"Beware the Ides of March"

As it's March 15th, I am hopefully escaping a fate like that of Julius Caesar, and heading off to Barcelona and Sicily for my spring break!!
I've had mid-terms all week, so it will be a very nice and much needed break from both school and Rome.
Speaking of Julius Caesar, I recently found out that the place of his death, Teatro di Pompey, has been turned into a cat sanctuary. This is extremely odd to me, and I haven't been informed on the reason of why this particular historical site was chosen, but all I can say is the ferrel cat population of Rome is disgustingly increasing... So, if you ever visit Rome, make sure to go by it and see. The ruins are located just as you get off the Argentina tram stop in central Rome.
On a more positive note, I will be writing again soon upon my return from Barcelona and Sicily with some pictures, and hopefully a good story or two :)

70 degrees in early March? I'll take it!

The weather in Rome has been fantastic! No more rain and snow! To my friends in Boise, sorry (wishing you some warm weather from the other side of the world)! Well, in true California girl style, as soon as it was warm enough, I went to the beach! The beach near Rome is called Ostia. It is about a 30 minute train ride from central Rome, all for the amazing price of 1 euro! A large group of us packed some lunches, grabbed some reading material, and headed off for a day of sun Roman style. The beach was pretty clean, not too crowded, but to be honest I took a nap for the whole day, so I definitely enjoyed it, but wasn't really coherent for the day! We stayed to watch the sunset, which was gorgeous. There were boats gliding across the water in the distance. It reminded me of my days sailing on Callisto (my parents boat).

Some new friends at the beach!(look at those swimsuits)

Ostia Sunset

Women's Day

Women are really loved in Italy! So to celebrate, all of the museums had free admission for women! There was an exhibit that I have wanted to check out for a while, so it was the perfect opportunity to make my way to central Rome. My roommate and I made our way to the Musei Capitolini ( The Capitol Museum) and went exploring. The exhibit was called L'archivo Segreto Vaticano Riva, which translates into the secret archives of the Vatican revealed! As you can infer, if the Vatican is going to put items on display for the public, they weren't THAT secret, but they were extremely interesting. My favorite item was the dictation of the trial of Galileo Galilei. All of the documents were hand-written in the most beautiful calligraphy. My handwriting is absolutely atrocious compared to some of those papers! Of course, no trip to central Rome would be complete without gelato, so of course I had to walk to the Pantheon to my favorite gelateria! 

Rome is full of deals and campaigns to try to get people into museums and going to events. It is still amazing to me to stand on a roof-terrace and gaze upon the city. It never stops being beautiful.

Food

Everything that you do in Italy takes time, there isn't a rush to eat, to go to work, to get around, etc. In the case of food however, this is a very good thing. A meal is not a time to be rushed, it is time to be surrounded with good people, good food, and good conversations. Lunches and dinners often last around 2-3 hours, which is so nice to experience in contrast to scarfing down a meal so one has time do be on to their next daily task. Eating a meal is not a burden or a mundane activity for sustenance in Italy, it is appreciated and cherished. Both cooking and eating have always been activities that I enjoy, so Italy has given me many opportunities to try and taste new and old dishes and then allowed for me to try and re-create those meals as home using the same fresh ingredients from the amazingly fresh and abundant open-air markets( not only is the quality better, but it is much cheaper to buy from the markets than the grocery store). Before I get into cooking, it is important to note that Italians do not do grocery shopping for the week or month like Americans do, but they shop daily for fresh ingredients for that days food, which you or myself 2 months ago may have thought was a waste of time, but part of the cooking experience comes from going to the market, seeing what is fresh that day, and deciding on the meal.
I have been very lucky and have taken some cooking classes while I have been in Italy. What surprised me most about cooking Italian food was how simple it is. Most people associate cooking with many steps, loads of ingredients, and complicated procedures, however in Italy it couldn't be more of the contrary. Every dish uses very simple ingredients, and is often cooked in a "rustic manner", you wont find a pizza in Italy with 10 different toppings like in the US, it just isn't done! The goal is to be able to identify and taste the freshness of each ingredient, if there are too many, it spoils the dish.
Not to make you all jealous, but I thought I would include some pictures of some of the dishes I have been eating in Italy :)

I've been collecting a recipe book, so if any one is interested, I will gladly forward the information :) I can't wait to come home and cook for my friends and family, and enjoy the tastes of Italy back in the US!

Budapest

This past weekend a group of 10 of my friends from Rome and myself traveled to Budapest, Hungary. Budapest pronounced Buda-pesht in Hungarian is such an amazing city! It is definitely my favorite city in Europe that I have visited so far. The city is very clean, easy to get around, very cheap, and the people are lovely! Everyone that we met was very helpful and kind to us!

We arrived in Hungary at around 11pm and from the airport had to find our way to the hostel we had booked. Because we were traveling in such a large group it was a bit of a mess trying to organize these travel plans, but we ended up taking a shuttle from the airport to our hostel for a very reasonable 7 euro per person! When we got to the hostel, they showed us to our rooms and told us not to worry about paying for anything until we were rested in the morning.The six girls that went on the trip all shared a room with bunk beds and a shared bathroom. Breakfast was included in the morning, which was a nice surprise and then we headed off to a free walking tour. Our tour guides were really young and a lot of fun. We learned a lot about Hungarian history and the set up of the city. Budapest is split up into two cities, Buda and Pest. The Buda side is much older and has a lot of historic buildings( i.e. the castles), it is much more family oriented. The Pest side is where we were staying, which is much newer, built on a grid system(so much easier to get around compared to Rome), and has a lot of small restaurants and a huge night life! We started the tour on the Pest side and then made our way over the bridge to the Buda side ending with the castles and Matthius Church. After the tour we went to a restaurant called "M" for some traditional Hungarian food. The Hungarians eat very heavily, lots of meat and potatoes. At "M" we each had a 3 course meal including a glass of wine for 1900 HUF, which is 8.7 dollars!!
Hungarians don't do a lot of advertising, but they have excellent wine and delicious desserts. Unfortunately I wasn't able to try any goulash while I was in Hungary, but that just means I'll have to go back, which I definitely wouldn't mind!
That night we all bought some Hungarian wine at our hostel and then headed out to a  bar called Simplza, which had a really cool atmosphere. There were two different levels and many different alcoves with different bars inside. The building was older looking, completely made of stone and was lit with fire torches. We met travelers from around the world and socialized there for the rest of the night. There are a lot of bars on the Pest side, so if I do go to Budapest again I definitely want to do a bar crawl.
The next day was our last day in Budapest, so we headed to the famous baths! I wish we had these kinds of baths/spas in the US. There were various pools at different temperatures which you get in and out of in different progressions, saunas ranging from many different temperatures, steam rooms, and ice cold pools. It was the perfect way to end the trip and very relaxing for the flight home! After a day at the baths we grabbed some lunch and then headed to the train station to catch our flight to the airport back to Rome!
I would DEFINITELY recommend Budapest, if you want to travel around eastern Europe! It is an amazing city with so much to offer, I wish I could have spent a week there!
Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Szechenyi Baths

Buda Side, near the castle district!

View of Buda from Pest side

St. Stephen's Basilica 

some of the group in Buda

Hero's Square

Love Locks

One of the Hapsburgs 

Some More Pictures :)

our new friend!

Mamma Mia!

I haven't posted a new blog in a while, as I have had a lot of events going on. 
Since my Florence and Sienna trip, I have been doing some exploring in my area, trying local restaurants, and going out to some fun bars and clubs in Trastevere and Testaccio.
My roommates and I have some new favorite pizza restaurants and of course that goes along with eating lots a lots of gelato!
For Valentine's Day, the 5 of us went out for a very nice dinner in Trastevere, sharing wine, pasta, lasagna, pizza, and more gelato!
Here are some pictures from dinner that night:

I also was very lucky to have both my mom and my Aunt come visit me in Rome. It was so nice to see familiar faces in a foreign country. My mom was staying near the Colosseum so a bit far away from where I live, but I stayed with her during her visit, going back and forth between central Rome and school. We walked all over the city. Since she had never been to Rome, I tried to take her to all of the famous sites, which entailed A LOT of walking, but it was so worth it to see all of these beautiful monuments with my mom. Other than the walking and sightseeing we did a lot of eating. 

The first day we started at the Vatican. As I didn't read the newspaper that day, we were unaware that the Pope would be installing 22 new cardinals that Sunday, so when we arrived at the Vatican, we were not allowed to go into St. Peter's until 1pm. As it was about 10:30am, we walked across the Tiber river, past the Castel Di Angelo(The Vatican prison) to Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. After we had seen these sights and my mother had taken about 100 pictures, we headed to Campo di Fiori for some lunch.We went to some very traditional restaurants while she was here that were recommended by the staff at my university. The first restaurant named DER PALLARO in Campo Di Fiori, was a completely family run business, making their own fresh pasta, sauces from scratch, slicing meats and cheeses, and baking bread. It was a set menu, so each course was brought to the table each looking as delicious as the next. We had an antipasti of olives,prosciutto, fresh bread, cous cous, lentilles du Puy, and roasted vegetables. We also each had a spicy tomato pasta and pasta carbonara. After this meal, we were absolutely stuffed, so we walked back to the Vatican City. This time, St. Peter's was open, but of course it began to rain just as we arrived to the long line awaiting us. By the time we got into St. Peters we were a bit exhausted, but that didnt stop us from going up to the cupola( the large dome on the ceiling of the church) This was definitely an experience as there were hundreds of steps in very narrow corridors, and many spiral staircases. However, the view from the top of St. Peter's was spectacular! You can see all of Rome in a panoramic view, it is stunning. We then went back to the hotel for a much needed rest before heading out to dinner. Dinner was an AMAZING meal. We walked along the bridge to Trastevere to try a restaurant called La Mani Di Pasta. This Italian restaurant is known for it's fresh seafood. We shared an anti pasti of clams, mussels, and shrimp with garlic crostini( crusty bread). Then we shared a pasta arrabiata( a spicy tomato and pepper sauce), then shared more fresh shell fish, finishing with a delicious tiramisu. It was a fantastic meal, and I was very happy that I had done all of that walking earlier in the day to make up for it. 

The next day we got up early and visited the Colosseum, which because of the rainy weather was not packed per usual. It was magnificent as always. You become very spoiled living in Rome, because you take for granted the amazing history and architecture that you live in everyday. After that we walked along the Roman Forum to the Vittorio Emmanuel II Building ( the most hated building in Rome, as I've been told), It is a gigantic building that was completed in the 1930s which blocks central Rome from the ruins of ancient Rome. Although, the view from the top is spectacular! After that, I had to go to school, but when I met my mother after, we headed down to the Jewish Ghetto for an apperitifo( 5-6pm drinks and small snacks) and walked past the beautiful synagogue. Unfortunately it was closed, so we were not able to go in, but I will be visiting this area again in the future. After this we headed back to Monte Verde, where my apartment is located, and cooked our own dinner. Because the area that I live in is so residential, they have many specialized shops that sell fresh pasta, bread, pesto, everything! We made a pesto pasta, and then called it a night! 

The 3rd day of her visit, we visited the Spanish Steps and walked up and down Via Del Corso, which is a famous shopping street in central Rome. We both got some new clothes and did some window shopping in the famous Italian designer's boutiques (Prada, Gucci, Fendi, Bvlgari, etc. they have everything! all as equally beautiful as the next) After that we had a nice pizza and vegetarian anti pasti of roasted vegetables before heading back to the hotel for a little rest. We met up with my Aunt Ruth and Stef for dinner which was again fabulous. We each had artichokes and a seafood pasta. If I could recommend any vegetable in Rome, it would definitely be artichokes if they are in season! After our lovely dinner, Stef took us on a tour of Rome at night. Rome is a completely different city at night. The streets are lit with the soft pale yellow light of the street lamps, the sights are deserted, and it is extremely quiet for such a bustling city. I prefer Rome at night because you can really enjoy the beauty of your surroundings. 

Today was the last day of my mother's visit, which was very difficult for me as I wont be able to see her again until December when her and my father come up to Idaho. We had breakfast atop the Vittorio Emmanuel II Building and drank our cappuccino's and cornetto's ( Croissant's) overlooking the city. We both went to my school, so I could show her around the University and so I could take a test. After that we walked down to the open air market near my apartment and picked up some fresh vegetables and cheeses for lunch. We spent the afternoon eating and talking before she had to go to the airport. I had a wonderful time with her and I'm so glad she came to visit me! 

I am off to Budapest, Hungary this weekend. So, a new Blog post should be following shortly.

Here are some pictures from my weekend:

 more pictures to come...

Florence and Sienna

The weather has been absolutely ridiculous this past week. We have been experiencing rain, snow, ice! Apparently this is the most snow that Rome has seen in 26 years, just my luck right? Anyway, I escaped the snow storm that engulfed Rome this past weekend and instead went north to the equally freezing, but not snowy cities of Florence and Sienna. While in Florence, I had the opportunity to go on 2 guided walking tours. The first day, our group was escorted to The Academia, where we saw Michelangelo's famous David and some of his unfinished statues, Giambologna's Rape of the Sabines, and Botticelli's Madonna and Child and Madonna of the Sea. The next day we had a tour of a Uffizi Gallery, which was absolutely beautiful. Along the way we learned all about the Medici family in Florence who kept some of the most amazing works of art in their collections. My favorite painting was The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. I know I have said it before about the Roman ruins, but seeing these works of art that are centuries old is absolutely spectacular in person. I remember looking at photographs in art history classes, but the paintings in real life are magnificent! 
The night-life in Florence is also quite a lot of fun. I had a great time going out to some different clubs and bars around the town. Again like Rome, the bars get crowded around 12:45 and don't close until 4 or 5 am! 
The food in Florence and Sienna was my favorite in Italy so far! My favorite meal was a soup called pappa al pomodoro, which is a tomato bread soup. Just like every other meal in Italy, it was delicious. I also really enjoyed a soup called ribollita, which is a vegetable bread soup served with olive oil. The desserts in Florence were also top-notch. My favorite one was a richiarelli, which is a type of almond cookie. They could be found all over Florence and Sienna.


Ciao!
Josie xx


Here are some pictures from my trip :) 
Florence:

Sienna: