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Published: November 12th 2014
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Thursday (6/11) Today after Italian class, we decided to go to the local grocery store to pick up some snacks. The weather seemed to be rather cool, as the sky was getting cloudy and dark. When we left the store, it was just downpouring. Completely unprepared for it, we reckoned to just bear it and walk home through the torrential rain. It was quite bad, as the gutters of the street had small rivers in them flowing down the hills. It lightened up a bit by the time we got back to campus, but we were entirely soaked, including our groceries. The paper bag we carried them in just got wrecked.
I went back out an hour later. It had stopped raining then. I went with a group of girls to try to buy tickets to an AS Roma futbol game for December. Unfortunately, they were all sold out of the cheapest 40 euro seats, and nobody wanted to pay 60 euro to go. This excursion was not a complete failure though, as the tabaccheria we went to purchase the tickets was right near a local gelateria I had been meaning to try. The place was awesome. They had a
wide variety of flavors, and rather cheap prices. I had tried the apple cinnamon and the chocolate flavors. Not the best ever, but quite good for a cheap price. I also had to try one of their nutella crepes. It took a while to make but was totally worth it. It was topped with powdered sugar and chocolate syrup, which combined with the warm freshness, just made a spectacular combination. My dinner for the evening was sufficiently spoiled.
But after dinner, Sean and I wanted to go out for some aperitivo (a finger food buffet included with the price of a drink). Just as we had gotten all dressed up, it started raining again. But we were undeterred, since we could prepare this time with an umbrella and a rain jacket. However we were planning on going to central Rome for a more well known aperitivo, but decided to just go to a closer familiar place, Foodoo. I had gotten a manbourtini (sort of a martini but made with bourbon), and our food was a small assortment of fried vegetables and breads, (some of the bread appeared to be fried). Overall It was a pretty successful night.
Friday (7/11) Getting a rather late start to our day, a little while after lunch, we headed to central Rome. Sean wanted to try to find this rooftop park that a friend of his had told him about. But that was when she was here two years ago and we only had a street name to go off of. We wandered around for quite a while trying to find the place, even walking past the residence of the Italian president, but finally we headed towards Termini Station to meet up with Angelina's friend who was visiting for the weekend. She is currently studying abroad in Madrid for the semester, and this was her weekend to see Rome. Angelina is just lucky that Sean and I didn't go to Naples like we had intended to (we decided to go next weekend because there's an international pillow fight). I was a huge help in leading us around Rome to see all the major sights. It already being dark, we decided to stick to the somewhat nearby attractions, the first and closest being the Colosseum. On our way there, we stopped at the Esquilinio restaurant for some pizza. It was
pretty good, but the caprisiosa pizza I order had the ingredients separated into different quadrants so I had to spread them around evenly. Sean was eyeing the gelateria just down the block the entire time during dinner so of course we had to stop for some, although it was rather disappointing with the chocolate orange flavor, but Sean was thoroughly delighted with his pistacchio. Then we walked around the Colosseum, showing Angelina's friend all the glory. Next was the Victor Emanuel "Wedding Cake" monument, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navona. Our final stop for the evening was at Scholar's, a popular Irish pub and lounge (where apparently some girls from my school ran into Justin Bieber a few weeks ago). We only had one drink (my long island ice tea was so delicious) and shared a plate of nachos. Then we returned Angelina's friend to her hostel, and made our way back to campus.
Saturday (8/11) After lunch, we headed out to meet up with Angelina's friend at the Vatican. While we were there, Sean and I also mailed some postcards to our mothers, since the Vatican mail system is so much faster
than Italy's very slow snail mail. Then we toured a good deal of Rome, walking past Castel San Angelo, through Piazza Navona, past the Pantheon and the Trevi fountain (now in the daylight) and to the Spanish steps, where we relaxed for a long while and were able to watch the sunset just next to the Vatican over the horizon. It was a spectacular sight. We then went north to Piazza del Popolo, where we struggled to walk though the crowds of political supporters who we just leaving from a rally that was held there in the piazza. Getting hungry at this point, we stopped by secret bakery to show Angelina's friend the good deal on delicious cornetti there. We then took a bus to the top of Giancolio Hill to get an amazing view of the night sky of Rome. Sean and Angelina thought they had been there before but they never actually made it to the hill, they stopped at the fountain that we later walked past at the bottom of the hill.
Having walked around enough to build up quite a large appetite, Sean tasked me with the duty of finding the restaurant with the best bruschetta
in Trastevere, the neighborhood we were heading to. I decided to lead the group to the first that popped up on google, called Bacanale Trastevere. This turned out to be a great decision. It was a little hole in the wall place, and was actually a bit more of a bar than a restaurant, but they had an awesome menu deal. Pasta or pizza, a slice of bruschetta, and a drink for only 10 euro. Sean and I upsized our drinks for 2 extra euro, he with Guinness and I with red vine. The bruschetta arrived, overloaded with tomatoes. But the seasoning on it was phenomenal, making it the best bruschetta any of us had ever had. Then our pasta arrived. I had ordered the canneloni, which was stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach. It was amazing. It was such an Italian experience, with great pasta, red wine and futbol on the tv. At that moment, I really fell in love with Rome. And after dinner, of course gelato, at the best place for gelato in Trastevere, Fior di Luna, which was just a block away. And man did this place have a solid, rich chocolate orange flavor. Just so
satisfying.
With it still being quite early in the evening, we decided to try to go to a jazz club, but unfortunately it wouldn't open for another hour, and when we returned later, there was a hefty10 euro cover charge that we were unwilling to pay. But we continued on with the last view stops on my preplanned tour of Rome, with us proceeding south of Trastevere. We walked past the Herculean Temple and the Mouth of Truth, but since it was night, access to it was closed. Climbing up the Aventine Hill, we made our way to one of the best places in Rome, the keyhole view of the Vatican. I do believe it is best seen at night because then the cupola is all lit up, making the view much better. We then back tracked a bit to a nice garden area with a nice balcony overlooking all of Rome. Calling it a somewhat early night, we brought Angelina's friend back to her hostel and they parted ways. We of course had to stop at secret bakery on the way back to campus.
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