Day 18 - February 10th 2009 Rome, Italy

Had an excellent Italian classe questa mattina e posso parlare migliore italiano tutti i giorni. (Speak better italian everyday!) Had lunch at one of our spots near Via XX Settembre juicing a few caffè macchiato for caffeinated attentiveness. If you have been reading my blog from the beginning I mentioned a little earlier the reasons I was taking an Art History class. Well today was one of those good-reason-I’m-taking-art-history-in-Roma-days. We entered the Musei Capitolini to study the ancient works of master sculptors, painters, and architects. One of the niftiest things is the giant bronze statue of Marco Aurelio sul cavallo (on horse), the only existing statue of a leader on horseback from the Roman empire. Although the statue that sits on the piazza between the two sections of the musei is not the original one, it is a copy replaced in 1981 when the original (which is 2000 years old) was deemed to need a stable environment away from pollution. After the musei I jumped on a bus to the Termini stazione to pick up my train tickets to travel to Cortina this Thursday with Katie to visit Sarah and Martin Wilde up in the dolomiti mountains. Made a delicious chicken cordon bleu for dinner, a little french invention in a land of pizza. I accompanied a few girls from the apartment building to the colesseo where we looked for and found the toted “Ice Club” which is a bar inside an industrial freezer with the walls, seats and bar made totally out of blocks of ice. Even the drink glass is a conical creation of ice which I most definitely ate after drinking the contents.

Day 17- February 9th 2009 Rome, Italy

Arose this morning late because the blackout pulldown wooden barrier of a shade just makes the room so darn dark! Dressed myself in good business attire and headed into the city before my class at 3. Went looking for a textbook that I need for my Masters of Italian Cinema: Federico Fellini class but the bookstore reported to me that they did not have any copies so I had to attend class without it. We watched Roma, Citta Aperta, by director Roberto Rossilini which is the classic neo-realism film of Nazi occupied Rome. I love the run and gun gritty style of neo-realism, which often uses non-professional actors in lead roles to give the film more common citizen authenticity. After class let out I joined up with the group of LdM students going on a walking tour of Giancolo Hill above Trastevere. The view from the hill at night is amazing and I got a few of slow exposure pictures that are quite nice. After walking down the hill we found our way to a bar by the Tevere to participate in l’apertivo. A glass of vino rosso and all the tapas style food you can eat. Cous cous, verdure vegetables with amazing dipping salsas and so many other good eats. The only problem is there isn’t much seating so most people eat everything standing up, which doesn’t sit well in my stomache. Oh well the food was deliciously cheap. Back to the Trastevere apartment for reading work and bed.

Day 16 - February 8th 2009 North Rome, Italy

Went to breakfast today with Katie at a swank little ristorante and had cheese omelets and succo d’arancia and a few crumpets. Parted with Katie to head back to Camp Trastevere to take a shower and prepare to head to an event of sheer epic-ness: AS Roma vs Genoa on the luscious green pitch of soccer/futbol/calcio depending on where you are in the world. We had to take a pretty long bus ride up to the Stadio Olimpico where the match or partita, was being held. After arriving at the threshold of the spectacular, we waited an extra 30 mins before going into the stadium because a couple of our compatriots did not ::ahem:: get off the tram with everybody else and therefore ended up getting very hopelessly lost. But we made it in and the game had just commenced. Man, this was just too cool. A sea of people on both side of the stadium just going out of their minds for the AS Roma team. Every shot, pass, slide tackle; everything that happened on the field elicited a hiss or cheer from the crowd. And OH the chants. Everyone but us knew them and they erupted out of the top of the stadium like the battle cries of old. Lazio lazio VAFFANCULO! Wow. After the game ended and the 40,000+ people streamed out of the stadium, we smashed ourselves into a public bus and headed back to basecamp. Worked on a few things and skyped mio padre, and for all the readers out there hit me up my skype name is: frozentimestudios or c paganelli.

Days 11-15 February 4th - February 7th Rome, Italy

I am going to employ a childhood pneumonic here and say “One two, skip a few, 99, 100”. During this small period of day skipping we started our Wednesday evening ritual of eating at La MonteCarlo and trying to woo the staff to put our picture up on the wall with all the other dignitaries smiling out from the white plaster. Have I mentioned we love La MonteCarlo? We’ll we do. Thursday I am off from class so I ran some errands getting required textbooks and so forth. We frequented the nightspot AnimA again but I have come to dislike this place as it is too narrow in width for its own good and needs more breathing room. Friday I awoke debating with myself whether to go on the school trip to Lake Bracciano and decided against on the grounds that it was cold and rainy and I’d rather go there and swim when it gets hotter. Katie also arrived with her Firenze travel group to tour Rome. We hitched onto another group of API students going to the Scholar’s Irish Lounge and Pub that evening for a bit of spiritual and mentality enhancing entertainment. The place was extremely packed wall to wall but we found our way around eventually ending up in the back at a nice table. We quaffed our elixers and then left to pursue a good night’s rest. Spent a lazy Saturday reading a bit and hanging out with my comrades in arms at the appartamento. Katie and I met up with the API crew that evening and jaunted over to the Jazzclub for a smooth beverage and smooth jazz once again.

Day 10 - February 3rd 2009 Rome, Italy

Arose at a very early 7:30am (comparatively) for my 9am class of Italian language and headed out on the tram to travel the 25mins to the Lorenzo de’Medici school across the Tevere on the north side of historic Rome. The Italian class consists of only me and another girl so the one on one attention of the professoressa is great. After class I spent some time wandering near the Piazza di Spagna then met up with the troops for lunch and returned to the school for my afternoon class of Art History of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. I may or may not have fallen asleep in this class not because it is that boring,... just because I get generally tired in the afternoon around the hours of 3-5pm. Explanations aside we touched on a few famous works residing in Rome and the general syllabus for the class. Now a side note here: I am not much of an artistic enthusiast but I have to fulfill an art history class for Arts and Sciences at UVM, so, I figured there is no place better to do it than right here in a classic art and architecture city. Here’s the kicker that got me: almost 1/2 of my classes are held outside and inside the museums containing the works themselves! We don’t have to sit in a classroom looking at endless slides contemplating the mystery of why Macaroni and Cheese is just so good and yet so easy to make!

Day 9 - February 2nd 2009 Rome, Italy

Awoke this morning early to prepare myself for class. My lecture was not until early afternoon but I wanted to travel into the city to meet up the group after they got out of their classes to walk around a little bit. I did a stupid thing and took the bus all the way into Piazza Repubblica when I really needed to take it to the Wedding Cake/ Vittorio Emanuele II Monumento. So this mistake allowed me to walk for about 30 mins backtracking to Via del Corso to meet up with the crew. I did find some very cool new places on my walk though so that was a positive. Ate a spectacular spaghetti lunch and then strolled into my first class at Lorenzo de’Medici, Masters of Italian Cinema: Frederico Fellini. The 2 1/2 hr classes can be a little long but it really helps cover everything in a continuous stream of consciousness.

Day 8 - February 1st 2009 Rome, Italy

Katie and I spent a good 3 hours at the Termini tren stazione awaiting her scheduled departure back to Firenze. After I saw her safely off, I made my way back to the Trastevere appartamento to read and engage in some peaceful time. That evening a detachment of our API group went off in search of the Steelers’ bar we had heard existed somewhere in the historic district. We found it around 11:30pm and joined the bubbly crowd of Pittsburgh fans even though none in our group were really Steelers’ football fans. The mood was joyous and that’s all that mattered. We met some cool people from the States and the pub was filled with collegiate banners from every major university. The owner was an American from Pittsburgh, hence the Steelers’/ USA lean. By the end of the 1st quarter though we had had enough of the packed little rectangular bar and left to return to camp Trastevere.

Day 7 - January 31st 2009 Rome, Italy

Spent today lazily walking around historic Rome with Katie. At dinner time Katie and I set off in search of a piccolo trattoria to get some delicious cibo. It was 8:30pm on a Saturday night but we didn’t see very many people at all in any of the eateries on Via Nazionale. We kept up our search and were rewarded for our tenacity when we stumbled upon la bottega del caffe, where many Italians were sitting outside enjoying caffe, wine and such. I was slightly intimidated but eventually found the host and requested un tavolo per due. The vino bianco was eccellente, and we ordered the traditional Roman dish which included pork, fried zucchini, e patate. Before that came we let our senses feast upon a plate of assorted cheeses with honey and walnuts dip, an appetizer that all restaurants the world over should serve. Dinner was the highlight of the night and we returned for rest thereafter.

Day 6 - January 30th 2009 Rome, Italy

So the next few blog posts are going to be shorter than previous ones because frankly I haven’t been keeping up with my journaling and cannot remember every minute detail about each day...(not like you wanted to hear them anyway :-P). So today we went back to the LdM school to turn over our documents for our Permesso di Soggiorno, or permit to stay in Italy for an extended period of time. The went smoothly enough. I signed up for the Italian club at LdM so I will be doing a few more Italiano things with the fabulous director Davide Garzia. We took a quick walking tour of the area around the school and Via XX Settembre, checking out spots we get discounts. Then our group went back to the discount pizza shop to grab a bite. I had to jet out of lunch early to go pick up my visitor from Firenze Katie! We went back to the hotel Katie was staying at, dropped her stuff off and grabbed a bus over to the Castel Sant’Angelo to get a in depth tour of the magnificent Papal stronghold. There seem to be a lot of sponsored exhibits in the Castel, which ruined it’s supposed antiquity a smidgen. They had laser light shows inside stone rooms for goodness sake! Oh well the view from the top was fantastic and there was an ice skating rink on the Tiber below so that was a nice touch. From the Castel we wandered towards Piazza S. Pietro and entered the holy ground that is St. Peter’s. Inside is always amazing and having been in twice before I got to look at pieces more closely that I had not done before. St. Peter’s was great and after our guided tour ended and we made our way to Piazza di Spagna to check out the stores on Via del Corso. This shopping excursion was much more successful than the last and the Mastercard took a solid beating. I made my way out of David Hamilton with a black giacca, a few cravatte, and shiny black spat shoes. We cruised back to Katie’s hotel to relax before dinner. We met the crew at Pizzeria Monte Carlo which most of us have fallen slightly in love with for their epic-ly thin crust pizza and tasty cheap red wine. After being kindly asked to leave as we had overstayed by about 2 1/2 hrs we processed forth to the jazz club JazzCafe for a evening of smooth jazz and even smoother dessert vino. We called it a night after the jazz and headed back to base for military issue 8 hours rest.

Day 5 - January 29th 2009 Rome, Italy

Arose this morning at 8:30am to travel with Audra for our introduction to the tram and bus system getting to the Lorenzo de’Medici school. It is about a 15 minute tram ride then a 15 minute bus ride with minimal traffic to get to Via XX Settembre where our school is located. It is right near the Presidential palace and quattro Fontane intersection. We arrived at the school after about 40 mins because traffic was bad and walked up the stairs to the 3rd floor. Lorenzo de’Medici or LdM for short is a recently renovated school that takes up only one floor of the building with 4 classrooms, a small library, computer lab and a few administrative offices. I finally got to see the other students attending LdM this semester, a few coming from Mexico, and the others mostly like where we are from, eastern United States. We heard presentations from the administrators then a woman came in to speak from the US Embassy in Rome. She told us about all the stupid things abroad students have done in the past like get drunk and try to go swimming in the Tiber River. She noted that this was behavior we would want to avoid if trying to have a safe and successful study abroad. The consulate official finished her presentation and we had lunch, and a delicious one at that. Some veal cutlets, potatoes, and a few other things I cannot name at the moment but were scrumptious just the same. Lunch was followed by a walking tour of a few spots around our school that the administrators wanted to show us, a great pizzeria, hair salon, the quattro Fontane again, the direction of the Spanish steps, Trevi fountain, statue of Vittorio Emmanuele etc. They also gave us this red card that gets sconti or discounts at most of the places they showed us. Finishing the walking tour we were back on our own so Ryan and I decided to check out the menswear on Via Nazionale. We cruised and window shopped for a bit then ducked into a store named Big and Kids. The owner and a woman were inside and I asked the woman about looking at shoes and overcoat jackets. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. A whirlwind of clothes started flying at me and in no time I was wearing black leather spats, a sweatervest, and a wool cappotto overcoat. I was not used to the slightly feminine way of masculine dress even though I knew it beforehand and had already seen it all over, but when the woman brought out the purple argyle sweater, I tried it on and immediately looked over at the owner and asked “Come si dice....gay?” He had quite a laugh over this. I ended up walking out of the store with nothing bought while Ryan got a shirt and a better looking sweater than the purple one I tried on. We went back to the apartment, had some dinner and tucked it in for some rest.

Day 4 - January 28th 2009 Rome, Italy

We moved out of the hotel today and into our luxury apartments located on Via Trastevere, in Trastevere Rome. The building has great terraces overlooking the street below and is mostly made up of API students. There are 8 of us in the Lorenzo de’Medici program and the other 80 or so are all John Cabot university students. My roommate is Nick from Pittsburgh. The first thing you notice upon sitting on the twin bed is you are not in the land of squishy sleep anymore. I’d give this thing about 1 1/2 inches of padding max. I seem to sleep fine on it so not really a problem but I imagine some would find it a little too stiff? The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, we made pasta dinner down in the girls apartment below and sat around shooting the breeze. We took a short cruise around Trastevere to see what it was like at night, nothing special was the conclusion. I grabbed a media card reader from the Chinese store across the way (it’s really just a dollar store but its unofficially referred to as the Chinese store because thats the nationality of the man who owns it) So I was able to upload pictures finally and get them onto Flickr so all you wonderful people reading this can visually follow along too! Hurray for pictures! Everyone was very tired from the move in so I watched a flick on the computer and promptly went to bed.

Day 3 - January 27th 2009 Rome, Italy

Ryan and I woke up a tad late but we quickly got our act together and got downstairs for the walking tour i monumenti di Roma. We saw all the classic structures and works and they still hold great appeal even though I had seen them twice before, once on a high school trip and then again on a family trip. There was a Nike+ cross country race of some sort going on inside the circo massimo, which is fun to see the old track used for race again. Our guide through all the sites, Paola, was excellent and had great knowledge of the more intricate stories and details that I’d never heard before on other tours. We finished our tour and returned to the hotel Tiziano to spend some downtime before la cena. Our group walked a few blocks up Via Vittorio Emmanuel II and turned a destra onto Via Savelli, where the acclaimed Monte Carlo pizzeria resided. This ristorante was spectacular, the pizza crust was so thin and everything was just damn delicious. We also sipped a few litre di vino rosso. We returned to the hotel base camp to change and prepare for a night out on the city. Our group broke up into two groups, one headed to the bar straightaway and the other going to see the Pantheon at night before meeting up with Team 1. It was therapeutic to sit by the fontana and take in the magnificence of the Pantheon. After we had finished with our tranquil historic fix, we headed in search of club AnimA which was recommended by our cameriere. It was myself, Ryan and Samantha who had already gotten lost looking for the Pantheon who now had to ask for directions twice to find the place. Once inside we were gawked at by the italians, which I am not sure why because we looked pretty plain and not some gaudy american tourists taking pictures at the bar with I heart NY shirts on. So we looked for Team 1 who were supposed to have met us at AnimA. They had already left the place but we ordered our Peroni birra and sat and watched the stream of people in and out. There were four middle aged italian men who definitely were greasing us, Sam in particular of course. We played it cool and stayed for awhile longer, then departed in search of another watering hole as well as Team 1. We met them in la Piazza Navona and found our way to the bulldog inn, where Gabriella was drawing most of the italian men in to where we were sitting. We met a new friend Francesco who had drinks with us then led us to the Scholars Irish pub, which stays open later than all the other places. This pub was a madhouse and we didn’t even get in the door it was just 30 people all clamoring to get inside but a giant russian looking bouncer was throwing people out by their neck meat and solidly refusing entry into the venerable late night establishment. We canned the effort and headed back to go to sleep at the last night in the hotel.