Get your bucket lists out everybody.....Rome is waiting

Ciao!! I figured it would be a good idea to post tonight since about a week has passed since my last post and I am already forgetting everything that I want to tell you. Its Tuesday night, October 8th and tomorrow marks the second week of my time abroad and it seems like I have been here for a month. Each minute of every day is so stimulating and full new experiences that by the end of the day I feel so fantastic, more cultured, and less American but also molto stanca (it's a good and refreshing kind of tired if that makes sense).

Last time I posted I was rambling about classes which isn't too interesting so I will spare you from more about that. However I should let you know that every hour that I spend in the library I feel guilty that I am not out spending time in the city so yeah I am not in the library that much. My books will just have to find their happy place in my backpack until midterms and finals show up. Time is too short here and I will find a library and plenty of work when I return to SMC in the spring. I will not however find Rome and this beautiful life that I am currently living (and dreaming it seems at times), therefore I am dedicating all of my time and energy to what is only temporarily right outside my window, the city I have come to trust and feel apart of, the city that offers something new every day and that bring challenges and opportunity for growth and joy.....Ok enough with the sappiness, sorry I cant help it.

Friday after classes were over, me and a group of about five others went to a restaurant that is literally right in Campo de Fiori. We sat outside and I got to eat gnocchi with my best friends while listening to accordion music from a musician on the square and watching all of the night life being to awaken. Tourists, locals, vendors selling dancing dolls and pink light up Mickey ears, kids making HUGE bubbles that ascend into the air for a good seven seconds before popping, and all the waiters that beckon anybody that walks by to come and eat at their restaurant all make up the night life which is one of the greatest scenes in Rome that I have experienced so far. Its impossible to describe, and I am just not doing it justice so here is a picture to give you a sense of the pure bliss that I feel when I am out in Rome at night. 

After we went out to dinner we all decided to go out and have some Roma fun. There is a part of town called Trastevere that is about a 7-10 minute walk from our hotel. As soon as you cross a bridge you enter a part of town that has a slightly different feel. One of my friends describes it as a more hipster part of town and I would say that is pretty accurate. This place has gelato shops, bars, restaurants and more bars. It was hoppin' on Friday night when we got there around 11 which is still way early for all those bar and club goers. First we stopped at this quaint bar that looked like a bookstore and a bar in one. It was so cute and unusual and most people just go in there for one particular thing they have and leave... I dont think its a place you hang around at. We went in and eight of us tried one of their famous chocolate shots. Picture this. A small chocolate cup filled with a type of alcohol cream (I will spare you from the exact name) and topped with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. I will just say it was an interesting shot and quite the experience. We had a laugh about it later after we watched a video one of our friends took while we took the shots. After that we walked around, talked to people outside of bars and went to a Harry Potter bar. Yes they have a Harry Potter bar, how cool right? It was a fun, exciting night and we all got back home to our wonderful beds safe and sound.

We had to get up early on Saturday for lectures and tours. Lectures and tours are on select Saturdays and count as one credit, so yeah its like going to class on Saturdays but obviously way better than class. However, this Saturday was not particularly enjoyable. I love seeing sights and historical monuments and actually stepping foot in places that are in history books but I am not a fan of all day visits at museums. On Saturday we paid a visit to the Villa Guilia Museum and Villa Borghese. We learned a lot about the Etruscians and saw lots and lots of pottery and vases and some more pottery and vases, we also saw some tombs which were pretty cool I do have to admit. We also walked (it was a far walk) to the Villa Borghese gardens which were really beautiful and peaceful but at that point in our tours it was 1:00 and we all felt like we were going to collapse from hunger and walking so much. Plus it didnt help that we were in museums for three hours prior to that. We are going to go back sometime and experience it when we are well nourished and in better moods cause none of us really appreciated that particular visit on Saturday. Guilty about this next part. Our tours guides/professors told us about nearby restaurants and caffe's we could go to for lunch (this was like 3:00 so it was like late late lunch) and as soon as they told us there was a nearby Hard Rock Caffe we were off to find it. We were kinda craving American food and wanted to sit down for a while at a nice place so yes we got American food. It was well deserved after all that walking and a fabulous meal which is a good thing because it was molto caro $$. After lectures and tours we were done for the night. Literally had a small snack for dinner, got our nightly gelato and came back to our albergo. 

Sunday marked the beginning of our travels within Italy! We got up bright and early again to catch a van taxi to Termini Station and took a train to Assisi. Words will not do Assisi justice what so ever so here you go. 

This was the view from behind as we left Assisi around 5:00 p.m. I kept looking back and tried to soak this beauty into my mind and my being.

Andree and Andree showin' some peace in front of the PAX in the lawn.

Assis was a wonderful and perfectly timed day trip. We walked up and down lots of hills, went to an Italian mass, ate at a ridiculous restaurant that charged us 2,50 euro for each piece of bread in our basket, shopped for souvenirs, had a photo shoot (why wouldn't you when you are in Assisi?), visited the paternal home of Saint Francis which was really neat, walked down narrow streets that were so cute I had to take pictures of them, saw lots of stray dogs that didn't look well fed which made me sad because I knew Saint Francis would have cared for them and would have given them some yummy Italian dog food. We laughed and talked and walked and had Assisi gelato and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Assisi had a very different feel from Rome. It was very peaceful and calm, much less people and there was not a constant buzz of activity all around. There was one point where we were walking up a street after dinner and it was totally quiet. I miss that so it was very nice.

We left the postcard picture perfect city around 5:00pm and headed home. Ah, notice how I naturally refer to Rome as home now? Every day that I wake up and open my shutters to let in the mid morning light I feel as if I am letting more of myself into the city and allowing more of myself to feel apart of this city. 

Monday was a new week of classes and nothing real post worthy occurred. But I do have one last story to tell you before I close up this (once again) long post. 

So Tuesdays are pretty nice days for me class wise. I have italian at 9:35-11:35 (I know two hours is a lonnngggg time for a language class) and then I dont have another class until 5:30pm. After I spent too much time in the library today trying to read for Art History and doing italian homework Colleen and I decided we wanted to walk around a little bit. Another friend joined us and we headed to La Tazza D'Oro, a caffe which means The Golden Cup located just diagonally from the Pantheon. We had a special reason to go to this caffe because our Italian professor at SMC, the wonderful Dr. Checca, told us that this was a place that we had to go to. We liked Checca so much that I think we are literally doing and eating everything that he recommends to us. All throughout the year last year he told us that we need to go to this caffe and get Una Granita di Caffe con Panna (iced coffee with whipped cream), sit by the Pantheon and people watch. That is exactly what we did and that is what we will be doing on a regular basis every week starting today at the same time. THIS SMALL CUP OF ICED COFFEE WAS UNREAL. Starbucks I am sorry but you ain't got nothing compared to this piece of Italian heaven. This was no frappuccino. This was literally espresso with small shards of perfectly sized ice slivers layered with whipped cream, another layer of espresso and ice, and whipped cream on the top. Thank you Dr. Checca, I am now looking forward to Tuesdays at 3:00 for this wonderful moment of iced coffee and people watching. It is the perfect mid day italian experience and I LOVE IT! 

Granita di Caffe

Guys, its only 10:35 here. I am getting better about not posting at 1:00 in the morning. This is only because I do not feel the need or want to do any form of reading right now. We are going out for gelato at midnight anyways so I had to find something to do until the ritual gelato consumption arrives.

Oh and I don't know if I will post before Saturday (I probably won't) so I might as well tell y'all that I am going to Florence this weekend and I am so looking forward to that for many reasons. 

Leather boots. Quality leather boots.

The David

A vineyard and wine tasting.

Another beautiful city in Italy.

It's gonna be a great trip.

Also, I sent a postcard today and it cost me about $4 to send that damn thing. So to those of you that are expecting one for me, y'all will be lucky if you get one. Just saying :)

That is all for now my dear followers. Thanks for reading and keeping up with my randomly timed, lengthy posts that make you (and should make you) very jealous of my life. I hope my blog has made you add another number to your bucket list that says "visit Rome" :)

Have a great day/evening/night wherever you may be in this world!

Buonasera!