Day 4: Rome

Gelato flavors tried: pistachio, tuttobosco (berries), hazelnut, peach (tuttobosco definitely the best)

I think I finally have enough time to do justice to Rome so far. On Sundays, the city is very quiet. The markets and shops are closed, people are at home or in church, and the streets are nearly empty. This morning, we stopped by the Porta Portese flea market. It's absolutely huge, and has nearly everything you ever might need or not need, from antiques and books to electronics, power tools, and BB guns. It's a very different style of shopping from what I'm used to.

Six of us were on the same flight to Rome. Although our flight was an hour late, we were the first ones to arrive on Thursday. We took a van taxi to the UW Rome Center. Our taxi driver was not very talkative, but he navigated the craziness of Roman traffic very proficiently. Several times we were frightened that we would crash, and each time the driver managed to smoothly evade disaster. We got keys to our apartments and hauled our stuff to our apartments. My apartment is about a twelve minute walk from the Rome Center, across the Tiber River in the Trastevere neighborhood, and it's quite nice. We have a smallish kitchen, a large living space with couches and dining room table, and two bathrooms and two bedrooms. The beds are a little hard, but better than in some of the other apartments. Plus, we have wi-fi, which definitely makes up for any deficits (even though there are .

After a group shopping run to the cell phone store to buy Italian SIM cards and phones, 22 of us sat down for dinner at a pizzeria near the Campo de' Fiori ("Field of Flowers" - the piazza near the UW Rome Center). The waiter was a bit overwhelmed, but managed to get everyone their orders in a timely manner. I had a pizza with salami, and it was excellent; the paper thin, crispy crust is incredibly delicious. Shortly thereafter, we retired to our apartment and fell into bed to recover from jet lag.

On Friday morning, we woke up relatively late and feeling much more energetic. We stopped for coffee at Magnolia, a small caffe on the Campo de' Fiori. I tried my first Italian coffee: a cappucchino that was exceedingly delicious. Lisa (our art history professor) gave us a tour of the area around the Rome Center, showing us good places to eat and shop. She let us try pizza bianca (pizza crust with olive oil and a little salt) from a great bakery, and it was awesome. After the tour, my three roommates (Catherine, Kristin, Sarah) and I went shopping for food and essentials: bread, cheese, dish soap, toilet paper, and wine around the Rome Center, and fresh fruits and vegetables from the market in the Piazza San Cosimato, which is just down the street from our apartment. The oranges and tomatoes here are delicious! And cheap! We tried our first gelato!

At 4, we went to Magnolia with the rest of the class to watch the World Cup, USA vs. Slovenia. It was really fun, even though the US was losing, until the power went out, for no apparent reason! We sat in the dark, hoping the game would come back on, but finally we left and went home to make dinner. We planned to make pasta with tomatoes and zucchini, but unfortunately we could only turn on one of the gas burners on our stove (although I have since figured it out, we could not get the gas to stay on for 3 burners). So we made our meal in batches, but it was nevertheless very tasty. Sarah is really into cooking, and she knows what she's doing, so we couldn't really fail!

On Saturday, we went to visit our monuments. We walked through Rome to the Pantheon, the Campidoglio, and Trajan's column (I'll talk more about them as we visit them as a class). The day was perfect: not too hot, but still sunny. We got paninis for lunch and did a little more food shopping, and spent most of the afternoon working on reading for our class on Monday and our art history projects. The welcome dinner for our program was in the evening at one of Lisa's favorite restaurants, Trattoria Moderna. I sat next to Professor Kasaba, who is very friendly and funny and interesting. His daughter Melise (I think that's her name) was running around and talking with everyone - so cute! We had a traditional multi-course meal: antipasti (caprese salad, vegetables, octopus, prosciutto and melon), risotto with sausage and asparagus, pork with tomato sauce and spinach in butter, and desserts (tiramisu, chocolate cake, and baked peaches), followed by coffee. The whole affair took three and a half hours. Everything was fantastic, and I ate way more than I should have.

Later today is another World Cup game, and Italy is playing. The caffes will be packed; we're planning to go out and see if we can find a place to watch it!

Happy Father's Day!