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!