Victor Emmanuel Monument

I'm half-way through finals with 2 more days until Portugal and Morocco! Today I had an on-site today for my 19^th & 20^th century Italian history class. We met outside the Victor Emmanuel monument and discussed the tomb of the unknown solider, the historical significance of the monument, and its facade. Inside there is a museum dedicated to the unification of Italy. 

I think I learned less about unification though, and more about Garibaldi. The museum felt like a shrine to him. I have visited many churches for my Romans Catholicism class, and I think I have gotten pretty good at identifying relics when I see them. One of the main hallways was filled with 'secondary relics' of Garibaldi's life: 2 pairs of his pants, a blanket he was carried in after being shot in the ankle along with his bloody shoe, sock, the bullet, and the instruments used to extract it. I am coming to realize that despite Cavour's involvement in unification (he was the brains behind it all- it's an interesting story worth a skim here or here), Garibaldi is the figure most closely associated with it because he was reactionary and his story is much more dramatic). My favorite part of the day was when the tour guide got really excited about showing us the bronze sculpture of Garibaldi's "breast." Our teacher tried to correct him subtly, but he only realized his mistake after saying breast instead of bust 3 times in the most hilarious context.

**Cool Fact: Garibaldi's wife, Anita Garibaldi, was also a bad ass (like so many other now forgotten Italian women), and died fighting next to him. I wonder why there's not a pizza Anita Garibaldi in every town?

Sunday Before Midterms Week... San Lorenzo Study Date

I had a TON of homework to catch up on and today was a perfect rainy day to do it. I took the train with Ali and Nate to Termini and then walked all the way to San Lorenzo cafe- a cool place in one of my favorite neighborhoods. (Recommendation: their hot chocolate is so thick and delicious you have to eat it with a spoon. Ali got the white chocolate one, and I got one with tiny pieces of hazelnuts inside!)

It was great hanging out with Ali- who at the beginning of the semester I never would have thought I would be friends with, and Nate- who I had a great time with at the cafe. I think Nate, Teresa and I are going to have a great time in Morocco!

 

Finishing up my 'Rome to-do list'

This has been a whirlwind of a week both academically (with midterms approaching) and socially (I had been out with friends almost every night this week!). I didn't want to waste a beautiful day in Rome so I decided to do some wandering on my own, and finish my 'Rome to-do list.'

Beautiful Caravaggio!

Later that day I met up with Mary and Teresa and did some relaxing reading for midterms in Villa Borghese.

Secret Bakery in the Jewish Ghetto

Today Cameron, Ali, Dan, and I went to the Jewish Ghetto. I had heard about a 'secret bakery' from Angela, and one of the JFRC staff. I googled it and found this article.The bakery is unmarked, and closes every Friday evening and all day Saturday in observance of the Sabath. We wandered through the ghetto looking at all the ruins, made our way south past circo massimo, and saw the 'mouth of truth' like in the movie Roman Holiday (which I had just watched last weekend with Teresa. Disclaimer: it is a major tourist trap!).

That night I went out with a small group for drinks at a picturesque Italian bar called beer. 

(Rant about Italian beer: the beer at Beer is decent, nothing special- decent Italian beer is equivalent to miler, while Peroni= bush lite, anything cheaper=straight up watery pee- no matter how poor you are don't drink this it's really really terrible. trust me.) (Recommendation: try the fresh chips at Beer!)

Teresa's Birthday

Starting the day with a visit to my favorite church in Rome located in the Monti neighborhood.

SO beautiful!

 

Teresa is studying in Rome for a year, and decided that for her birthday she wanted some good old American hamburgers. Luckily for us, hamburgers are a hip, gourmet thing (think cupcake shops in the US). We found a really cool place right by Piazza Navona (which has 5 euro burgers after midnight!). I had a delicious veggie burger and some of the best chicken quesadillas of my life. Teresa, a burger conisour, was quite pleased with the meal and Joey, Nina, Teresa and I all decided that we would be coming back. We got really lucky for dessert and met some Italian ladies who were celebrating "Singles Awareness Day" They gave us some of there delicious red velvet cupcakes :)

Ravonettes concert at one of the coolest venues I have ever been to:

2 euro beers in front of the Victor Emmanuel make waiting for the N6 bearable.

Looks like I wrote 2 posts for this...

Today was Teresa's 21^st birthday! Instead of spending the day hopping from one trashy American bar to the next Teresa, Nina, and I spent the day in true Ter fashion. We started the day off at Villa Borghese (one of the most beautiful, and popular parks in Rome). We wandered around talking, singing, laughing, and occasionally flinging pieces of our pizza bianca at geese. We wandered out of the park and stumbled into a beautiful church in the Monti neighborhood. Next, we walked all the way to the area around Termini were we shopped at a crazy store called Moss?? One of my new favorites, and very eclectic and interesting.

Of all of my friends, Teresa is probably the most knowledgeable about GOOD food. What else would you expect from someone whose favorite food is actually fancy cheese! One of Teresa's culinary passions is meat, especially Hamburgers. For her birthday dinner, Teresa set about finding the perfect hamburger. A task not so easily accomplished in Rome. Cultural bit: Hamburgers, Cheesecake, and beer pong are considered as as American as Pasta, Terrimissu, and wine are to Italians. Thus, hamburgers, cheesecake, and beer pong become somewhat of a novelty here in Italy. My Italian friends are always asking me about the finer points or 're-racking' or trying to make the most American cheesecake (which, along with hamburgers, they think we eat all the time?). Anyway, after lots of research (instead of paper writing, as usual) Teresa found Hamburgeresa. The head chef is from New York, and the place seemed to be in good repute with the Italians who had raved about it in the numerous Italian food and living blogs Teresa regularly sifts through. I had a perfectly moist veggie burger which was delicious because unlike most veggie burgers this one was mushroom based instead of bean based like most veggie burgers in the states. While here I managed to befriend some Vietnamese-Italian women celebrating 'singles awareness day.' We talked for a bit, and they ended up sharing their home-made (really!) cupcakes.

After Joey left Teresa, Nina, and I headed to the Ravonettes concert. We showed up over an hour late which turned up to be just in time (oh, Italian time!). The concert was amazing, and we eneded the night splitting a cab to Piazza Venetzia with an English speaking couple who bought us beers which we (in true Italian style) drank in the Piazza right in front of the Victor Emanuelle.

Valentine's Day Erasmus Party

Last night I went to an erasmus party with my friends Cecilia and Cameron. It took us about 2 hours to actually get to the club where the Valentine's day party was being held. In the hour or so we spent wandering the city I saw a lot of beautiful sites, and learned more Italian then I had in a week of classes. We danced the night away to a "cosi-cosi' DJ. We took some awesome pictures of Cecilia and I dancing on stage with the Dj, but they were lost when Cameron lost his iphone a few days later. This was all we got:

Ash Wednesday

I went to mass today at jfrc with Fr. Bohr and Fr. Al- the first is my Roman Catholicism teacher (and a Jesuit!) and the second is a Trinitarian and the director of campus ministry at jfrc. After mass Teresa and I had dinner at my favorite place in Garbatella, Casa Rosa. It is a tiny, neighborhood hang-out with a very chill communist philosophy (meaning the food and drinks are pretty cheap). It is very relaxed, and  great place to just sit and chill and maybe get into a heated political conversation with some of the locals.

 

Fried zucchini flowers... so good!

Peace out Benedict

So if you haven't heard yet... the Pope officially resigned today! I feel so lucky to be studying at a Catholic institution in Rome at such an exciting and historical time. Updates to come!

Assisi Day Trip

 This morning, on a whim, I decided to go to the famous pilgrimage site Assisi. Assisi is best known for being the home of St. Francis, founder of the Francisican order of Monks. It is a major pilgrimage site for many people in Rome, but it is also incredibly beautiful. I left in the morning with Teresa and Nate. We barely made our train, and arrived just in time. We spent the three hour train ride 'studying' for our Italian history midterm and getting excited about our day trip. We arrived in Assisi around 10am and were able to hit all the touristy/important pilgrimage sites by about 2:30.

Church... inside a church...

Carnivale Festivities we just happened to run into:

I just found out this party has unlimited free food, wine, and confetti :)

my man

Only in Italy do they have meat, cheese, and wine floats for the adults.

They were roasting this mean straight up on the float.