Home Sweet HOME (ciao, home sweet rome)

The last night in Rome was a huge success. I accomplished 2.5 of my 3 goals. Yes, I somehow managed to pack everything into 2 suitcases and a backpack. Yes, I did not sleep (well, I took a 45 minute nap, but other than that nada). No, I did not swim in the Trevi Fountain. I did dip my hand in, though. It was definitely worth the police blowing whistles at us. Here’s what went down the last night in “The Scip”.

tour of roma!

We all got back from the lunch and were pretty tired. We rested, rehydrated, then decided we HAD to get pizza from the pizzeria across the street one last time. It was just too good not to have. I’m definitely going to miss having delicious homemade pizza 10 steps away. SO Debbie got 4 pizzas, and we all ate and were happy. Ashley and I split one (saving room for the gelato later). Yummmm I miss it already!

After dinner was our Tour de Roma. We wanted to visit all the major sites one last time and take pictures in front of all of them - I mean, it’s a MUST DO. Tara had the incredible idea of us all wearing our “I (heart) Roma” shirts to make the trek. We had each bought one during our time here, and we decided it was perfect. It would be absolutely hilarious to walk around with identical shirts (except for the background color being different - teal, black, pink, and white) because we would look like the typical tourists. We had to re-live our first few weeks here, and this was the ideal way to do it. We all looked hilarious walking around, like a mini tour group all together. But instead of the usual matching-shirt tour groups of little children or old people, we were 5 girls in their 20s. Debbie and I started a count for how many times we got cat-called at. It seems that the obvious tourists get cat-called even more than any every-day girl. Who would have known? We encountered some interesting moments (“I love Roma, I love YOU,” etc). It was worth the goofy t-shirts fo sho.

Our tour started at Piazza del Popolo, then to the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and ending with Piazza Navona. We had tons of fun being really awkward asking people to take our picture, playing along with the vendors trying to sell us blinking sunglasses or laser pointers, and just being all together for one last night. The Spanish Steps looked beautiful with the flowers set up! We considered trying our plan of swimming in the Trevi, but there were hundreds of people there that night and police were everywhere, so we just threw in a coin one last time and dipped our fingers in when we though the police weren’t looking. At the Pantheon we took a little detour back to the 40+ gelato flavor place. This time, I got limone and grapefruit. Mmmm. Great last gelato stop.

Once we made it to Piazza Navona, we were pretty beat. We sat on the fence around the fountain and reminisced, people watched, and talked about our plan for the rest of the night. It was such a beautiful night, and I really love Bernini’s Four Rivers Fountain in the middle of the Piazza. That’s the one I sketched for class when the group of little Italian kids stood around and watched a few weeks ago. This night, there were so many cute little kids running around. One little boy and a girl were flirting and playing - it was sooo adorable. They were probably only 2 or 3 (the boy was a little older - 4?). Precious.

After awhile of taking in every last feeling of Roma, we slowly made our way back to the apartment. The plan was to stay up all night, so we started the movie Beastly (the modern day ‘Beauty and the Beast’ movie). Tara and Ashley went to bed pretty soon after we started, so Kaylie, Debbie, and I finished it. Afterwards, we wrote a goodbye letter to Louise (our doorman) since we loved him and didn’t get to say goodbye! I still wasn’t tired and I had a lot to do still, so I stayed up while Kaylie and Debbie passed out after the movie.

making pancakes at 5 am - last meal in the scip :(

By this time it was a little after 2, so I closed my eyes for about 45 minutes to get a little power nap in, then got up and did my last yoga practice in “the scip” in Rome. It was a really great practice, I’m so happy that I got up to do it because my body haaaates the soreness that comes from traveling. If I do a little yoga and meditation before it is always a smoother traveling experience. After I finished it was about 4:30, so I took a nice long (and much needed) shower and finished packing.

At 5am, everyone’s alarm went off. After slight mumbling, everyone started moving. Debbie blasted some music from GLEE (our apartment’s favorite show), which helped get us going. Deb and Kaylie headed to the kitchen to start our last breakfast together - a pancake feast! Tara and Ashley were moving a little slow while I finished packing, but by 5:30 we were all in the kitchen enjoying a wonderful last meal together. I love my roommates. I miss them so much already. Too TOO much. My flight was the first to depart, so I had to call a cab and head to the airport alone. The rest of them were taking a shuttle together in a couple hours. It was SO SAD saying goodbye. I was a mess. We all were. While I waited for my cab outside, Debbie kept checking on me out the window of our apartment. When the taxi got to the apartment, I got in the cab and waved goodbye as everyone waved out of our apartment window.

goodbye hugs

Usually it’s about a 45 minute drive to the airport, but my cab driver got me there in 20 minutes. Not going to lie, I was a little nervous haha. At least I had plenty of time to get to my gate, and good thing because it took an hour and a half to get there! Checking in was crazy and slow and disorganized (typical Italians), but I made it with about 30 minutes to spare. The cab driver probably thought I was crazy because my eyes were all teary when he picked me up, and on the way to the airport I kept getting emotional in the back seat...sorryi’mnotsorry. I waited at the airport for my flight, saw a few people that I knew and had semi-comprehensible conversations with them (everyone was deliriously tired), then boarded the plane. I slept pretty much the whole flight to New York.

In Newark I had a few hours layover, so once I got through customs I got my first American snack -  A SMOOTHIE! Yum. I called a few people, made sure India and my dad would pick me up at the airport when I landed in Richmond, then watched a movie while I waited for my second flight. In the airport, there was a place to get "Italian Food".. when I passed it I almost gagged. It's gonna take awhile to get used to America's version of Italian food (super oily, not very appetizing looking, etc). Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go back to Italy SOON!

My second flight was quick. I got into Richmond around six, and India and Dad were there waiting for me! India drove me home from the airport because she got her learners a few weeks ago. I was a little nervous, but she actually did a great job! My first night home consisted of dinner at Chipotle with India, a stop at Target (I missed it so much), unpacking, and doing laundry - with a dryer! YAY!!

It's so weird being back home, it's almost like having a reverse-culture-shock. Everything seems so different. It's weird seeing buildings that aren't super old and pretty looking haha. I'm so happy to be back and to be able to see all my loved ones :) BUT Roma has definitely not said goodbye to me forever.

Thank you so much for reading my blog! Hope you enjoyed all the stories and adventures. Love and light to you all, can't wait to see you in the upcoming weeks ! ( I hope!)

packing up - last few days in ROMA ETERNA

i don't think they'll
ever learn what
is and what isn't
a parking spot.

Oooooh goodness. I can't believe it! Only a few days left here in Rome. This week has been a whirlwind. I thought that the past few weeks had been flying by, but just the past few DAYS have been like a blink of an eye.

I've spent my time soaking up as much of Rome as I can, as well as spending some time recouperating from the nonstop craziness that has been the past few months. Now that classes are over I can sleep in later (well..until 9 instead of 6), so that's been nice. I've been spending a lot of time with my roommates, too, which has been fun. Sunday night we all walked to dinner in the Jewish Ghetto since we had never eaten there before. My mom, Dave, and Becky ate at a famous place there so we tried it out. It's called Da Giggetto (or something along those lines). The Jewish Ghetto in Rome is famous for their friend artichokes, and apparently this place had the best of the best. We shared a couple of them, and they were amazing!! It almost tasted like a really really yummy potato chip. As my entree I got a new type of pasta I'd never tried - spaghetti with tuna in red sauce. Wonderful, wonderful. On the way home we stopped by a gelato place.

my newest addition to my photo purchases -
the picture of the picture doesn't
do it justice.

Sunday and Monday were crazy (as well as a few days before then) because it's the Beautification of John Paul II. There were sooooo many people in town! Even in Prati, which was so weird to me. When we walked home from dinner Sunday night at like 10:30, there were still loads of people in St. Peter's Square.

What other exciting events have happened this week? Monday I had the last yoga class of the semester and was so used to having photography after that I wasn't ready to go home yet when I left the gym. I decided to head back over to the Jewish Ghetto to see if the photo store was open since that's my #1 favorite place in all of Rome. Lucky for me, it was! I spent over 2 hours searching through all the old photos again. This store is so neat, I wish I could explain it. All the picture are so different - all from different parts of the world, geographies, types of people, ages, rich and poor, still lives, portraits, moments in lives..it's really beautiful. I think that is my favorite part - the moments. Every picture was taken for a reason, to document a special moment in the person's life. Sifting through the thousands of pictures, I get to dive into their world even if just for a moment and relive that feeling that they felt as they snapped the shot.

I couldn't leave without buying something, and when I handed the old man who owns the shop the pictures I chose, he spent a few moments on each one, observing them and critiquing my choices. I got a "bellisimo", a humored laugh, and a "magnifico". Looks like my choices were successful! Then he asked me if I studied photography, which I was really excited about because I'm hoping that means I have a good eye haha. He was a cute little old man, I'm going to miss that shop!

I took a long, slow walk home since it was such a beautiful day. It's been really pollen-y so my allergies have been acting up like craaaazy. I decided to walk down by the river, which was more covered so the wind wasn't as bad. It was so nice to meander down by the river and soak up all the sights! I'm going to miss it here.

attempt at ship-like mini cakes

Tuesday was my one exam for art history and it went really well! I studied some for it but not too much, since I have an A in the class so I don't necessarily need a good grade on the final haha. (Don't worry mom and dad, I'm pretty sure I still got an A on the exam anyways). It was really easy, so that was good. I came home and baked a cake for our "Scipmates" dinner - the last planned family dinner we were having together in our apartment on Via degli Scipioni! We each volunteered to make something, and of course I offered my baking services haha. I spent all afternoon making little miniture cakes for each of us that looked like ships (since we live on Scipioni - pronounced SHIPioni - get it??). They were so cute! Not exact replicas of ships, but hey...they tasted amazing so that's all that mattered.

 Debbie made pesto chicken with mozzarella melted on top, Tara was in charge of the bruschetta (tomato/mozzarella and pesto/prosciutto/mozzarella YUM), Kaylie made a salad, and Ashley made pasta with veggies. It was soooooooo good, and so nice to hangout with everyone while they cooked. I planted myself in the kitchen while they cooked since I had finished my cake earlier. That was an awesome decision because they let me be the taste tester! :)

beach time

Other than that I've been packing up (so weird), napping, relaxing...it's been so nice. Wednesday I spent the day at the beach in Ostia which was suuuuper nice and relaxing. Thursday I had to run a few errands. I'm trying to get reimbursed from the insurance company for my doctor's appointment so I filled out a claims form for that and picked up my last paycheck for yoga.

Serafino wanted to meet with all his photo classes one more time, so we met for an hour on Thursday. We talked about just random stuff - he decided he wanted to take the last meeting to talk about the philosophical and deeper part of photography as opposed to the technical stuff. We discussed Osama's death and why no pictures were out yet / how someone could easily photoshop him into a picture and make it look real, so why did we need to SEE it if we knew things like this were possible? Then we went around the room and talked about our work, what we learned about ourselves through our photography, etc. It was really nice to meet once more with him. He is definitely one of my favorite teachers I have ever had.

I came home after, and Debbie, Tara, Ashley and I began the celebrations for Cinco de Mayo. When Kaylie got home after her exam at 7 the party was already hopping. Around 8 we went to dinner at the Mexican restaurant around the corner to celebrate some more. Quite a night. Debbie and Kaylie participated in the "tequila cart race"... and it went downhill from there. Haha it was a successful (?) last night out in Roma.

Today is our last day. INSANITY. It was absolutely unreal to check-in online for my flight tomorrow morning. Pretty much everything is packed up. API threw and Arrivederchi lunch for us at this super nice restaurant outside of Rome. They had a gorgeous garden where we got some awesome pictures. Unfortunately my camera has decided to die completely from the sand from the Sahara, so I'll have to post pictures once my roommates put them up on Facebook. We had a yummy lunch, then came back to the apartment.

The plan for the night is to go to all the big monuments one more time, swim in the Trevi (if there are no police around so we won't get arrested), eat at the pizzeria across the street, clean the apartment, finish packing, and bring Tara and Ashley's mattresses into our room to hangout all together for one last night. AKA: no sleeping. At 2 am we have a pancake "breakfast" planned (in quotes because, well, it will be 2 am) to get rid of our syrup and pancake mix. After breakfast I'll probably shower, do a little wee-hours-of-the-morning yoga, then catch a cab to the airport. AH!! this time tomorrow I'll be on a plane home. I can't believe how quickly the time has flown. It seems like every day sped up more and more. I'm soooo excited to come home and reunite with everyone, but I don't think I realize how much I'll miss this beautiful city and the lifestyle here. Oooh goodness. It'll be an interesting transition home.

I'll probably do one or two more posts to let you know when I get home safely! Thank you all for reading this blog, I'm so glad I could keep you up to date with my crazy life in la citta eterna:)

Raphster's in the HOUSE

the completed fresco!

What a great few days with Raphi visiting!! It's been absolutely gorgeous in Rome (well, for the most part). Raphi got in around 3 on Thursday. She was sooo tired after her month-long travels around Europe. She is studying in London, and they have a month-long break between the end of classes and finals. So she went skiing in the French Alps, hung out in Greece, then finished her month with me in Roma, Italia:)

We rested and chilled most of the afternoon since she was pretty beat. Thursday night was our Art Exhibition at school! Since Debbie and I had finished our frescos by the last class (Wednesday), Pettit let us go early as long as we came in to help set up the next day. So we walked over and got there around 4:45 to help out. We organized the fresco materials, Raphi got to meet all my art professors, and just hung out for a little while before the show. I (sadly) had to give my camera back to Serafino since he was just letting us borrow the cameras from his personal collection. When he asked for it back he said "You want to keep it, I can tell." Haha yes, Serafino, I really did. I'm definitely putting a Minolta camera on my birthday wishlist!! He said he almost let me keep it, but his cameras mean so much to him that he couldn't bear to let it go. Haha oh well!

Deb and I attempting to organize
the fresco room

Right as the exhibition was starting, Flaccus (my painting teacher) realized that we weren't going to have enough drinks. He sent me, Debbie, and Raphi on a mission - apparently we were the "perfect candidates" - to buy 11 more LARGE bottles of water, coke, and fanta. We found the Despar down the road and somehow (barely) made it back to the show without dropping any of them. Raphi struggled a little bit haha, balancing isn't her strong point. The art show was really amazing. I loved being able to see everyone's work from all the different classes! Debbie and I explained to some people of fresco-ing works which they thought was really cool (when in my life will I ever be able to do frescoing again??). All my roomies except Tara are in studio classes, so they were all there and I got to see all their stuff. Fun fun fun!!

After the art show we headed to Le Fate for a roomie dinner. That's the place where they have the awesome student's menu (bruschetta, pasta, dessert, and wine for 10euros!). We had homemade gnocchi for our main course YUM. Raphi loved the Italian feast! Halfway through dinner we looked to see what the meal was for Friday - chicken parm! We all had been craving that ever since we came to Rome and haven't had it yet, so we decided to come back the next night again haha. And dessert was tiramisu, so it was perfecto! After dinner, Raphi and I came back to the apartment and watched a movie then passed out. Whew! It had been a long day.

STRAWBERRIES YUM

Friday was our beach day. Ostia is about 45 mins of public transportation away, and it's a nice beach right on the Mediterranean. Debbie, Raphi, Raphi's friend from London/home Cady, and I headed out around 11:30. Raphi and I had gone to the market in the morning and gotten some food for the week as well as lunch for the beach, so I was glad that I got to show her that. I was excited because when I went to the mozerella man to get my weekly bufalo cheese, I walked up to the stand and he pointed at me and said, "Bufalo!!" and smiled. He remembered me! YAY! (best mozerella ever ps). Sam was meeting us at the beach in a couple of hours.

raphi and i at the BEACH!

We got to the beach and had a wooooonderful time - laying out, reading, napping..it was just what I needed. Debbie and I got snowcones from a man walking around and selling them. He literally had a square block of ice that he used some shaver thingy to shave off some and put it into a plastic cup haha. Debbie and I made friends with him. He told us his name was "Sheriff", then pretended to pull guns out of his pocket and shoot them haha. He was from Egypt! Sheriff had visited the USA - Denver, Florida..when he said Florida I told him I went to school in Miami and he freaked out. Oooh goodness. He poured a bunch of different flavors into our cups and was happy when we told him we liked it. Oh what an experience.

YUM

Around 4:30 we decided to head back to the apartment. We all took showers when we got back, observed our slightly (if not more than slightly) sunburnt skin - the sun is WAY hotter here than you'd think!! - rinsed off in the shower, then headed back to Le Fate for round two. Yum yum yum. Katie and Allie met us there, so we had a big group. Raphi and I spent most of the dinner catching up some more which was really nice. The food was wonderful, as always! That night we came back to the apartment, watched the highlights from the Royal Wedding, and finished the movie we started the night before.

Saturday was the Tour of Rome day. In the morning, Debbie, Kaylie, Raphi and I made an AMAZING breakfast of french toast and pancakes. We even found Aunt Jemimah syrup in the international store!! We were all missing having actual breakfast (and not just pastries and coffee), and it was SO. GOOD. I can't wait to get home and have real breakfasts again all the time! Dad - looking forward to your chocolate chip / fruit pancakes (perhaps we can do it next Sunday morning...? haha :) ).

Cady, Raphi, and I at the Pantheon - my fav!

I took Cady and Raphi all around to see the sights. Raphi had been here before when she was younger, but it was Cady's first time in Roma. We went to the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Trevi, Spanish Steps - we hit it all! Unfortunately it was raining and drizzly and a little chilly all day (we picked the right day to go to the beach), but it was okay because we had a great time.

We even checked out the other best gelato in Rome (besides Old Bridge). It had 40+ flavors of gelato, including Kinder Bueno, Kit Kat, Cannoli, etc etc etc. YUM! It sort of turned into a tour of the sweets in Rome, because I took them to the cannoli place as well. MMmmmm. It was nice because I got to check off a lot of things off of my "list of things to do before I leave Rome"! Around 3 we had an amaaaaaazing pizza lunch as That's Amore - a little restuarant that Ashley had told me about. We got 2 pizzas to split - spicy salami and blue cheese& apple. THEY WERE SO GOOD. I can't believe I haven't gone there before!

gelatoiloveyou

We came back to the apartment, I did some yoga and meditating while Cady and Raph watched a movie. Everyone took a nice long late afternoon nap, then we figured out the plan for the night. Debbie and Kaylie were going to a concert, but I didn't have the money to do that (my bank account's struggling. alot.). Raphi, Cady, Ashley and I decided to make dinner at home then have a nice night out on the town. We made chicken pesto pasta with fresh bruschetta and wine on the side. Yum!! Oh how I love Italian food - I could never get sick of it. Raphi and Cady got Grappa at Billa to try. It's a famous Italian alcohol that's SUPER strong. I guess I didn't warn them of how strong it was, because they were like "HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DRINK THIS???" once they tried it haha. Don't worry, they pushed through.

We played a bunch of games on the floor of the apartment, talked, and had lots of fun. Ashton Herbert was passing through town coming home from London (she had a long layover between her flight to Rome and her bus out of Rome), so she stopped by the apartment for a few minutes for some dinner and a glass of wine. It was so good to see her and catch up! I helped her figure out how to get to the bus (she's studying in Tuscany-ish area so she was taking a bus back) then she was on her way.

home made bruschetta! with my fav
fresh mozerella mmmm

We ended up having so much fun hanging out together in the apartment (slash a little too much wine and grappa) that we stayed in and kept the games going well into the night. Finally we passed out and got a good night's sleep. At 7 am I woke up to Debbie and Kaylie JUST getting home from the concert! CRAZY girls!! The concert went from 11pm - 7am!! AH! I would have loved to go just to dance the night away (one of my favorite hobbies), but oh well haha. I don't think I could have lasted that long!

Sunday I dropped Raphi off at Termini and we said our goodbyes. I'm hoping she can come down to VA for my birthday this year! We'll seeee how it goes:) It was soooo good to be with her again though. Getting me excited to go back to Miami!!! Today is the Beatification of John Paul also, so it is absolute INSANITY in Rome. Usually Prati is a ghost town on Sundays, but EVERYTHING is open today. Even in our little Roman neighborhood people are invading everywhere. Apparently there are 2 million + pilgrims in Rome today!! Later this afternoon Ashley, Tara, and I will probably walk over to the Vatican to see how crazy it is over there (I can't even imagine). I can't believe it's less than a week now until home! The countdown is going crazy fast. AH!