We Can Cook!

So we finally decided it was time to start living in the real world and stop eating pizza for every meal.  Anne and I decided to cook one night and...it was a success!  We bought produce at the open market in Campo di Fiori in the morning and cooked it that night.  We made chicken floured and sauteed in a special balsamic vineagar sauce (that the market lady said was "molto bono") with mushrooms and garlic served over pasta with a side of stirfry zucchini, tomatoes, and onions with a tomato mozzerella salad and with fried, breaded zucchini flowers and with nectarines and grapes for dessert.   Yum.  It was great but we still got gelato afterwards, haha.

Anne with our recommended wine pairing.

Mistakes/ Why Italians Hate us.

What I wanted to say:  "There are 6 in my party."  What I actually said: "60"

Anne : What she wanted to say: "I have more [groceries] than you, go ahead."  What she actually said: "ho un piu di voi".  translation: I have more of you.

What I wanted to say: "check, please".  What I actually said: "i compiti, per favore."  translation: "the homework, please."

Anne: What she wanted to say: "I speak like a child."  What she actually said: "parlo come un bambino".  translation: I speak like a baby boy.

The bookstore 4 miles away is closed on mondays.  Now we know.

Why Italians hate us: We take pictures of everything.

                                       

Why Italians hate us: We sing songs on the Train

Why Italians hate us: We don't have change

Why Italians hate us: We eat at McDonald's

Why Italians Hate us: We love free condiments

...And we love hamburgers!

...And Karyoke!

Wedding Cakes, Castles, and Cannoli

The theme of the past two days seems to be the glory of Italy.  Yesterday, we walked through the Vittorio Emmanuale monument, which is also known as (and it's not hard to see why) the wedding cake.  The monument is an impressive temple to the effort that went into the unification of Italy, filled with busts, statues, paintings, swords and other artifacts.  Vittorio Emmanuale was the eldest son of Charles Albert of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of Austria and he became the first king of a unified Italy in 1861.  The Italians refer to him as "padre della patria" or "father of the fatherland".  We had fun wandering through the monument and looking for the best view of Rome.

Today, we decided it was time to see the Castel Sant'Angelo.  Originally a mausoleum built by and for Emperor Hadrian in 135 AD, the Castle has since housed popes, soldiers, and prisoners.  In 401, the tomb was converted into a military basis.  After the 590 plague, legend says that St. Michael the Archangel appeared on the top of the Castle brandishing his sword to signal the end of the plague.
In Puccini's opera, Tosca, the heroine leaps to her death from the Castle's ramparts.  Jamie and I had fun pretending to be Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.

The labrynth-like structure of the castle makes it easy to get a little turned around; we had some tourists try to follow us out to the exit.  The different corners and curves are also ideal for surprising people, something I had to subject Jenna and Jamie too.  They were good sports though.

After a hike around the castle, it was time for lunch.  What was on our minds the most?  Cannoli.  A previous cannoli quest and pastry pilgrimage had failed a few days ago but the cannoli at Castel Sant'Angelo made up for the prior disappointment.  Jenna shared her cannoli-eating expertise: just dig in!  Jamie tried to remember a line about canolis from the Godfather but none of us could figure it out...well, here it is: "leave the gun, take the cannoli."

The Water is Not in the River (And Other Adventures from the Amalfi Coast)

When our first week in Rome had finally come to an end, we decided to do some traveling and get our first "hostel" experience.  Since the weather is so beautiful in Italy now, the Amalfi Coast seemed like a perfect destination.  All week long we dreamed of golden sands, blue water, and hot sunshine.

Friday morning we left Trastevere for the Train station, Termini, in Rome-- roughly a 45 minute walk.  We bought our tickets, boarded the train, and were feeling pretty smug about our travel abilities.  We'd booked a hostel, bought tickets, planned the weekend-- all without a hitch!  It was too good to be true; literally...

The train ride was scenic, and stopped in Naples, going through mountains and farms.  Our trip began to get a bit challenging when the train stopped in Salerno; where was the SITA Amalfi bus?  Where was the ticket stand?  These minor perturbances were easily resolved but ominous clues pertaining to our final destination began to surface.  When we asked where the bus to Atrani was at the Tabbachi (the Tabacco shop where bus passes are bought), the cashier laughed, "there is no bus to Atrani".  hmmmm.  puzzelment.  

Another clue:  some girls in our group had been speaking with an Italian on the train who had informed them that "the water is not in the country" and "the water is not in the river".  Still, we had not solved the riddle.

The bus ride (when the bus finally came, nearly 40 minutes late) started out beautifully, and then became tortuous and torturing.  If you've ever read Harry Potter, there's this bus in the books called the night bus that turns on a dime and squeezes through tight places.  Well, our bus was kind of like that.  The narrow road winded along a mountain cliff.  At every turn in the road (which was about every 5 seconds), our bus driver would honk to warn oncoming cars that he was coming.  Suddenly, our bus stopped.  A strange yellow-slickered woman let all these cars, and busses, pass except us.  Why, we wondered?  

We finally got off our bus at the town we thought was Atrani but in fact, we had debarked at Minore.  The Piazza Umberto was not the same Piazza Umberto as in Atrani.  P.Umberto is apparently mainstreet in Italy.  We asked for directions at a shop and the man told us, "It is not allowed to go to Atrani.  It is 2 kilometres, 4 km from here.  You walk up the mountain.  The Garden is in the town."  

With this enigmatic direction, we walked on this windy cliff-road along the coast.  There were moments when I thought the last thing I'd see was the front of a SITA bus but we made it to Atrani.  

And what did we find in Atrani?  Dun Dun Dun….Disaster!  A mudslide/ flash flood had swept through the town the night before.  Aide workers and vigile del fuoco (firefighters) and reporters were all at the town piazza.  Our hostel host, Fellipo, whom we had called, had said, "If you want, come".  So we did.  We had to walk through the center of the wreckage BUT we made it to our hostel, which was actually pretty nice.  It's very easy to feel like a "Stupeed Americaan" in Italy but nothing makes you feel quite so "stupeed" as when you walk through a disaster that has been sweeping the Italian news for the past few days completely by surprise.  We could only hope that the headlines would read "Tourists Still Flock to Atrani" rather than "Stupid Americans Find Flood".  

Amalfi, only a 5 minute walk from Atrani, had not been affected by the flood, so we went there for dinner.  Amalfi, and the Amalfi Coast in general is known for its lemons and limoncello.  The lemons from the Amalfi coast are called “sfusato amalfitano” and they are twice the size of average lemons.  The area is also known for chili peppers, personified by the Neapolitan character, Pulcinella.  Pulcinella has a long beaky nose and is crafty and vicious.    

Unfortunately that night our hotel ran out of hot water, then water in general.  Not really a big deal but it was pretty funny when the toilet "woke up" in the middle of the night.  Anne, my more cautious room mate, was concerned that an evil bandit had somehow forced his way into our bathroom (despite locked doors) and had come to steal her Safe Pouch.  Fortunately, this was not the case.    

The next day, we got on a morning ferry to the Island of Capris-- basically paradise on earth.  While friday had been gray and rainy, Saturday was sunny and warm and perfecto!  We camped out on the beach, got some sun, swam in the Mediterranean, and relaxed.  We also got on a boat tour of the Island, which was pretty fabulous.  Our tour guide liked to sing and while his facts about the different rock formations on the Island may not have been 100% accurate, we had a lot of fun.  The funnest part may have been trying to stay on the boat.  The picture to the left is an arch our boat went through.  If you blow a kiss, your wish will come true.  The right picture is of a cave where Tiberius threw down his wives (???  maybe something was lost in translation; also it's possible that our guide had an active imagination).

Sunday was also another beautiful day along the Amalfi Coast.  We went to Mass at Saint Andrew’s Cathedral in the center of town; there were probably about 20 altar boys.  It was beautiful. 

So even though everything didn’t go quite according to plan, it was a great weekend in a beautiful place with fabulous people.