Roman Magic

Last night was probably the most magical night in Rome. We went out in a big group of twelve girls for Fabiola's birthday. We started by eating the homemade tiramisu we made in Italian class, which is actually really easy to make. Then we went out to a late Italian dinner at like 8:30 by the pantheon. We were walking along the different restaurants, which all had outdoor seating with a view of the pantheon, perusing menus and all the handsome waiters were making us fabulous offers to try and get our large group to eat at their restaurant. Upon hearing it was Fabiola's birthday one place offered two bottles of wine on the house. Needless to say we went there. Upon sitting down a couple next to us celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary bought a round a champagne for our table for Fabi's birthday. Of course I didn't drink but since we all got glasses I got to do the toasts, and then I just gave my glass away. Even the waiters did the toasts with us! I got a great picture of the waiter popping the cork of our champagne bottle!

So we're sitting outdoors at this candle lit table right by the lit up pantheon, and an opera singer starts singing in the piazza right by our table and he was phenomenal. I mean, he had cds for sale and sounded professional. The girls got Fabiola to go up and he serenaded her in the middle of the piazza with everyone watching. The food was also amazing, I mean the best dish I have had in Rome so far. Positively suberb. I don't know how I'll go back to the pasta back home. Best of the all it was crazy affordable for this gorgeous romantic sit down dinner! Well romantic setting, not so much romantic since it was a huge group of us girls, but it was absolutely picturesque

Then we went for gelato at the best place and the girls paid for my gelato since most of the group was away for my birthday on Friday since they took a trip to Capri. That was very nice. Then they all headed off to this super trendy posh bar and I followed out of curiosity. They had these two sleek sporty motorcycles in the entrance way surrounded by red rope and we all took photos with them, looking very cool and trendy. I am so glad I don't drink, everything was so expensive, all nine and ten euros for ONE drink. They actually had a wide selection of non alcoholic drinks and one sounded so good, pineapple, coconut and kiwi, but it was 8 euro, which is like ten dollars, which is ridiculous so I skipped it. Though I really wanted it because it sounded so yummy and was nonalcoholic. Then some girls were leaving early so I headed home with them, my curiosity satisfied and my trendy posh pictures taken. I was in bed by midnight!

This morning when we went for our usual cappuccino the barrista somehow literally had pictures in our cups, I think made with cinnamon. I had Saturn with little dots for its moons, Kelsey had a crescent moon and tiny stars, and D had this overlapping star design. We were absolutely amazed and he has won us over. He was like, tomorrow I do a different one. We will be back tomorrow, oh we wouldn't miss it for the world. And yes I took pictures of each. Its one thing to draw a heart in the cream, but this was very impressive.

Today our class was wonderful, we took a bus about twenty minutes out of Rome where the ancient suburbs were. We were on the via Appia which was the first paved Roman road (and at first paved just meant with gravel- only later were large stones put in). It was like their equivalent to a superhighway because two carts going in opposite directions could pass by together without one having to get off the road to let the other by, twelve feet wide was a huge deal back then. Also it went on all the way to southern Italy, for hundreds of miles eventually, which allowed greater control of Rome's colonies since it made it possible to march military troops anywhere even in the rainy season where unpaved roads would be all mud and hard to use.

It was a beautiful road, with fields and Italian countryside all around, and houses were very spread out with lots of land around them. We eventually walked to the villa of Maxentius who was Constantine's rival, and as you can probably guess in the battle between them, Constantine won and Maxentius was killed, but not before he started building lots in Rome along with his big Villa and tomb. This was all because he was preparing to take power since he was one of the sons who didn't like the new tetrachy put in place (Constantine was the son of the other emperor). Actually, as a side note, the tomb was for his four year old son who died, and had lots of space for other descendants to come but it never got filled since he was killed by Constantine.

We also saw this large castle like tomb of a wealthy Roman woman and it was JUST her tomb. Which says a lot for a woman (at this time) to have this large funeral monument all to herself. I admired that. It looked like a castle too which was interesting.

We passed by two catacombs, which were underground burial places, mostly BUT not exclusively used by early Christians but our group was too big and we couldn't go in! I was pretty disappointed and am considering going back if I have the time, i love those creepy underground places.

It was a pretty relaxed and enjoyable site visit. Except we took a lap around the circus (circular space used for chariot race) at Maximus' villa and the grass was dry with these prickly things that liked to stab us. But other than that it was enjoyable.

Then walking back to the institute we met these two young American guys handing out flyers for a pub crawl. For those who don't know pub crawls are kind of like a guided tour through different pubs where you pay one fee and get so many drinks at each place. They are very popular here and we always are getting flyers. We actually asked what it was like having to corral and control people towards the end when you have a huge rowdy group. They said it could get hard and that Americans have this thing about walking in the streets when they get drunk. We also asked how they wound up here. The one from California said he just got himself over to Europe without a plan since he had a friend's couch to crash on and fell into the job by luck. He said as long as he made rent and food he didn't care that he's always broke because it's amazing just living in Rome, and he's always trying to get friends from home who are doing nothing with their lives to come over and work with him because even in this crappy job where you barely make enough to survive you get to live abroad in this amazing city and it's a million times better than doing nothing with your life back home.

These guys were so laid back and carefree, just taking it day by day. Though I could never do that. i think it takes a lot of guts to just come over to a foreign country, not speak the language (they didnt) and just kind of, i don't know. But he said they are a really tight knit group and always help each other out so he never has to worry about being hungry or homeless now, he's been here since february.

Crazy, huh?