ROMA!

well it is pouring rain outside so i decided to stay indoors and update this thing

we took our first trip to rome on friday. we got up at 545 and caught a bus down the cliff to the train station. we managed to squeeze all 27 of us plus 4 adults into a tiny shuttle bus. our train did not leave until a little after 7 am but we spent the free time getting introduced to the train system and how to buy tickets. we arrived in the rome train station at around 845 and waited to meet up with marco. the train station was huge and we had our first run in with a gypsy begging for money.

after marco got there we took the metro to our first stop, the colosseum. walking out of the metro station and seeing the grand scale of the colosseum is hard to explain. we didn't have the time to go walk around inside but im sure i will in later trips. it was amazing to see buildings i have been studying for so long. after the colosseum we walked to the circus maximus which was some what disappointing since it was only a hole in the ground with gravel in it. it seems to be used at a dog park or a place to run. we made our way to capitoline hill ( home of michelangelo's campidoglio ). the capitoline hill is the tallest of the 7 hills in rome and has amazing view of the roman forum and the rest of the city. the last major stop was the pantheon ( one of my favorite buildings of all time and for sure the best stop of the day ). it was built by the emperor hadrian in the 2nd century AD as a church to worship all the gods since rome was so diverse at this time. the catholic church eventually took it over as a church and renovated the interior. the amazing thing about the pantheon is the dome. the entire interior volume ( 142 ft in diameter ) is spanned unsupported with a coffered concrete dome that is 23' thick at the base and 2' thick at the top of the dome. it was the largest unsupported span for hundreds of year.

after the pantheon we finished the official tour and were released to explore on our own. we walked all around rome going to the tivoli fountain ( where we found some amazing gelato ) and st. peters. we went back to catch the 645 train back to orvieto. despite having 15 people trying to figure out where to board the train we missed the first one and had to wait until 945 to catch the last train home ( thankfully we learned our lesson ). 


now if only the rain will stop.

roman forum

pantheon

pantheon interior

tivoli fountain

st. peters

cooking in orvieto

the last few days have been pretty crazy

saturday we had our first cooking class with Chef Lorenzo. we had to meet up at the piazza del republica at 8 in the morning and then we met up with at Lorenzo's restaurant Zeppelin where we had our first cappuccino of the day and left for the market. the market on saturdays is a little bigger than the market on thursdays and much busier. we stopped at a few different vendors and tried a variety of things. our first stop was at a third generation meat vendor, his grandfather started coming to the orvieto market to sell. he had an entire cooked pig ( head and all ) on his table and was carving from it. we then tried some cheese and finished buying fresh ingredients for our meal. we then stopped at a local pastry shop from some treats and another cappuccino. at this point i asked Chef where to find a cannoli and he decided to add fresh made cannoli to the day's menu. we got back to his restaurant and after yet another cappuccino we started to cook. the first step was to make fresh pizza to snack on while we made the rest of the meal. katie and i made the dough while others prepared the other ingredients. during this time we also made fried bread ( tasted similar to funnel cake ) and started the noodles and sauce for the pasta. after this was done the intern chefs started pouring wine while we continued to cook. i finished the bread and started making the cannoli and pasta. i made the pasta from scratch. its a simple dough mixture that you roll extremely thin and then slice to the desired width. unlike the pasta i was used to this was still soft and only had to be boiled for a couple of minutes to get it warm. the menu ended up being: pizza, pasta, chicken, salad, fried artichokes, cannoli, and yet another cappuccino. during this Lorenzo broke out many bottles of wine and kept filling our glasses to the rim. out of our group there were only me and one other guy ( Keith ). lorenzo poured some limoncello for the girls ( a very sweet limon flavored liquor ). he then gave me and Keith shot glasses and poured us 4 shots back to back. the first shot was grappa. grappa is a liquor that is made from distilling the left over grape skins from the wine creating process it is usually about 40 % alcohol and not the smoothest drink around. After leaving the restaurant ( 8 hours later ), we all went home and slept...

sunday was an all day adventure. we had seen signs around for a serie d soccer game. the game was in orvieto but at the bottom of the hill. we had to take the finniculare down the hill and walk the remaining 3 km or so to the stadium. we got lost countless time and ended up missing the first half of the game but what we did see was an extremely fun experience. the game was free to watch and there were well over 100 fans watching. the game was orvieto vs. pontivecchio. orvieto was wearing white and won 4 - 0. the environment was an incredible thing to be apart of.  I really hope i have the opportunity to make it to a serie A game.

today was fairly simple ( in comparison to other days ). we had studio and our drawing and watercolor class. we went out to dinner at mezzaluna. i had gnocchi with a 4 cheese sauce, awesome. the appetizer was something i never would have expected to be good. it was the local cheese that you dipped in honey ( sounds somewhat off putting but it was on the of the best snacks ever ).



Basta.

part of the market on a thursday

my cooking group and chef Lorenzo

getting ready to cut my freshly rolled pasta

our cannoli ( katie did the decorating ).

soccer game. orvieto is white. i had a video of a goal but it takes to long to upload.

wine, food, and gelato.. oh... yeah, and classes

Orvieto is an amazing town. It is full of nice people and amazing places. the weather hasn't been quite as nice as our first day. It has been cloudy with a light rain, we even saw some snow for a bit but nothing stuck.

the food here is amazing ( needless to say ). pizza is sold by the kilogram and is so good and extremely cheep ( 2 euros worth will fill you up ). a lot of the shop owners speak at least some english and more than willing to help. we have started to make friends with Tomazo. he owns a corner store on our street that he sells panini out of. so far i have tried the proscuitto, capicola, and salami, all of which are amazing. he constantly changes out the bread he makes them with to whatever is fresh. he is very interested in learning english so we help him with english and he helps us with italian. a lot places are more grab and go for food, we have only sat down to eat twice so far. we randomly picked a resturant and ended up hitting the gold mine. it was a small hole in the wall named trattoria da Carlo. he spoke very good english and was very excited to hear that we are students living in Orvieto. we started out with a liter of both house wines ( white and red ). we only ordered some pasta but he brought us some appetizers anyway. his mom works with him and she does a lot of the cooking. she didn't speak any english but she was always laughing with us and having Carlo translate short phrases. we were a group of 7 guys and Carlo kept asking where the girls were. there hasn't been a day that i have gone without gelato. chocolate gelato is like eating cold brownie batter. amazing.

nick and i tried our hand at cooking last night ( before either of us have had cooking classes ). we were able to hold our own at the market and communicate enough to get what we needed. we made some penne pasta with a red sauce. it wasn't toooooo bad but Chef Lorenzo has alot of work to do.

we had class today with Marco. Marco is from Naples but speaks very well. we get to travel with him most weekends this semester.


_caio

this cat was very friendly and if you wern't petting it, it would pet itself on you and the castle is awesome.

nick drinking in the view

Finally in Orvieto

After what seemed like two day traveling we finally arrived in Italy. My plan to sleep on the plane did not work out as I had hoped and I have been alternating between exploring the city and power naps. After leaving Washington DC we had an 8 hour flight to Rome on a 767, I had an aisle seat. The bus ( which ended up being a very nice Mercedes Benz touring bus ) was late and we had a mob of American students standing in the Rome airport for a while. Once we got on the bus it took about 5 minutes before passing our first McDonald's but happily I haven't seen once since. I didn't take much longer and we were all asleep until arriving in the lower portion of Orvieto. We all woke up just in time to watch the driver navigate a bus up narrow switch back roads leading to the top of the cliff and the main part of Orvieto. We arrived in the Piazza Cahen and were divided up into our apartment groups. I live with Craig and Nick in a three bedroom apartment. The apartment is located in a three story building ( we live on the top floor ) located on Via dei Dolci ( Street of Sweets ) which is a whole 10 feet wide ( 3.04 meters ). It is very nice however compact. Our apartment is located off of the Piazza Duomo and is the closest of all apartments to the study center which is on the south end of the Piazza Duomo. The Piazza Duomo and Via dei Dolci are connected by Vicolo dei Dolci ( Alley of Sweets ).  The Duomo itself is incredible. The pictures they showed us before going did not capture the size at all. The facade of the Duomo faces west so when the sun sets it lights it up making it even more beautiful. I have my first cooking class with Chef Lorenzo Saturday morning.

more later

_anthony

Duomo facade in afternoon light

Vicolo dei Dolci