Un Viaggo a Roma

Another busy week!  Once again, I’ll focus on the most memorable events. 


Wednesday afternoon I went with my friend Hannah to Piazzale Michelangelo, a famous square with a panoramic view of Firenze.  To get there we climbed up a steep zigzagging road.  Hmm…steep climbs & rewarding views:  this seems to be the story of my life nowadays!  Literally and figuratively.  At the top we stumbled upon a beautiful wooded trail, surrounded by rolling hills.  It was one of those moments when the colors seem more intense than usual, when life feels cinematic. 

   The view from Piazzale Michelangelo

    The view from another direction.  On the right side of the river is my neighborhood, Gavinana.

     A beautiful trail

Saturday morning my school group (20 students and two of our professors) took the Eurostar to Rome for the weekend.  We got there in just an hour and half! We somehow saw all the most important touristy places in about 30 hours: the Vatican museum (including the Sistine Chapel), St. Peter’s Basilica, the Villa Borghese, the Colosseum, Campidoglio, Fori Imperiali, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, etc.  While I’d seen many of these sites on a previous trip to Rome, some were new to me.  I most enjoyed seeing Bernini’s sculpture, Apollo and Daphne at the Villa Borghese.  It shows the scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses when Daphne turns into a tree as she tries to escape Apollo, who has been hit by Cupid’s arrow.  I’d learned about it in art history, however, this is one work that you can’t feel the full effect of until you see it in person, until you notice how her toenails are turning into roots! So cool!


We stayed in a 4-star hotel called Homs, (http://www.hotelhoms.it/) located in the historical heart of Rome.  I roomed with the other new students on the program:  Sarah, Rebecca and Hannah.  A memorable  part of the evening was our hour long conversation about whether or not to raid the mini-fridge!  In the end we decided against it, figuring that the program directors wouldn't be too happy with us.

                  The Vatican Museum

    Taken from near St. Peter's Basilica 

    Castel Sant'Angelo

     Most of the students in my school, standing in front of the Trevi Fountain. 

    Sarah, Rebecca and me infront of the Colosseum

On our lunch break Sunday I went with a few friends to Giolitti, the gelateria that set my standard for what gelato should taste like. I’d been there once before on the recommendation of my cousin Beatrice, who lives in Rome, and I’d dreamed of going back ever since!  At Giolitti, you choose three flavors for a small cone.  The serving size is huge, and they put a dollop of homemade whipped cream on top.  I chose gianduija, bacio, and nutella – all combinations of chocolate and hazelnut.  The nutella was the best, and tasted more nutella-y than Nutella itself! It had a lighter density than the other flavors, but the flavor was more intense. 

Before we left Rome we had an hour of free time to wander around, and Rebecca, Hannah and I accidentally (I swear, it really was accidental) stumbled upon Giolitti again!  We took it as a sign that we were meant to return.  This time we ordered hot chocolate.  You know the hot chocolate I wrote about in my last post, that I said was amazing?  Well that might as well be water compared to this.  We ate it standing at the bar, like true Italians. This cioccolato-caldo tasted like a really good dark chocolate bar (think, some fancy European brand…Lindt or Perugina perhaps) melted – but not completely.  At first I thought they’d accidentally forgotten the whipped cream, but then I realized it came with a separate cup piled high with whipped cream, for the three of us to share.  We ate it wordlessly – it was that good. “Grazie mille!!!”  I enthusiastically told the barista. (Literally translated:  thank you a thousand times…it’s actually a pretty common phrase though; I’ve noticed Italian have a tendency towards the dramatic.)

    Gelato at Giolitti 

    Hot chocolate and whipped cream at Giolitti

One more food story:  At breakfast Friday I mentioned to my host mom, Giovanna, that I had a cold.  She asked me if I wanted orange juice, and I replied “si.”  I expected her to open the refrigerator and pull out a container, but instead, she grabbed a few oranges sitting in a bowl on the kitchen table, and made freshly squeezed orange juice!  Everyday this week I’ve had homemade o.j. (called “spremuta” in Italian.) Spremuta is so delicious that  I’m almost sad my cold is going away!

Better go fare i miei compiti (do homework).  Lately I’ve been forgetting about the “studying” part of “studying abroad.”  But perhaps this is a good thing!  

Low Blood Pressure or Stendhal Syndrome? Una Settimana Interessante - An Interesting Week

I don’t want this blog to be only descriptions of spaghetti and walks along the Ponte Vecchio (that’s not to say there won’t be plenty such descriptions) but relate everything about my life abroad, good and bad.
   

This past week I’ve learned that in NYC I took transportation for granted.  There was once a time when all I had to do was put up my hand, and a taxi would magically appear.  Or, I could take the subway, which came every 5 minutes!  And ran 24 hours a day! 

Here, in contrast, buses, the only form of public transportation, stop running at around 11:00 p.m.  I live in the southeast part of the city, a forty-minute walk from the center.  On Friday night I went to a pub near Santa Croce with a few of my new friends and left around 1:30 a.m.  I knew that there would be no buses, but I did not know that there would be no taxis!  Yes, my first night out in Firenze happened to coincide with a taxi strike.  I had not choice but to walk home, along the Arno, which let me tell you is CREEPY AT 2:00 a.m.  I have an over-active imagination so of course spent the whole walk wondering if the person who murdered me would dump my lifeless body in the Arno, or alternatively, chop me up, and then dump me in the Arno. 

Another not so great part of my week…fainting in the Palazzo Strozzi.  On Wednesday I took a tour of this palace, now a museum, with my History and Anthropology class.  Within a five-minute timespan, the room began to spin, and I had no choice but to plop on the floor, where I’d been standing!  Before I left the museum, I fainted again, and fainted twice the next day. 

But I am quite the optimist.  Yes, it was terrifying, but my mysterious illness (which would not remain mysterious for long) was not without its perks: 

1.     My signora called the doctor, who made a house call!  Yes, a house call! I felt as if I was a heroine in a nineteenth century novel.  (In case you’re wondering, the doctor told me the cause was low blood pressure and after taking medicine I felt completely better.  But what caused the low blood pressure in the first place remains a mystery.)   

2.     Speaking of novels, I fainted about five minutes from Piazza della Signoria, where Lucy Honeychurch faints in A Room With A View!

3.     The Doctor is probably right that I have low blood pressure, but I like to think it was Florence’s own Stendhal Syndrome, which is much more interesting…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome

I promised in my last entry to discuss my host family, Giovanna and Piero.  They are a retired couple in their late sixties/early seventies, and are the sweetest people!  They’ve been hosting students for fifteen years, and host three students every year (so I suppose I’m their forty-fifth host daughter.  I have a lot to live up to!)  Because they hardly speak a word of English, my Italian has improved a lot since I’ve been at their house. 

My room has a lot of character (i.e. a painting of Madonna and child over my bed!) and while my window does not have a gorgeous view, the view from the living room and kitchen is of rolling Tuscan hills, sprinkled with villas.  (Apparently one of these villas belongs to Sting!) 

   I don't think I'll be able to go back to Barnard housing after this

The food is AMAZING.  Everything is homemade, and there are always three or four courses.  We start off with pasta or soup, then have a meat dish along with some sort of vegetable or salad, and finish with dessert (which has either been cake or clementines and chocolate.)  The clementines are the most delicious I’ve ever had – five times as sweet as they are in the U.S., and never any seeds.  Giovanna often gives me a clementine or two to take to school to have for una merenda, an afternoon snack.  (Do I feel as if I’m in kindergarten?  Yes.  Do I love it?  Yes.) 

Dinners last about an hour to an hour and a half.  We talk about American movies and actors (Giovanna’s celebrity crush is Marlon Brando, Piero’s is Sharon Stone) travel, and Italian food.  Giovanna and Piero are always recommending gelaterias, telling us what Italian city we must visit on the next nice weekend, or explaining the different kinds of Italian cheese.  They call us bambini (children).  By the way, us refers to my housemates and I.  Nicole and Michelle share the room next to mine, go to Syracuse University in Florence, and are very nice!

The neighborhood is all Italians and no tourists.  While being near the center of the city would have been convenient, here, far away from the city center (although still in the city, not the suburbs) I can talk to shopkeepers in Italian and they will respond in Italian, which does not happen in the city center, where they often respond in English.

Yesterday I took a walk and discovered that I live a block away an amazing gelato shop, Sorriso Gelato (Sorriso, appropriately, means "smile.)  While exploring the neighborhood I came across a street called “Via del Paradiso,” Street of Paradise.  With a name like that, I had to investigate.  The steep street is bordered by a stone wall that looks as if it is (and very well might be) Roman ruins.  The street was quiet, except for the occasional old lady ambling by, (think, Strega Nona) or the sound of a rooster.  The view from the top was incredible!  I turned around after twenty minutes but plan to return. 

The view from Via del Paradiso

                      A house on Via del Paradiso

Today after class I stopped with a few friends at Mehkadeh LiberiaCafe for hot chocolate so rich you needed a spoon for the pieces of dark chocolate that had sunk to the bottom.  I can see this becoming an after-school tradition!  (Except for the fact that it was 3 euros, or a little over $4.00 - yikes.) I ordered the Fondente, but will be returning to try the other three flavours:  gianduja, orange, and mint.  

    Mehkadeh LiberiaCafe

    Making the hot chocolate

    Hot Chocolate Fondente

Ciao for now! Below are a few more pictures of what I did this week.  

   The Teatro della Pergola, where I saw a classical music concert last night.

 The Biblioteca Laurenziana, which I visited Saturday as part of an art history tour of Firenze.

    The Ponte Vecchio                       

L'avventura Comincia - The Adventure Begins!

Four days in Italia and I’ve already done so much!

I traveled with another student on the program, Sarah.  The adventure truly started when the taxi driver dropped us off at the gate of our school.  It was locked.  There we were, jet lagged, dragging fifty-pound suitcases, unsure of what to do.  "Buongiorno?"  We called, but no one answered.  While Sarah watched our bags, I walked up the gray, dusty steps to what appeared to be deserted apartments.  It took us fifteen minutes to figure out that there was a buzzer, which we’d both somehow missed seeing. 

"Ciao! Piacere!"  The directors of the program greeted us, unlocking the gate.  I soon realized that they take the immersion thing seriously; they speak to us only in Italian!

Two Universita di Firenze students, Cecilia and Georgo, showed us around Firenze.  They took us to lunch at a small trattoria, called Trattoria da Marco.  It was so tiny that there was no place to walk.  Every table had its own door; you pull open the door, and slide into the booth.  Waiters walk through one narrow aisle, which is blocked off to customers.  We all ordered orecchiette, a kind of homemade pasta.  In truth, it was too rich for me!  There was so much olive oil I felt sick, and had to force myself to eat half…my stomach will surely be expanding over the next four months!

At around 6:00 the three new students (there are sixteen other students on the program who have been in Firenze since the Fall) and myself took a van to Lucca, which a Professor on the program described to as “the Martha’s Vineyard of Italy,” the perfect analogy.  Lucca, which I visited once before, is jewel, a bellismo little city an hour drive from Firenze.  We stayed in a charming, cozy hotel, Albergo San Martino. 

The hotel room I stayed in.

A few highlights of orientation: 

A tour of Lucca led by Fabrizio Ricciardelli (the program’s professor of History and Anthopology).  Yes, I now know someone named Fabrizio.  (How cool is that?!)  My favorite part of the tour was the Torre Guinigi.  After a frightening climb up a narrow stairway, we were rewarded with a jaw-dropping view of Lucca and the meandering hills of Tuscany.  We also visited the Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi, a Museum-Residence, and an example of a Luccan Merchant’s mansion.  We were the only ones there, which is what made it so special.  Artwork and ornate Baroque decorations covered room after room.  The mansion was time-warp still.  Standing in the empty ballroom it was easy to imagine the sound of violins, the swish of dresses moving across the dance floor. 

Taken from the top of Torre Guinigi

A statue in the Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi

Dinner too was memorable.  We all ordered enormous personal pizzas (in America they would not have been personal pizzas, but “medium”) at a restaurant called Antica Drogheria.  Melanzana (eggplant) for me! One of the program directors brought their adorable five year old daughter, Vittoria (Veet-or-eey-uh).  Turns out five year olds are great to practice a language with, since they don’t have a large vocabulary!  (Although Vittoria knows much more Italian than me!) 

 Antica Drogheria has a pizza with lard and cinnamon....non per me...

 La Pizza Melanzana 

 Il Tiramisu

Il ristorante, Antica Drogheria

Lunch on Sunday was also amazing.  At “Trattoria da Leo” I ordered Minestra di Farro Lucchese, a local specialty made from spelt (a kind of wheat) and red beans.  This soup was hearty, satisfying, and tasted as if all the ingredients had been picked from the earth that morning.  For dessert, la torta cioccolato – it was made from a rich, dark chocolate, but the crust was lacking – or perhaps it’s just that I’m not used to what was basically a chocolate cake with crust!    

After lunch we went back to Firenze, where our host families picked us up.  But I can’t give everything away today…to be continued! 

 Minestra di Farro Lucchese

 La Torta Cioccolato


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Pizza, Ice Cream, and Time Travel in Carroll Gardens

The pizza at Lucali is worth the lengthy trip on the F train.  The restaurant, dimly lit, with faded yellow walls, feels like a Tuscan trattoria.  Mismatched wine bottles bedeck the walls and windowsills, and wooden tables give the place a rustic charm.  Squint a little, ignore the American patrons, and you’re in the middle of the Tuscan countryside. 

All the pizzas boast eight oozing slices, and cost $24.00 (including tax).  My friends and I split a cheese pizza, opting for no toppings.  Simple, but excellent, was what we craved, and what we received.  The pie consisted of thin, charred crust, slightly sweet tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil for garnish.  The blobs of mozzarella had melted unevenly across the tomato sauce, as if painted by an impressionistic artist. 

It’s probably not the best pizza in the city, but it came pretty darn close.

Next we journeyed back in time to the golden age of ice cream; the age of the soda fountain.  This was a surprisingly short trip!  Turn right out of Lucali, continue a few blocks down Henry Street, enter Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain, and you’ve successfully time traveled!  

This place is as close to the real deal as you’re going to get.  They’ve thought of everything from the long counter lined with stools, to the old-fashioned memorabilia lining the walls (ranging from typewriters to old jars of medicine).  A mix of oldies and Motown hits (think “Dancing in the Street” and “All You Need is love”) completed the time warp effect; truly, they were the cherry on top.  And speaking of cherries on top…yes, they actually do that!  I ordered an “Any Day Sundae” with vanilla ice cream, which came with thick hot fudge sauce, homemade whipped cream, and, of course, a cherry on top.  I asked for toasted pecans, to add a little crunch.  The Sundae of Broken Dreams also sounded scrumptious; vanilla ice cream, warm caramel sauce, broken pretzels, and whipped cream.  "You can cry over it," the menu jokes.  Asides from sundaes, the menu includes a wide variety of ice cream sodas, shakes, and egg creams, many with intriguing names such as The Pink Poodle (hibiscus soda and a scoop of vanilla ice cream).

The only thing not from the sixties?  The prices.  The sundae cost about $8.00, $10.00 with tip.  It’s okay.  I’ll think of the $10.00 as not just purchasing ice cream, but time travel. And $10.00 to travel back in time?  I think that’s a pretty good deal. 

Lucali is located at 575 Henry Street, and Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain is located at 513 Henry Street.

Au Revoir New York – If Only for an Hour

White Christmas lights deck the trees outside of Café Lalo, so that passers-by can’t walk down Broadway or Amsterdam at 83^rd Street without becoming intrigued.  Is it a typical New York restaurant scenario of “all that glitters is not gold”?  Not this time. Café Lalo is just kind of perfect. The only downside to this eatery is having to decide what to order out of one hundred plus cakes, pies and tarts!  Go to rejuvenate (and perhaps caffeinate) after a stressful day at work or school, celebrate a birthday, or catch up with old friends.  Thanks to the décor – floor-to-ceiling French windows and fin de siècle posters – you don’t have to have any imagination to pretend that you’re in Paris.  

My first time there I split a slice of German chocolate cake with my friend Carlyn.   We both agreed it was the best German chocolate cake we’d ever had!  The cake, which had the taste and consistency of a rich chocolate pudding, was topped with particularly gooey coconut-pecan frosting. 

Tonight I tried the chocolate peanut butter mousse cake, which has four layers:  chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, peanut butter mousse, and chocolate ganache.  The mousses were airy yet intense. This cake is what happens when a Reese’s bar decides it wants to become a cake.  Oh, and then decides to change its nationality from American to French. 


Leaving the cafe and venturing into blustery February night was difficult, but made easier by my new knowledge that a little piece of Paris exists on the Upper West Side.

Rice to Riches

I was a little skeptical when friends told me about “Rice to Riches” - A restaurant that only serves rice pudding?  It sounded brilliant, if not a little down-the-rabbit-hole. 

As I entered through the mushroom shaped door I wondered if I really was in wonderland.  At Rice to Riches, the tables do not come up from the ground, but hang from the ceiling.   A balanced diet is frowned upon…signs on the wall read such things as, “Eating three sensible, balanced meals a day will only spoil your appetite for rice pudding.”

The names of the flavors instantly charmed me; whoever named them clearly had a lot of fun doing so.  Among the more memorable flavors are Sex Drugs and Rocky Road, Hazelnut Chocolate Bear Hug, and Perfectly Legal Pecan Pie. Pure poetry!

I decided on a “solo” size of “Fluent in French Toast,” with a topping of “Spirit” – oatmeal coconut crumble. The rice pudding was thick, rich, and tasted like French toast; sweet and eggy, with a bit of cinnamon to top it off, like a light dusting of snow.  Surprisingly, it was not weird, but good.  The “spirit” added a crunchy contrast to the smooth, creamy pudding. 

I find the “Riches” part of “Rice to Riches” pretty ironic; while the pudding was rich, my wallet was almost empty after ordering a single portion. It cost $6.75 for the pudding and $1.00 for the topping.  Customers who order the $6.75 portion aren’t even allowed to get two flavors; to do so you need to order the next size up.  If you go, I’d recommend sharing that next size, “Epic,”  ($8.50) with a buddy, so that you can try two flavors, and not pay as much.

Rice to Riches is located at 37 Spring Street between Mott and Mulberry. 

La Dolce Vita in New York City

If you can’t afford to fly to Rome, a subway ride to Eataly is a close alternative. Eataly, which opened last August, is an enormous marketplace, with different restaurants for pizza/pasta, vegetables, fish, steak, gelato, panini, etc, as well as a “supermarket” selling items such as homemade chocolate-hazelnut sauce, imported from Torino, (that relegates Nutella into silly putty) and pasta made in-house, in every shape and size.

A 45-minute wait for a table at the pasta/pizza restaurant provided time to explore, but by 9:00 pm I just kinda wanted dinner.  The atmosphere was less than fastastico.  We were seated in a narrow hallway above the restaurant.  Although it had a view of the marketplace, the ambiance was still not up to par with the cuisine.

The pizza margherita tasted as it should, each bite evoking Napoli: a combination of mozzarella and parmigiano reggiano, a stretchy, slightly charred crust, tomato sauce made from sweet San Marzano tomatoes, and fresh basil to top it off. 

As delicious as the pizza was, next time I plan to skip the restaurants, and simply wander around for an hour or two, perhaps buying a latte or gelato (or, likely, both).

Tutti in tutti, Eataly is well worth the voyage.  And I do mean voyage.  Just is if you were traveling to Europe, you might want to bring a camera, and get a map upon arrival!




Eataly is located at 200 5th Avenue, between W. 23rd Street and W. 24th Street.