Roma Sweet Roma

I guess maybe i felt like i couldn't write a valid entry until i had a couple of food experiences to share with you. or maybe i just didn't feel like telling anyone what i was doing. oh well, here i am now :)


these last three days have been so exciting for me. granted, i spend most of my days in silence, walking the mostly-cobblestone streets, wearing the shades so as not to make too much eye contact, but still studying people as they go by, the same as i do in NY. i have, at this point, after three days on foot, seen most of "the sights" at least twice. they're pretty. and huge. and stone. i just can't really comprehend, gazing up at these hulking structures and sculptures, that people put them together. shaped those curves. hoisted those stones. the sheer scale of them is truly bewildering. i mean, when they are huge from a distance, you know they are huge.

so i have been to the trevi fountain and tossed in my coin to ensure my return to this city.
i sat on a piazza outside the pantheon and stared at it for a while before i went in and my chin fell on the floor.

i marveled at the fountains in several piazzas, especially the four dudes in the centre of piazza navona. i went to the palazzo massimo museum near the train station and saw beautiful things. i went up the spanish steps one day and down them another day.


i have sampled gelato from two of the "best gelato in italy" candidates as well as an underdog back in parma. it is a tight race. yesterday i fought my way through the crowds at the counter at Gioliti's (a veritable institution) to come away with a towering melon, strawberry, chocolate chip (stracciatella), and whipped cream cone. the texture was fantastic - thick and creamy as could be, but the flavors didn't punch me in the face like i wanted them to. today i went to Il Gelato di San Crispino. i carefully selected grapefruit, lime, and their special flavor: honey. the flavors were strong and tasty, but what i did not realize was that both the grapefruit and the lime were sorbet and not gelato. changed everything. they didn't play nice with the creamier texture of the honey flavor. so i went and got another one after i finished that one. it was only fair. this time i was quite a bit more experimental. i had seen the ginger and cinnamon flavor on my way out the last time, so that was one i wanted for sure, and for the second i asked the opinion of the guy dishing it up. he suggested marsala wine. i was taken aback. i accepted. i tasted. i gave him the thumbs up. the second cup changed everything. texture still not quite as luxurious as Gioliti, but damn, was that thing delicious.


this morning i went to the Vatican from my Servas house in southern Rome. It was absolutely ridiculously crowded and i am sad to say almost not worth it for the wait and the elbow-to-eye-socket experience of shuffling through, getting cut off and pushed over, bumped in the head with cameras, etc... That said, there is really some beautiful stuff in those Vatican museums. the layout is just terrible. they have all these signs with "sistine chapel" and an arrow, making you think it is the next thing you'll see, but instead taking you through a maze of rooms filled with stuff that people just rush by to get to the sistine chapel. of course, when you finally make it there, film and photos are not allowed, so everyone just stands there for a minute, looking around (i actually heard one guy say "is this it?"), not knowing what to do in front of all the art without being able to snap a photo. it's pretty scary. the frescos are lovely, though, and the creation of adam is smaller than i expected. right up there in the middle, among all those other frescos by michelangelo. sometimes i wonder who gets to pick which are the "quality" works. i maen, if "they" had picked the fresco just to the left of the creation of adam, would we even notice that one? cuz it's pretty sure we don't much notice the ones around adam now... anyway. ramblings.

what else, what else? oh, thanks for some emails and comments. much appreciated. i still need to feel connected - especially cuz there's no one for me to chat at all day these days. so when i get on line an there's STILL no one there, it makes me sad. there's your daily guilt trip.

i had delicious pasta for lunch (shocker) near the vatican. ordered something i wanted out of my guidebook, even though it wasn't on the menu. one thing i really like about italian food is the simplicity. this was so easy: spaghetti (perfetto - al DENTE), pecorino cheese, and cracked black pepper. stunningly delicious and something i will most definitely be preparing in the future. though not much nutrition in there. the italians don't seem to care, and you know the saying: When in Rome... (hey wait, i AM in Rome. cRAZy).

my servas hosts are simply lovely. a woman and her daughter. lovely. they are out at the theater tonight, so they gave me keys and told me they'd leave me dinner. lovely. i told them that wasn't necessary because i have a friend i wanted to meet anyway. perfetto. molto bene. ok. lovely.

i guess i don't have much else to say... tomorrow i will go to ancient rome: the colosseum, the forum, capitoline hill (fun fact: capitoline hill is where we get our words "money" and "capitol" - look it up - Matt, you are on OED duty), etc.

Saturday i'll be off to florence, where i have booked a hostel. there aren't too many Servas hosts in Tuscany (of which florence is capital), because they get too swamped, but there are a few out in the countryside and i think i have a couple of days to spare for tuscan countryside, what do you think? besides, my feet could use a little break after all the city hoofing. and more to come in florence. art overload! i discovered that i think Caravaggio is amazing. and confirmed that i love sculptures of bodies. damn if these greeks and romans didn't have a higher understanding of the human form. every shadow and muscle and curve and twist. absolutely amazing. makes me want to get a huge slab of clay and shove my hands in it. i did always like ceramics class at camp...

and that is all for now. Comment to your hearts' contents. [what? you know what i mean]. i shall attempt picture uploading when i find a convenient location from which to do so.

for now, ciao.
amy

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