Rewind back to November...
On the morning of the 19th (Friday) I went to Stazione Termini to pick up Andrew! He took a pretty early flight- I think he left his room in London at 2:30 or something. The reason for this madness was so he could come to my make-up architecture class at 1:30! We were both glad he came for the class- it was a really good one, as usual, and afterward we were right by Chiesa di San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, which he wanted to see. We did a lot of checking out cool architecture, which was fun! Roma certainly has a lot of it. We headed onto the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Giolitti, and Piazza Navona, where we looked in S. Agnese. For dinner we went to a good place in Prati, away from all the touristy areas!
Saturday was our three-year anniversary! It was also the first anniversary we've been able to spend together... somehow we never managed to do that when we were in Tennessee and Georgia, but we did when we were in England and Italy! Since Andrew had been to Rome twice already, I wanted to show him some of the places that are not so touristy. We went to a bunch of places with interesting architecture, such as Palazzo Farnese (hey, that was on my final...) and S. Ignazio and Piazza S. Ignazio. Since on Friday I took Andrew to the most famous gelato place in Rome, on Saturday I took him to the tiny hole-in-the-wall gelateria by school that my roommates said is tied for the best in Rome- it is literally a hole in the wall, since you can't actually go into the place, you just order from the street. From there we went to the Gianicolo Hill. I've been before during the day, but we went when the sun was setting and the view was fantastic. All the lights in the city were starting to turn on, and it was beautiful. Our anniversary dinner was very... hilarious! We wandered around Prati, looking for a good place. We finally came across one which was very Italian, and I got to speak to the waiter in Italian, which was fun! I continued to attempt this after Andrew's food arrived- he got tortellini, which had meat instead of cheese inside, which we didn't know. I tried to communicate to the waiter in Italian (English translation of my beautiful Italian):
Me- "Is it meat?"
Waiter- "Yes, tortellini has meat"
Me- "She's a boy vegetarian" *points at Andrew*
Waiter- "Oh..."
Me- "Menu?"
Brilliant, I say! I got the gender of "vegetariano" right, but I called him "lei" which means "she"... oops. Needless to say, we got the point across, and they didn't seem to hate us TOO much!
On Sunday, we walked down by the Tiber to the Ara Pacis museum, technically outside the museum, and I did my dorky tour guide thing looking through the windows. I also wanted to show Andrew the museum itself, which is extremely modern and very controversial. Many Italians hate it- there was picketing in Rome the day it opened. I did my nerdy spiel also on the Mausoleum of Augustus and his Campus Martius developments in general (this is what I wrote my term paper on...haha) and then we walked to Piazza del Popolo, the Leonardo da Vinci museum, and Piazza di Spagna. After that we did a lot of walking around, particularly in circles because of my incredible sense of direction. It didn't help that it was pouring rain and looked like nighttime! My umbrella flipped inside out, broke in half after an especially harsh gust of wind, and flew down the straight while I chased after it. As I was standing up from picking up the umbrella, one of those umbrella street vendors was somehow RIGHT behind me going "ombrello ombrello??" and Andrew just died laughing... they really are everywhere when it rains, and they will harass you to buy an umbrella even if you are carrying one! Andrew and I went to the apartment to dry off and defrost before going to dinner, where we found another good place in Prati (no surprises there) where we got Andrew some gnocchi alla sorrentina! We also discovered that we out-Italian the Italians... Italians are known for eating slowly and having long dinners, but when we were finishing our dinner we realized how many people around us came and left, and that the waiters were hinting that it was time to go by coming and looking at us!
Andrew was leaving Monday afternoon, but we had time in the morning to go to the top of St. Peter's Cupola. We climbed up 551 steps, stopping once at the inside of the dome and climbing up a very cramped staircase to the outside of the cupola! It was an incredible view- I never realized how high the dome was before then. We were able to see the Vatican city behind St. Peter's, and it was finally not raining so the sky was clear! I was so glad we did that- it was definitely something I had to do before I left. After, we went to the shuttle stop by Termini, where I said bye to Andrew. It was a great weekend- I can't believe we managed to visit each other in London and in Rome!!
On the 23th I saw Harry Potter in English with Italian subtitles with API's movie night. Again, horrible sense of direction: somehow I ended up in Piazza Navona instead of Piazza del Popolo (seriously?) so I ran all the way to Piazza del Popolo, making it just in time for the movie! Phew.
Wednesday I went to see the Pope with Liat, Catherine, and her friend from UGA. It was actually kind of funny, and completely not what I was expecting. The crowd was like that at a sporting event- when the people on the stage were reading the names of the big groups who had come to see the Pope, and they were all cheering and stuff like it was a spirit competition or something! People were chanting Ben-edict-o! Ben-edict-o! and waving posters... crazy! Afterward I went to my architecture class in Garbatella, which I loved. It's a public housing city away from the main city center, and it was beautiful. It's one of Rome's Garden Cities from the early 1900s, and the gardens and architecture were amazing. If I could pick one place to live in Rome, that would probably be it. It has such a strong sense of community- my teacher had some great stories, since one of her family members grew up there.
More catching up eventually... going to spend lots of time with my roommates today and having a packing party! Our program ends tomorrow, so I will be saying bye to everyone tomorrow morning when they leave and then going to my hostel in Rome, where I will be staying until the 24th!
Orvieto
Rome: Katie and Andrew visit
Rome: Pope Party, Garbatella, and some other stuff
On the morning of the 19th (Friday) I went to Stazione Termini to pick up Andrew! He took a pretty early flight- I think he left his room in London at 2:30 or something. The reason for this madness was so he could come to my make-up architecture class at 1:30! We were both glad he came for the class- it was a really good one, as usual, and afterward we were right by Chiesa di San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, which he wanted to see. We did a lot of checking out cool architecture, which was fun! Roma certainly has a lot of it. We headed onto the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Giolitti, and Piazza Navona, where we looked in S. Agnese. For dinner we went to a good place in Prati, away from all the touristy areas!
Saturday was our three-year anniversary! It was also the first anniversary we've been able to spend together... somehow we never managed to do that when we were in Tennessee and Georgia, but we did when we were in England and Italy! Since Andrew had been to Rome twice already, I wanted to show him some of the places that are not so touristy. We went to a bunch of places with interesting architecture, such as Palazzo Farnese (hey, that was on my final...) and S. Ignazio and Piazza S. Ignazio. Since on Friday I took Andrew to the most famous gelato place in Rome, on Saturday I took him to the tiny hole-in-the-wall gelateria by school that my roommates said is tied for the best in Rome- it is literally a hole in the wall, since you can't actually go into the place, you just order from the street. From there we went to the Gianicolo Hill. I've been before during the day, but we went when the sun was setting and the view was fantastic. All the lights in the city were starting to turn on, and it was beautiful. Our anniversary dinner was very... hilarious! We wandered around Prati, looking for a good place. We finally came across one which was very Italian, and I got to speak to the waiter in Italian, which was fun! I continued to attempt this after Andrew's food arrived- he got tortellini, which had meat instead of cheese inside, which we didn't know. I tried to communicate to the waiter in Italian (English translation of my beautiful Italian):
Me- "Is it meat?"
Waiter- "Yes, tortellini has meat"
Me- "She's a boy vegetarian" *points at Andrew*
Waiter- "Oh..."
Me- "Menu?"
Brilliant, I say! I got the gender of "vegetariano" right, but I called him "lei" which means "she"... oops. Needless to say, we got the point across, and they didn't seem to hate us TOO much!
On Sunday, we walked down by the Tiber to the Ara Pacis museum, technically outside the museum, and I did my dorky tour guide thing looking through the windows. I also wanted to show Andrew the museum itself, which is extremely modern and very controversial. Many Italians hate it- there was picketing in Rome the day it opened. I did my nerdy spiel also on the Mausoleum of Augustus and his Campus Martius developments in general (this is what I wrote my term paper on...haha) and then we walked to Piazza del Popolo, the Leonardo da Vinci museum, and Piazza di Spagna. After that we did a lot of walking around, particularly in circles because of my incredible sense of direction. It didn't help that it was pouring rain and looked like nighttime! My umbrella flipped inside out, broke in half after an especially harsh gust of wind, and flew down the straight while I chased after it. As I was standing up from picking up the umbrella, one of those umbrella street vendors was somehow RIGHT behind me going "ombrello ombrello??" and Andrew just died laughing... they really are everywhere when it rains, and they will harass you to buy an umbrella even if you are carrying one! Andrew and I went to the apartment to dry off and defrost before going to dinner, where we found another good place in Prati (no surprises there) where we got Andrew some gnocchi alla sorrentina! We also discovered that we out-Italian the Italians... Italians are known for eating slowly and having long dinners, but when we were finishing our dinner we realized how many people around us came and left, and that the waiters were hinting that it was time to go by coming and looking at us!
Andrew was leaving Monday afternoon, but we had time in the morning to go to the top of St. Peter's Cupola. We climbed up 551 steps, stopping once at the inside of the dome and climbing up a very cramped staircase to the outside of the cupola! It was an incredible view- I never realized how high the dome was before then. We were able to see the Vatican city behind St. Peter's, and it was finally not raining so the sky was clear! I was so glad we did that- it was definitely something I had to do before I left. After, we went to the shuttle stop by Termini, where I said bye to Andrew. It was a great weekend- I can't believe we managed to visit each other in London and in Rome!!
On the 23th I saw Harry Potter in English with Italian subtitles with API's movie night. Again, horrible sense of direction: somehow I ended up in Piazza Navona instead of Piazza del Popolo (seriously?) so I ran all the way to Piazza del Popolo, making it just in time for the movie! Phew.
Wednesday I went to see the Pope with Liat, Catherine, and her friend from UGA. It was actually kind of funny, and completely not what I was expecting. The crowd was like that at a sporting event- when the people on the stage were reading the names of the big groups who had come to see the Pope, and they were all cheering and stuff like it was a spirit competition or something! People were chanting Ben-edict-o! Ben-edict-o! and waving posters... crazy! Afterward I went to my architecture class in Garbatella, which I loved. It's a public housing city away from the main city center, and it was beautiful. It's one of Rome's Garden Cities from the early 1900s, and the gardens and architecture were amazing. If I could pick one place to live in Rome, that would probably be it. It has such a strong sense of community- my teacher had some great stories, since one of her family members grew up there.
More catching up eventually... going to spend lots of time with my roommates today and having a packing party! Our program ends tomorrow, so I will be saying bye to everyone tomorrow morning when they leave and then going to my hostel in Rome, where I will be staying until the 24th!
Orvieto
Rome: Katie and Andrew visit
Rome: Pope Party, Garbatella, and some other stuff
