the Road to Damascus in the Cerasi Chapel.   Then we went to the incredible and huge Villa Borghese gardens.  I am really really enjoying my photo class and have now been using my manual settings where ever I go!

Limone e Frutti di Bosco Sorbetto from Eataly

For my Food and Wine class we went on excursions to two different markets in Rome.  The first was a place where you can get incredible deals on everything you can imagine... fresh fish (ranging from octopi to scallops), dried fruit and nuts, olives, produce, candy etc. etc...) Barely anyone spoke english the vendors, our teacher explained, were mostly Bangladeshi, Chinese, or Arab.  The second market was my version of heaven...... it is called Etaly.  It is a high end market with the best of the best in terms of quality food.  There was one floor dedicated to olive oil and wines alone... Anything you can imagine is there.  There are also about 3 mini restaurants each floor that prepares meals with food found in the store.  They have food, chocolate, wine, and olive oil tastings; celebrity chefs come in and do demonstrations; and cooking classes as well.  They actually built one in NYC and LA, and there is plans for one in Chicago, so the States have a chance to experience this place!!! Check out their website:

http://www.roma.eataly.it/

(that totally just sounded like a sales pitch)

On Wednesday we were supposed to meet our Theology class at the Jewish Catacombs .... but never actually made it there.  WE GOT SO LOST. We ended up roaming along the Apian Way for about 2 hours, which is not too shabby and we also stumbled upon the Baths of Caracalla and some other ruins!  The directions the program gave us were so confusing... last year they tried to do the same excursion but not one person made it there.  They tried to improve them this year (they did a little bit because some people eventually found the Catacombs after wandering for about only an hour).  Other people like us were hopeless... Our professor felt so bad.. It wasn't his fault at all though.  He heard this happened last year so he wanted to go to Catacombs that were easier to find, but the Jewish one's are on the property of a friend of our program director.  I was so upset we didn't make it but were going to other ones later in the year.


Wednesday night, we had a school sponsored pizza and gelato crawl...  my dream.  We went to two pizzeria's: Al Forno in Campo di Fiori and Florida which is in Largo Argentina.  Florida was incredible... they are famous for their pumpkin and prosciutto pizza which was to die for. I got the eggplant parmesan pizza and the zucchini pizza which were both absolutely delicious.  We then went to this gelateria called Della Palma famous for having 150 flavors.  WOWW I have never ever seen so much gelato... and so many interesting and  delicious flavors.  I can't even begin to name them all so here's a link to their website :  http://www.dellapalma.it/  (another little promotion).  We have decided we want to attempt to try all of them... there are 5 of us so if we each get three different flavors each time it might be manageable... we also decided to take flavors like tomato off the list so that might make it a bit easier! I got coconut and hazelnut mousse, almond and honey, and kiwi.  So yummmy.


Thursday, Danielle and I decided to go out and enjoy the beautiful sunshine and 60 degree weather.  We went to Campo di Fiori to the markets there and shopped.  We both ended up getting a hat (which was one of our goals for the trip).  We decided this is the place to experiment with fashion!  For lunch, we had to go back to the pizza place we went to the night before for the pumpkin pizza :)


Thursday night one of my best friends, Nicole, came to visit all the way from Sevilla!!!  I was so incredibly excited to see her!!!! She tagged along on our excursion to St. John Lateran and Santa Croce on Friday morning.  St. john Lateran is the official Cathedral of Rome (many people think St. Peter's is).   It was incredible.  I was so blown away by the art inside.  Santa Croce is right down the road and used to be the spot of Constantine's Mother's, St. Helena,  palace.  St. Helena is the one who found Christ's Cross, crown of thorns, nails, and sign.  This church holds all of these relics and we all had a chance to see them which was unbelievable.  They also had St.Thomas's finger in
the reliquary as well (which was a little creepy).

Coco America in Roma!

Later that night we decided to take Nicole to dinner at the Pantheon. I got penne arrabbiata.  It was good but since this restaurant was so close to the pantheon, it was a bit touristy. But I guess thats the price you pay for a cool view. We sat outside because the weather was just wonderful.  Afterward, we just had to bring her to Della Palma (we were also dying to go there again).  This time I tried pistachio creme, cappuccino, and yogurt.   Nicole left for florence the next morning :(



Sunday we had to find a way to watch the superbowl so we went to a place in Trastevere (which is where sooo many American students live) called T-Bone Steakhouse (a kind of place you dont see in Italy everyday).  It was our first taste of red meat since our arrival and it tasted so good to us.  We all got burgers and a Birra Moretti.  They had the super bowl streaming from ESPN international which means we missed ALL of the commercials... :(  Kick-off did not start until 12:30 AM here and I was already almost falling asleep.  We left after halftime because my eyes were literally closing, we didn't get home until like 3AM... I was exhausted the next day.  Good thing our early class was with our only American professor so he was feeling the exact same way!



I am so excited for this weekend because my best friend KATHRYN comes!!!!!

Bacioni xxxx