2011 Blogs

Eating Our Way Through ROMA Pt. I

04/22/2012

The Pope before his blessing

Phew! Today is the first day in two weeks where I’ve really been able to sit down and write a blog! We have so much to catch up on!

Beautiful Buildings

On April 7th I left with two other Americans I know from Kent, Kelly from Buffalo and Shelby from Indiana, to go to ROME! Now, Italy was the one place I definitely wanted to travel to this year and I was so excited to have the opportunity to go! I couldn’t wait to try real gelato and pasta and eat tons of food as if it had zero calories. When we landed in Italy it took us awhile to find our hotel and we were all scared to ask someone for directions because they were all staring at us like we were aliens. Disclaimer: in all of the “What to Expect When Traveling in Italy” blogs, everyone mentioned that blondes were a rarity in Italy so any blonde, especially girl, would, and I quote, "draw attention like honey to bees" (and I don't even think that makes sense since bees are attracted to flowers and sweet floral smells, but you get the gist), and it just so happens that I went to Italy with two, blonde Americans. Haha. We eventually found our hotel and had to climb 6 flights of stairs to get our room only after we exchanged our passports at the desk for our room key. I’m not going to lie; we all were very weary when the man wouldn’t give us our key until he kept our passports for like 10 minutes. We were all convinced that we were going to be sold to Italian men and Liam Neeson would have to come and rescue us, but of course, that didn’t happen and the man at the desk gave us our passports when we went back down to retrieve them a few minutes later. Still weird, though. After getting settled in, we made our way down for dinner where we had pizza and a very confusing conversation with the waiter, who I was questioning about how to pay. Long story short, you ALWAYS have to ask for you check in Italy, and most other European restaurants for that matter. In Italy, they consider it rude to hand you the check before you ask, like they would be rushing you out, so we awkwardly waited for the waiter to come and finally built up enough courage to ask for the check. We then proceeded to find a gelataria right by our hotel and it was seriously delicious. I got Nutella gelato in a waffle cone with fresh whipped cream! And now here’s another funny for you. So we walk in and the lady greets us in Italian and only realizes we don’t speak Italian when I ask how to order. After staring at me with bewildered eyes for a solid 15 seconds, I just blurt out my order and she started to make it. So we all ordered and everything was fine until the sliding door into the parlor wouldn’t slide to get us out. I’m like, “Uhm, how do we get out?” Then the lady starts laughing so hard she has to turn around and a lady waiting outside of the parlor finally walks up to the door to make it slide. How we would have ever gotten out without the lady- in-waiting (ha!) I have no clue, but at that point, the creamy gelato couldn’t even make me feel any better or less embarrassed. With very pink cheeks we all hit the hay and prepared ourselves for a very Roman Easter Sunday.

On Easter we woke up bright and early and went to the Vatican for Mass to see the Pope! No picture could capture the insane amount of people who showed up that morning. We weren’t able to actually make it INTO the Vatican for Mass, but we could watch it standing outside one of the pillars. After Mass we were able to enter the Vatican and watch as the Pope made his way out onto the balcony to bless everyone. It all seemed very surreal that I was in Rome for Easter listening to the Pope. If you would have told me last year that that’s where I would be for Easter, no way would I have believed you. I’m not sure I will ever get that opportunity again. After the religious festivities, we headed to Piazza Navona, a little market of sorts surrounded by old buildings and people would sell things they’ve made. We relaxed by a fountain and grabbed lunch where I had bucatini all'amatriciana, Shelby had pizza and Kelly had a fresh plate of spaghetti, all of which were amazing. We then got MORE gelato (we ate gelato AT LEAST once a day) and made our way back to the hotel. The gelato we had that day in the piazza was one of my favorites, I had Snickers gelato. It was SO GOOD! And no, chunks of Snickers weren’t just cut up in vanilla gelato; they literally created a Snickers bar in the gelato with chocolate and caramel ribbons and peanuts covered in caramel or something. It was heaven in a cone. Since we’re poor college kids we aimed to eat out only once a day, spending like 15 euros per day on food. So after we finished our day in town, we went to a little grocery store in the metro station and bought mass amounts of Italian candy, cookies, crackers, chips AND apples (we had to be at least SOMEWHAT healthy) that would last us the whole week (although, realistically, it lasted us like 2 days).  Sadly, the people at the grocery store were very rude and wouldn’t speak English when we needed them to. It was actually really surprising to encounter such rude Italians, especially ones in customer service, but at least I’ll never have to see them or that grocery again! Rudeness. After pigging out, we went to bed early and prepared ourselves for a fun, fat-filled week rich in calories and history! I’ll catch up with you more this week! Talk to you soon!  xx

Kels

THE POPE!

Chillin' at Piazza Navona

AT MASS!

"Performers" in Piazza Navona

FIRST GELATO!

PIZZA!