Food! Food!

Unsurprisingly, finding good, fresh, local food is not a problem in Rome.  We do basic shopping at the grocery stores, but have been trying to buy fresh breads, cheeses, and produce at specialty shops or open air markets.  Supposedly some of the best coffee in the world (I believe it after today) is right around the corner from our classrooms at Caffè Tazza D'Oro, although there is another rival caffè that I have yet to try.  After picking up our first photography reading assignment at school, we stopped by Tazza D'Oro, ordered caffèlatte freddi, and stood at the bar while we drank them.  We've learned that no one orders an espresso or cappuccino after 11am, after which point it is acceptable to order a caffèlatte or macchiato.  I was just reading on the roof, and decided to try one of the peaches (pictured above) that I bought at the Trastevere open air market yesterday after class.  Kate and I put all our fruit on the windowsill to ripen, and now it's perfect...possibly the best piece of fruit I've ever tasted.  NorthEastern kids move into our hall tomorrow, upping the number from 5 to 18 students sharing 3 bathrooms and a tiny kitchen. 

  

Last night's spaghetti sauce ingredients!

William's Birthday!

William's BIRTHDAY was yesterday! Here is William on the roof, our new favorite location. We tried to play Hearts, but William didn't understand the point of it. Today I explored the Northern part of the city with Jacob, Kate, and Brooke (Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain etc), got really good pizza right by the building where our classes will be held, and made friends with the man working at a gelateria en route to the Pantheon.  First seminar tomorrow at 10am!

Update! Orientation, Leaking Toilets, Heat.

Here are a few pictures of my room (in Trastevere, on the west bank of the Tiber), a chair in an alleyway near our residence, and a view of the river outside William and Jacob's window.  Today was very busy, and involved a lot of orienting.  We met up with Prof Clarvoe at 8:30 this morning after getting a little rest and walked to one of the Pantheon Institute's buildings, where all of the other American students from Penn State and Tulane were waiting.  There were pastries and espresso (I choked down an entire large cup, mistaking it for coffee).  The program director, Romolo, spoke to us for a while, and we met a few PI architecture professors, but a lot of the information was specific to the architecture/landscape architecture programs.  We took a break to go see the Pantheon, and then went back to pick up our Italian cell phones (my new number is: +011 39 06 335 714 6930...I think that's how the country code/city code work).  We bought some lunch ingredients at a market near the Pantheon, and made sandwiches with cheese, prosciutto, and fresh pesto.  The few of us who have some Italian language background had to return to the other Institute building to take a quick placement exam.  It's about 90˚ out, and I'm still a bit thrown off by the jetlag, so we're all back cooling off in Trastevere right now.  We're getting our first food stipend today and we're on our own for dinner!  Hopefully we'll be starting to do more exciting things for me to tell you about!  I found a fan in one of the other rooms and stole it to plug in next to my bed which is really great. And there seem to be leaks and various other malfunctions everywhere in this building, which is pretty old itself and is attached to a church built in 1059.  Our toilet leaks when we flush it, the sinks run water when they feel like it, and the floor around the night entrance was partially flooded just now when I walked through. 

Less than 48 hours!

My new plan is to not sleep at all tonight, since it's 85 degrees outside, and I live in SAN FRANCISCO where it's supposed to be 55 and foggy, so we don't have air conditioning or any kind of fans in my house...this way I'll be able to sleep a lot on the plane, cool! My digital camera is charged and ready to go, and I bought 2 rolls of color 120 film for my Holga today, so I'm set to start in on my photographic documentation.  I'll try to check in post-welcome-to-Rome-pizza-party.  I'm "waking up" in just 6 short hours, and I have 13 hours total flying time + at least 4 hours of miscellaneous travel, so I'm sure I'll be really jazzed for orientation by the time I get there, but also I'll be in Rome, so that should count for something.

Since first my spirit wandered forth from the drear cities of the north, and to Italia's mountains fled...

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900).  Poems.  1881.

17. Rome Unvisited

I. THE corn has turned from grey to red,
Since first my spirit wandered forth
From the drear cities of the north,
And to Italia’s mountains fled.
And here I set my face towards home,	5
For all my pilgrimage is done,
Although, methinks, yon blood-red sun
Marshals the way to Holy Rome.
O Blessed Lady, who dost hold
Upon the seven hills thy reign!	10
O Mother without blot or stain,
Crowned with bright crowns of triple gold!
O Roma, Roma, at thy feet
I lay this barren gift of song!
For, ah! the way is steep and long	15
That leads unto thy sacred street.
II. And yet what joy it were for me
To turn my feet unto the south,
And journeying towards the Tiber mouth
To kneel again at Fiesole!	20
And wandering through the tangled pines
That break the gold of Arno’s stream,
To see the purple mist and gleam
Of morning on the Apennines.
By many a vineyard-hidden home,	25
Orchard, and olive-garden grey,
Till from the drear Campagna’s way
The seven hills bear up the dome!
III. A pilgrim from the northern seas—
What joy for me to seek alone	30
The wondrous Temple, and the throne
Of Him who holds the awful keys!
When, bright with purple and with gold,
Come priest and holy Cardinal,
And borne above the heads of all	35
The gentle Shepherd of the Fold.
O joy to see before I die
The only God-anointed King,
And hear the silver trumpets ring
A triumph as He passes by!	40
Or at the altar of the shrine
Holds high the mystic sacrifice,
And shows a God to human eyes
Beneath the veil of bread and wine.
IV. For lo, what changes time can bring!	45
The cycles of revolving years
May free my heart from all its fears,—
And teach my lips a song to sing.
Before yon field of trembling gold
Is garnered into dusty sheaves,	50
Or ere the autumn’s scarlet leaves
Flutter as birds adown the wold,
I may have run the glorious race,
And caught the torch while yet aflame,
And called upon the holy name	55
Of Him who now doth hide His face.