Really Small Coffees

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.