It's gelato o'clock somewhere

Buona domenica! Its Sunday night and that means it is blog time. I think that I have designated domenica sera for blogging time just because during the week I have class and the week days do not usually have enough blog worthy information for me to make you jealous with but by the time Sunday rolls around I have a novel of events to tell you all about. As I write each blog and hear feedback from all you readers I get more and more excited to write a post because I just love telling you all about this incredible life I am currently living….

So I believe I left you all off at Tuesday night of last week so I will begin with the next day, Wednesday! Wednesday through Friday evening were kinda the same routine, class, eating with our group at different restaurants, eating at different café’s for lunch (oh I did go to Subway one day for lunch and I ordered a 15 cm sub, gotta love that metric system), walking, enjoying my life in the Eternal City ect… Oh yes I can tell you about our new dessert experience Wednesday night! We heard about this little hole in the wall café right across the street from one of the main roads that has the best mini cannoli's, so we went after our dinner and ordered some. They have chocolate or vanilla filled ones and they are so delish. Perfect size and perfect price. 80 cents for about 30 seconds of utter Italian joy. Instead of having two gelato stops a day, we now have substituted this cannoli stop for one of our gelato stops, it just works out perfectly that way. Cannolis in the mid afternoon and gelato at night. I am really enjoying these little routines that we are building into our days here, just makes me feel more and more at home.

Mini Cannoli stop after dinner!

This next segment is also about food and I have already done a lot of food talking but remember the movie Julie and Julia…. she wrote a whole blog about food so I think I am ok. PLUS I am in Italy and she wasn’t so I have a way better excuse to write about food and you all better like it cause frankly food here is an art, it is authentic and real and it just keeps on coming. On Friday evening we went to a restaurant just a block behind the Pantheon called Miscellanea or Micky’s for short. All of the Saint Mary’s girls love this place because the waiters love us and are extremely friendly and welcoming and the meal deal that they have is just magnificent. Let me tell you what they give you when you order their “15 euro deal”. Water, unlimited white and red wine and when I say unlimited I mean it, they just keep bringing it out, a huge plate of bruschetta, a plate with two different kinds of pasta on it, a big plate of pizza to share, a dessert pie and at last the fabulous “Sexy Wine”. The whole time we were there it seemed like they just kept bringing plates and wine out and it was fantastic. One of the best meals that I have had here thus far. I was full after the plate of bruschetta but you just cannot reject those plates, and by the end you hate yourself for eating so much yet you feel so wonderful because you have just filled your stomach with some of the best Italian food. The “Sexy Wine” was also just so heavenly, red wine with a hint of strawberry….ahh yes. 

After dinner we took a walk around the city. It was much needed and also very relaxing. Did I mention that I love the night life in Rome? Maybe I have just a few times ;) Well walking after dinner has become another one of our rituals, it is the perfect ending to a usually very busy and exciting day. Walks are a perfect way to stroll through the busy streets and let Rome come to you. I feel like throughout the day we are always trying and doing new things and eager to immerse ourselves in Rome as much as we can which is great yes, but I also like to just stand by and observe, let the night life come to me and take it all in….

5:50 am on Saturday I woke up and ventured out to the bus stop with three other girls. We were headed to Florence! Florence was so perfect. It is similar to Rome but it seemed a little less hectic even with all the tourists scrambling from shop to shop. Before coming to Florence we decided we wanted go to on some form of guided tour so we could see as much of Florence as we could in the amount of time we had and still leave room for shopping, so we looked at our options and decided to book a bike tour. So our first three hours in Florence were spent on bikes with baskets and bells, with about 15 other tourists guided by a wonderful tour guide who lead us to many historically significant places throughout Florence. We stopped at Cathedrals, The Duomo, the copy of the Statue of David (we didn’t have time to see the actual statue), and the Santa Maria Novella Square as well as many other places. I couldn’t help but smile to myself as we whisked past shops and cafes, rang our bells for the pure joy of doing so (and to avoid collisions with people in tight streets that we had to pass through at times), and experienced the city of Florence on bikes. Sounds like a scene from a movie doesn’t it? Well it most definitely was the most beautifully directed scene from the movie of my life.

With my skills I was able to snap a shot of my friends on their  bikes!

After our tour we ate great food and drank classy wine. Then we shopped around for the remainder of our time in Florence. I had my mind set on finding some boots in Florence and that I did. After all, Florence is the leather hub of Italy so I thought it would be appropriate to purchase my desired boots in Florence. I wore them today and love them dearly, it was the perfect purchase. One step closer to looking more Italian every day. My goal it to step off that plane when it lands in Chicago looking like an Italian stepping foot in America for the first time, its gonna be epic. Watch out mom and dad! Back on the train around 5:45 and back in Rome at 7 pm. I felt especially proud after that trip because I was able to navigate Termini Station and Firenze SMN Station for my friends and I pretty well. We all worked together and figured out what platform our train left from and what time, it was a job well done. Every trip we go on is an adventure and every trip provides invaluable traveling and navigating experiences that I will forever be grateful for. Train stations, train delays, bus numbers, map reading, the act of asking for directions, all of which I have dealt with and am ready to do it again! My dad will be proud of me.

Whew. That’s how I feel after a day of traveling. It's perfect to be able to come back, go out to dinner with friends, and return to the hotel to watch Lizzie McGuire (because we are basically her right now, except for the Vespas and a Paulo but we will work on that) and crawl into my bed that is so welcoming to me every single night.

I have finally reached Sunday! Today was a very nice day. Colleen and I decided we wanted to go to an English mass so we walked about ten minutes to the nearest church that had mass in English. Every church that you walk into in Rome is different and almost all of them are massive but exceptionally striking. We went to mass at Saint Francis with a congregation of about only 60-70 people and Colleen and I got to bring up the gifts. We felt pretty special after doing that and gave each other a subtle high five when we sat back down in our seats. I mean who else gets to bring up the gifts at mass in Rome?! Special moment for two special and very blessed girls. After mass we had lunch at L’insalata Rica, a restaurant near our hotel that has teriffic salads. Salads were about the only thing that sounded good to us after a weekend full of pasta, pizza and more pasta. We came back to the room, did homework for a little bit then decided to take a walk to around Rome. The sun was just beginning to set and the evening was so calm. Here is the view of the city from up top.

Dinner this evening was American. We went to Abby Theater and it was totally all American. If I blocked my view from the street I could have been in the U.S. It's not something we should do often because we are in Italy but it was kinda nice to have chicken and hamburgers while listening to “Footloose” play in the background and to get ice with our pitcher of water. We found ourselves talking about life back in the U.S at dinner and about Saint Mary’s. Gosh I guess that’s what being in an American Bar will do to yeah…. I have decided that we can’t use the words South Bend, U.S or Saint Mary’s any more. They just come up in conversation sometimes and yes we may miss those places a little cause they are home but right now we are in Rome. After we remind ourselves that, hello we are in Rome, we immediately stop conversation about home and continue on with our Rome talk. That’s the best kinda talk.

After dinner it was gelato o’clock time (thanks to Deirdre for that wonderful phrase). We got gelato and walked around for a while. Perfect night once again. Now I am finally finishing up this blog and it is 1:20 am here. This post was long but that’s what I get for not posting for five days. You all like long posts right? Cause when you get to the end you have to go back to your life, which is not in Rome, and that’s tough isn’t it? So that’s ok that I make these long, its good for you and it’s good for me.

I could just go on and on but life in Rome does not stop for me, so the sooner I go to bed the sooner I am able to wake up and enjoy what Rome has in store for me and my fellow friends this week!

BUONANOTTE!!