Day 59- Happy Birthday Rome

Productive weekend. Catalina came and stayed with me and we went to a few of Rome's prime attractions. I went into the Basilica di San Pietro and saw the Pieta for the first time since I've been here, as well as to the Panteon, Castel Sant'Angelo and the Spanish Steps by daylight. We also stopped at Piazza Navona for lunch which was really nice. I had the Spaghetti alla Carbonara (egg bacon and cheese). It was not what I've thought a carbonara sauce consisted of this whole time, but sooo good. The egg was awesome. Of course eating in the tourist area means it was so overpriced, so that stung a little, but good nonetheless. If anything, what you put in your body to stay alive is worth it, right? More so than the beautiful 50-euro leather wallet I saw in a window? Haha.

Spanish Steps from afar

Italian flag Peek a boo 

View from Castel Sant'Angelo

Cupola in Basilica di St Pietro (Vatican)

Anyway, the highlight of my day was definitely this historical parade we stumbled upon, in honor of the Rome's 2,765th anniversary.  I just basked in the scenery watching procession of people dressed like Romans from thousands of years ago - dancers, soldiers doing war cries, the senate in their white robes, gladiators in...cloths. With the backdrop of the huge Vittorio Emanuele II Monument in Piazza Venezia and the Colosseum peeking from the distance, I basically felt like it was 700 BC. I could just imagine all the people and the festivities, with all these beautiful buildings just recently built and the Roman Empire thriving. It really makes you realize, it's all so old...

Later, while Cata went for the Collosseum, Pilar and I took advantage of the free entries this week and went to the Galleria Borguese, a modern arts museum that turned out to be completely worth a look. They had some really interesting expositions there now, especially the op art one. I was quite satisfied and thoroughly exhausted when I got home.

So classes this week were tough to stay awake for, but it's almost over. I had another Italian class today and on the way back, under the rain (still. raining.) I realized I was talking to myself in Italian. It was good practice okay? But then at some point I was just talking to myself period..."So laundry...then defrost the chicken, look up things to do in Naples, run?" I guess at that point what I needed to say was well past my abilities in the Italian language. I was pretty organized when I got home though.

And the more I'm in the kitchen with Valerio the more of a genius he proves to be. Today plain old mashed potatoes. But throw in some noce moscata (nutmeg) and it's Perfect Mashed Potatoes. He is going to be in trouble when the plane can't take off because of how HEAVY I WILL BE. God. :)

Anyway, I'm trying to get organized for my trip on Thursday. I leave with Daniela and a friend of hers, Nadine for Napoli! I'm not sure how long it takes to get there yet, but I know I leave around 10. So we're thinking we'll look around Napoli the first day, then on Friday visit Pompei and then Sunday leave after lunch. In preparation I did go running today after all...even with the rain, since you know my plan is to eat nothing but pizza. After all, they say it's the best pizza in Italy..which means it's the best in the world. I'm salivating a little...

I did go ahead and find the address for the pizzeria mentioned (and shown) in Eat, Pray, Love "L'Antica Pizzeria Da Michele" (Via Cesare Sersale 1, if anyone's in the area). It definitely had to be one of my favorite parts in the book, so I cannot wait! They say there's a line, but really, who cares? It just means it's worth waiting in line for...

So I leave you with this. See if it doesn't make you want to meet me there in a few days:

"So Sofie and I have come to Pizzeria da Michele, and these pies we have just ordered - one for each of us - are making us lose our minds.  I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return.  I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair.  Meanwhile, Sofie is practically in tears over hers (...) "

"Pizzeria da Michele is s small place with only two rooms and one non-stop oven. It's about a fifteen-minute walk from the train station in the rain, don't even worry about it, just go. You need to get there fairly early in the day because sometimes they run out of dough, which will break your heart.  By 1:00 PM, the streets outside the pizzeria have become jammed with Neapolitans trying to get into the place, shoving for access like they're trying to get space on a lifeboat. There's not a menu. They have only two varieties of pizza here - regular and extra cheese. (...) The dough, it takes me half my meal to figure out, tastes more like Indian nan than like any pizza dough I ever tried.  It's soft and chewy and yielding, but incredibly thin. (...) How was I to have known there could be a crust in this world that was thin and doughy. On top there is a sweet tomato sauce that foams up all bubbly and cream when it melts the fresh buffalo mozzarella, and the one sprig of basil in the middle of the whole deal somehow infuses the entire pizza with herbal radiance, much the same way one shimmering movie star in the middle of a party brings a contact high of glamour to everyone around her."

-Elizabeth Gilbert (from Eat, Pray, Love)