This morning was a little rough. No sleep and a three mile trek through narrow winding roads filled with crazy drivers who seem to be blind to anything on the road and the road itself (one of the guys, Anthony, almost got hit. I mean really, he was almost hit! A fricken Piat almost back into him!) After a brief discussion on how we were getting to our destination, the Piazza Navona, we opted for the bus. We waited in front of a very small church, that I almost peed on the previous night, at the intersection of Aurelia and Madonna for about eight minutes before boarding a crowded bus. I know you usually have to pay for stuff like that, but being dumb Americans we overlooked that fact.
After being dropped off at some Piazza (there seem to be an endless supply of them), we walked over the Tiber and into the really touristy part. The Italian sun was already beating down on us and none of us had anything to eat before, making us a group of wandering, hunger-driven zombies who would just as soon eat a dead cat covered in marinara sauce as a pizza.
Seeing as we arrived about an hour before we were supposed to meet, we stopped over a coffee shop, whose, as far as I can tell, owner's wife was distraught when we tried to pay for 80 euro cent shot of coffee, which was more like half a shot plus a spoon, with 5 euro bills. I got around that by mooching a one euro coin off one of the guys. Now, another embarrassing moment was trying to figure out how to drink the damn thing. It was probably half a shot of coffee in a cup so small it shouldn't have a purpose at all. I downed my cafe molto picco in as many sips as I could manage (one) and left the counter.
Having imbibed what amounted to pure caffeine our spirits were lifted and we ducked and weaved our way into the Piazza Navona where we met up with our professors and the gals for pranzo (apparently that means lunch).
Lunch was definitely fun. We had a crazy host by the name of Daniele Lunadini, who thanked us for our "Will Smith" election and proceded to rant and gesticulate about his hate of the Bush administration in broken English and very fast Italian, complete with running, jumping and sound effects. He also showed us a video on his ipod of him in a tutu doing ballet. Now this wasn't no Russian ballet or ABT, but it was most definitely entertaining.
Lunch itself was pretty kick ass: Bruschetta, fresh and I mean FRESH mozzarella de buffala of which I had probably a pounds worth, and a pizza topped with mozzarella, gorganzola, walnuts and pears. It was a cheese cart on a wonderful peice of tender, crispy foccaccia that was actually quite a joy to eat. The bite of the gorganzola was quickly tamed by the sweetness and mellowness of the pears while the roasted nuts provided a nice crunch and a great complement to the rest of the flavors. It's something that I would definitely want to have again.
After consuming several cows worth of cheese, 10 bottles of acqua frizzante and about 6 liters of vino biaco e rosso we were hardpressed to get up. We walked around a bit more, made failed plans to meet up and made our way back to our apartments. There we napped and awoke much later than we had planned to, leaving us with another wasted evening Thankfully we still have bread and I can still blog the shit out of the day. Hopefully tomorrow night will be much more eventful.
domenica 31 maggio 2009
sabato 30 maggio 2009
Flight, Flight, Rome
About 13 collective hours on two planes from JFK and CDG airport in Paris puts me here in an apartment on Via de Gozzadini in Rome. Thankfully one of my apartment mates woke up and found the lighter I've been looking for to light the stove so I can make myself some instant coffee.
Having traveled to places far distant a few times before I know that these first few days are going to be kind of painful. Jet lag, loud Italian neighbors and very strange sounding seagulls (that make a sound reminiscent of a baby crying) are a few things that kept from sleeping last night. It is also why I am sitting down with a nice big cup of instant coffee, sweetened with fructose.
So the flights were not bad at all. Ten hours on a Boeing triple-seven is nothing when you've been on a cramped 747 for 18 hours with only foreign movies and SkyMall magazines for entertainment. At least on this flight I had a couple of my fellow Geneseo Rome-ies with me and the Vanderbilt girl's lacrosse team to gawk at when they passed by in their short gym shorts. Go ahead and call me a pig, but what else was I going to do for 10 hours? Actually I pounded out a 300 page book that was the first thing I've read for pleasure in a long long time.
So after arriving in Rome and meeting some of the guys, I get the impression that they are a pretty cool bunch. After all of us passed out in the apartment for about four hours (the apartment is pretty kickass by the way) we wandered around the neighborhood for eons looking for a place to eat. We settled on a little pizzaria whose name escapes me for some pies and beer. Despite being a tad pricy the pies were good. They came on a crust that was paper thin, and an elusive combination of chewy and crispy and were topped with surprisingly sharp cheese, which was great when eating it with a nice mild Italian beer. Specifically, I ordered pizza napoli (I embarrased myself here by putting the accent on the wrong syllable), which was topped with anchovies. It was the cheapest pie they had besides just plain pizza margherita with the added pleasure of those oily, salty little fish.
After enjoying our good, but meagerly portioned meal, at least by our over-indulgent, oversized American standards, we bumbled around town looking for tomorrow's meeting place, Piazza Navona, which is I guess famous for having these sweet looking carved fountains and cobblestone streets. Just as a side note I apologize to any Italiophiles reading this because I clearly know nothing about Italy except that they have a bunch of old stuff over here that's cool to look at. Along the way we passed by the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica, not that I would be able to tell you anything about either one except for that, "doesn't that pope guy with the funny hat live in the Vatican?"
Ugh, I just ran out of coffee.
It was kind of surreal to see all of this stuff that, up until now, I've only heard about and all of it more beautiful than anything that textsbooks or the travel channel could have prepared me for. I'm really looking forward to actually seeing those places in daylight.
Oh jeeze, some crazy Italian lady just glared at me from the street. Did I mention our apartment is street level? Yeah, it's kinda sketch, but our door has an comically large deadbolt on it...which we forgot to lock last night.
Anyway this post is really long winded but I promise that others will be shorter, not that anyone really reads these things all the way through anyway (*cough NICOLE! cough*). I'll hopefully remember to take some pictures and stuff and make an attempt to pay attention to more than just the food (like the fact that there seems to be no shortage of gorgeous, bronze-skinned, dark-haired Italian beauties aroud).
Having traveled to places far distant a few times before I know that these first few days are going to be kind of painful. Jet lag, loud Italian neighbors and very strange sounding seagulls (that make a sound reminiscent of a baby crying) are a few things that kept from sleeping last night. It is also why I am sitting down with a nice big cup of instant coffee, sweetened with fructose.
So the flights were not bad at all. Ten hours on a Boeing triple-seven is nothing when you've been on a cramped 747 for 18 hours with only foreign movies and SkyMall magazines for entertainment. At least on this flight I had a couple of my fellow Geneseo Rome-ies with me and the Vanderbilt girl's lacrosse team to gawk at when they passed by in their short gym shorts. Go ahead and call me a pig, but what else was I going to do for 10 hours? Actually I pounded out a 300 page book that was the first thing I've read for pleasure in a long long time.
So after arriving in Rome and meeting some of the guys, I get the impression that they are a pretty cool bunch. After all of us passed out in the apartment for about four hours (the apartment is pretty kickass by the way) we wandered around the neighborhood for eons looking for a place to eat. We settled on a little pizzaria whose name escapes me for some pies and beer. Despite being a tad pricy the pies were good. They came on a crust that was paper thin, and an elusive combination of chewy and crispy and were topped with surprisingly sharp cheese, which was great when eating it with a nice mild Italian beer. Specifically, I ordered pizza napoli (I embarrased myself here by putting the accent on the wrong syllable), which was topped with anchovies. It was the cheapest pie they had besides just plain pizza margherita with the added pleasure of those oily, salty little fish.
After enjoying our good, but meagerly portioned meal, at least by our over-indulgent, oversized American standards, we bumbled around town looking for tomorrow's meeting place, Piazza Navona, which is I guess famous for having these sweet looking carved fountains and cobblestone streets. Just as a side note I apologize to any Italiophiles reading this because I clearly know nothing about Italy except that they have a bunch of old stuff over here that's cool to look at. Along the way we passed by the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica, not that I would be able to tell you anything about either one except for that, "doesn't that pope guy with the funny hat live in the Vatican?"
Ugh, I just ran out of coffee.
It was kind of surreal to see all of this stuff that, up until now, I've only heard about and all of it more beautiful than anything that textsbooks or the travel channel could have prepared me for. I'm really looking forward to actually seeing those places in daylight.
Oh jeeze, some crazy Italian lady just glared at me from the street. Did I mention our apartment is street level? Yeah, it's kinda sketch, but our door has an comically large deadbolt on it...which we forgot to lock last night.
Anyway this post is really long winded but I promise that others will be shorter, not that anyone really reads these things all the way through anyway (*cough NICOLE! cough*). I'll hopefully remember to take some pictures and stuff and make an attempt to pay attention to more than just the food (like the fact that there seems to be no shortage of gorgeous, bronze-skinned, dark-haired Italian beauties aroud).
Iscriviti a:
Post (Atom)