Tin Lizzie

Napoli. 2/5

Hi! i’m going to Napoli today. i just decided this.

so i will post more when i get back!

Lizzie!

first update 1/21/08

dear friends and family!

oh my gosh there is so much to tell you all since my last update!!!

so let me start with Wednesday night. so i called Giuliano’s brother Chandi and we decided to go try the delicious restaurants in Trestevere (across the RIver Tiber). He picked me up at Termini Station in his little mini. We drove all over Rome and he showed me lots of the most beautiful spots that by night are very impressive. We passed piazza venezia, the vaticano, la bocca della verita, cico massimo, and many other places. My favorite was seeing the dome of St. peter’s from a different angle all lit up. it kind came out of a group of dull buildings. So we went to this restaurant recommended by my new friend CJ. their specialty is meat. we at kind of typical italian style meal. antipasto, primo piato, usually pasta, secondo piato, usually meat, and then a digestif? or grappa, amaro, or something like that. we didn’t eat dolce. yet. antipasto: a plate full of mixed meats, primo piato: we split some kind of delicious pasta that i can’t pronounce with a meat sauce. then i got a filetto which im assuming is filet mignon medium rare and a salad because it was the only thing that i could read on the menu of sides. chandi got the carne tagliata. which is like cut meat with arugula on top and a wonderful plate of cicoia, a delicious collard greens type green, with lots of olive oil and a little chili.

we left after a lovely dinner and saw a chocolate shop. chandi said, i think we should go in there. of course i was up for it. there was kind of a commotion in the back and so we went to check it out. there were all these people in the back laughing and talking and then we saw why they were so happy. they were doing shots with CHOCOLATE CUPS FILLED WITH FLAVORED LIQUEUR WITH WHIPPED CREAM AND NUTS AND SPRIKLES ON IT!!!!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE DELICIOUSNESS OF THIS?!! To me it was just stumbling upon a hundred dollar bill in the street. i was filled with so much happiness at this moment that i wanted to shout this is what life is all about!!! these people know how to enjoy life, darn it! so we got one i got coconut and chocolate liqueur in my chocolate cup and chandi chocolate and something else. we toasted and then put the whole cup in our mouths bottom first! so you basically swallow the whole thing!!! heaven! it was like heaven i tell you! then we got another mine with coffee liqueur and chandi’s with mint flavored bailey’s. heaven two times in a matter of 5 minutes! and most of all if that didn’t make me happy enough, it was so wonderful to hear all of the italians laughing and talking and even chandi joined in with the jokes and all ten people in the back of the ciocolateria were laughing and friends for these 5-15 minutes that we were in there. even i felt like part of this shared ecstasy of post consumption of chocolate cups full of flavored liqueur with whip cream and sprinkles goodness.

Then we decided to go on a long walk to campo di fiori where all the younguns go to drink and make merry. we took a long kind of back road and even scored an ancient brick! sshhh! from one of the back roads. and we didn’t actually drink in the campo di fiori we just looked at it and then walked back. it was already very late and i had to get up early for my first italian class! woo hoo. so we drove around a little more and i got a great tour and lots of great info and then went home. the next morning i woke up at 6am!! and could not go back to sleep! i got a total of 3 and 1/2 hours of sleep! ahhh! and i had class! so i went anyway and arrived just in time but was so sos soso tired. i somehow placed into an intermediate level of italian. i think it’s cause i’m not a beginner and the only other class is the intermediate class.

My class is pretty cool because it has two Polish people, 1 dutch person, 2 japanese girls, me, and my italian teacher. it’s cool to share something with people from so many different cultures. so the first day i barely made it through the day (with the help of an espresso at the espresso bar where you stand up to have your coffee at the bar which i love!!!) that afternoon i went home exhausted and went to sleep for a few hours. Then Laura, my wonderful roommate, and i ate leftovers and talked for a few hours.

Laura is someone i found on couchsurfing.com, a website where you find people who offer their couches or extra rooms or beds or floors to people who are traveling through wherever they live then later the people who were traveling then offer their couch to other travelers. It’s also an exchange of anything that you can do or offer. For example, i knit and make earrings so maybe i will knit or make some earrings for Laura. or she had an english lesson she had to teach and she had never taught an english class before. i was able to help her with that. i was originally supposed to stay with her for a few days. but i will be staying with her until i leave rome this weekend.

Anyhow, laura is a harvard graduated catholic with a major in latin and greek introvert and i am a college of charleston non religious graduate with a major in Spanish extrovert. She is so great! i really like her a lot! we are very different but we get along really well and have had so much fun hanging out!!! She is so funny and so smart!! i’ve learned a lot from her! Her kindness of opening up her house to me has been so generous (and she’s been very tolerant i must say of my wacky personality) and we’ve had so much fun! so i could go on and on about how much i like laura. but i will tell you more about her as my trip goes on.

So friday. more Italian class. I forgot to tell you about Natsuki. She is the awesome japanese girl in my Italian class. We started talking about film and made instant friends. She is from Tokyo. She has a fashion degree and has studied in Tours, France. She has fallen in love with the openess of European culture and has just recently moved to Rome for a year. She’s learning italian so she can study film here. She is super cute and laid back and has been so helpful for my italian because we only speak italian together. Friday after class we went to lunch, yoga, and then a rockabilly rock and roll show that started way too late so we left early and never even listened to the music thinking that we would miss the night bus (only later to find out that it runs all night).

This place was the bar that i want to find in all of the places that i visit! Full of artsy people covered in tatoos and mohawks, funky clothes and make up. There was a stage and a room where people stand around. Then a room with a bar in it. with couches and tables with really funky large paintings on the brick walls and old bicycle parts and kind of an orangy dim lighting. It was fabulous. There were lots cute italian waiters in converse and plastic framed glasses. it was fun! i wish we could have stayed longer and seen the band.

Ok so that was friday.

SATURDAY: (Laura and I have just discussed it and we believe that this day should be called “The Best Day”)

My friend Jess Bloomer’s friend from Brown lives here and he invited me to come down to his house and go to the market. So me and Laura got on the metro and headed down to CJ’s house around 11:30. He is a very very friendly laid back guy with a lot of style. He working on a music tv channel with National Geographic. So he’s got all of this great music like senagalese guitarists and african musicians who play latin style music wonderful mexican croners,etc. So the market is like half a block from his house and we arrive he says i’m making you lunch! and we charged to the market and started browsing the beautiful baskets full of ripe vegetables. We got all the veggies first, including a really beautiful kind of broccoli that looked like a bunch of aliens had gotten a hold of if and turned it into these spiraling brocoli like peaks. i’ll include a photo. we bought fresh pasta and went to this guy whom i believe is named Carmello who sells only tomatoes! CJ knows everyone at the market! He told Carmello what he was cooking and Carmello went and got all of the appropriate tomatoes for the dish. it was amazing! Carmello is amazing.

So we went back to his house and Laura and i started cutting away  while CJ started cooking. We had a very nice time talking and  cutting and listening to interesting international music. we ate a lovely Veggie Ragu with fresh pasta and then some of that funky broccoli boiled with salt then with a little olive oil and lemon juice on top. It was the weirdest looking most delicious broccoli ever! We laughed a lot and conversed. After il pranso (the lunch) we walked up the Aventine hill near CJ’s apartment. there we looked through a key hole that the architect had placed in a perfect spot to see the dome of St. Peter’s under an arch of trees. THen we saw the church of Santa Sabina. After that we went to the Jardino dell’aranci a park covered in orange trees and with a magnificent view of all of rome.

After that we bid farewell to CJ and with the name and address of the best gelato in Rome in hand headed in that direction. we passed la bocca della verita, piazza venezia and then headed down via del corso. the most touristy street i have seen so far. We found the piazza colunna with the story of Trajan’s conquest of Romania (I’m so glad Laura is sitting next to me i would have just said that square with the pretty column). And we found the famous gelato! it was so good! we decided to sit down because the line was absolutely ridiculous. i got chocolate and zalione with whipe cream. Ok just the whip cream alone was worth it! it was thick and delicious! it was like schlag (a wonderful whipped cream stuff that they serve with coffee at the Red Lion in th canyon in Boulder) but better. we sat there for like 2 hours talking and then started for home when Chandi called laura’s cell phone saying he and a friend were in camp di fiori and if we wanted to join them.

So we walked for a while got happily lost a couple of times then found it after a stop at the pantheon and mcdonald’s (to pee). The pantheon is breath taking by the way! especially at night. so we all met up and chandi and i had decided that we should speak italian because we i tried to speak spanish i ended up speaking a kind of mutant language of italian spanish and english. so we all spoke italian! Chandi’s friend was Eugenio (ay-oo-jen-eeo) was a very nice roman guy who was very roman! in his speech and gestures. it was great to practice italian with him. after the drink we went to get food. on the way we passed piazza navona. Chandi saw that the church of Agnesi in Agome (St. agnes in PAIN!) by Borromini and said that he’d never been in and wanted to see it.

so we went in and it was like falling from somewhere high up! my tummy just felt light and full of butterflies! there was a choir inside singing Latin hymns arranged by schubert. For those of you who know me really well know that i am crazy about choir music! expecially in latin! it was like i was lifted off the ground and was floated around the church. I have never heard anything more beautiful. i think it was even more so because it was unexpected. i wish i could fully describe the beauty of that moment! it was like everything just froze in time!

so i was very reluctant to leave. we then went out to eat another typical italian meal. the guys ordered like three of every fried antipasto and then we only ate secondo piato. But the fried roman finger food was great!! my favorites were the stuffed fried olives and the fried mozzerella. we ordered amaro and limoncello and grapa after 3 desserts which we couldn’t finish. i got lamb that i ate with my fingers (they told me that this particular dish was the typical dish that romans eat with their fingers, like americans and fried chicken) but laura got sliced veal in a delicious sauce that was to die for!!

After that we left and walked some more. walking off all of the delicious food. we walked and walked and walked. My favorite stop on this walk was the fontana di Trevi! You come out of this side street and there it is!! just HUGE and lit up and gorgeous! because it was late and cold there was nobody there! it was spectacular. laura and i made sure to through a coin in! if you through one into the fountain then you will return to Rome some day. I’m head over heels for rome so naturally i was like i’ll through in all the money i have! !!!!

i didn’t.

if i can figure out how to downsize a raw photo on my computer then i’ll send you a copy of us throwing coins in the fountain. my only touristy photo.

then we went to a dance club! it was so silly! there were silly drunk people everywhere and at first we were like this is kind of lame. then all of this great eighties music came on and all four of us danced to micheal jackson and madonna in a circle! the italians love american music. we left there at about 3:30 and walked around till about 4 and drove home at about 4:15.

So i have to say that the whole night we were speaking italian! my italian improved so much just for that reason! by the end of the night i felt really confident with my basic communication and listening comprehension skills!!

quickly, yesterday i met a guy named Stefano whose a couch surfer and we had coffee then met up with Natsuki and another roommate here and we all went salsa dancing. it was really fun. but i always miss giuliano when i go salsa dancing. it’s not the same without him.

we ate great pizza.

today i decided to just do private lessons for the rest of the week so i can speak more during class and my italian teacher i had really improved over the weekend. i was speaking so much in class today!

i’m now late for meeting natsuki. we’re going to do some yoga then i am meeting up with stefano and his friend antonella and natsuki to listen to jazz!!

Well that’s all from here! i hope all is well with you all!!!!

Much love,

Lizzie

february 2nd.

Hi. So what did I do yesterday? I woke up at about 9:30. I went to yoga. I got there a little late and they still let me in. I wasn’t a huge fan of bikram yoga. But my body is definitely sore. When I was setting my intentions and my hands were in anjali mudra she was like we put our hands at our side! And I was like scr— you im setting my intentions. Then I walked through piazza di san pietro, it was swarmed with people of course, and to the metro station. I met up with Natsuki, Roberto, Giulia, and Marco for sushi again. I really like all of these guys. They all study Japonese and love sushi and make jokes! After sushi we again went to this coffee shop that’s special is two spoons full of coffee flavored cream, 2 spoons full of chocolate and espresso on top! yum! all for just one euro! i love that place. 

 Giulia also offered to take me to her favorite gelato place! so some time this week we will do that. 

 I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the centro storico and i bought a vintage coat that’s awesome! then i found some random shops where i bought things for my carnevale costume. 

I was invited to a special Carnevale party on Saturday. i found a red mask, some gold kind of aluminium paper, some glue, and a wand. and some ribbon. i made wings out of the paper and some wire and some ribbon and glues beads all over my mask. 

to be continued.

January 29th.

had my first private lesson with nela. My new Italian teacher. I really like her and I think that she will be a better teacher for me.
Then I bought some notecards and went and met up with Natsuki. We ate lunch and then got some righteous giolitti gelato. I got ciocolatto and tiramisu with abbastanza panna. Yum.
Then we walked and walked and sat in the sun in piazza navona. We talked to a French guy who was maybe 47 who was so hot for an older man! Anyhow he had lived on the exact same street in france as natsuki! Then we found a street with like 6 vintage clothing stores. Awesome. I fell in love with a beautiful 60 euro jacket and natsuki with a beautiful 30 euro skirt. I told the man the skirt was very expensive for my friend hoping we could barter. And he said well then she can’t buy it! And he stormed off.

Eh! We tried.

So then at around 4:30 we started home. She for san Giovanni and me for p.zza vittorio where I could quickly change my outfit as my jeans were covered in olive oil. I showed up late to the Disney store on via del corso where I met my friend Mario. Another 25 year old engineering student looking to improve his English and help me with my Italian. Although at first a little less patient with me than eugenio we were quickly on our way to becoming friends. We went to a little caffe near piazza spagna and drank very dark delicious hot chocolate with panna. If you ever come to italy come equipped with thtat word. It could be useful I get panna on everything possible.

By the end of the night Mario and I had decided that I should get a bike and that I should start sneaking in to university classes. And that we would meet up for a movie and pizza on Friday in san Lorenzo. After this I was NOT ready to go home. It was about 9. So I walked up via nazionale and stopped at a pub called the Cork’s Inn. I ate a hamburger drank a beer that cost just as much as my burger and talked to tifosi (football fans).

January 30th.

Yesterday 30/1

Ok. Yesterday I woke up a little late then headed down to meet Daniel in front of the bookstore. I shockingly got there late. We went and got coffee, he lied to me about his age, he dressed identically to Johnny Depp and then told me that he had been a Johnny Depp impersonator. Obsessed with the US. I didn’t get a word in in Italian or English. I will not be meeting him again. I made up an excuse to leave and left. I went to via nazionale, walked around. Went to the bookstore and looked in the lonely planet guide for a good place to eat. Ate Ethiopian food. Then I walked to piazza della republicca. I was stopped for directions by an older man from firenze. He said I spoke good Italian and wanted to meet up later. But I told him I wasn’t sure if I could because I had a meeting later on and didn’t know when it would be over. He seemed upset by this and we said goodbye and he walked away. I walked to get some gelato. It was delicious raspberry/ blackberry, and some other stuff mixed with ciocolatto and panna. Wonderful.
Then I bought 5 pairs of black socks for 10 euro! I then decided to hope on the bus and go to the book store (the same as the one at which I met Daniel, whose real name is daniele.) I sat there reading then hopped on the bus back to P.zza della Republicca and used the bathroom in a nice hotel. I love doing that. Then I met Eugenio. He is a 25 year old mechanical engineering student who speaks great English and has amazing patience with me and my Italian!

We walked to piazza navona and to a place there that was very hip and swanky. I love how in italy you go for a drink and an aperatif before dinner. You buy a drink and then you get to eat all of this free food! Its great. It took us a really long time to find it. Then we went to campo di fiori and decided we should go to trastevere where we walked and walked and finally found on accident the good caffe where they have stitch and bitch every Monday at 7. We talked and talked and drank beer. Then got on the tram and then on a bus and said goodbye as we then split up at termini! Yay! Then laura and I played on line for like 3 hours. Ok not quite but like 1 ½ hrs.

January 31st

Got up at 6 with diarrhea. Ugh.
Not pleasant. Called my school and postponed my class till tomorrow. And bought some sprite. I had mascara under my eyes and was wearing a purply magenta shirt, red tights, a green sweater and a red coat with no bra. I must of looked like I was really hung over or really confused.
Slept till 12:30 then got up. Took a shower. And went to meet Claudia who didn’t show. But I kinda knew she wouldn’t. I read on the Spanish steps for a while then got the metro home. I went to the grocery store to buy  the essentials for being sick: rice, consommé de pollo, frosted flakes, licorice wheels, eggs, onions, and pasta. Couldn’t help noticing that the older business man in front of me was buying: 3 bags of pasta, 1 bag of ground espresso, and 3 chocolate bars.

I made some food and ate then talked to laura about boys and sin.

Fun, fun.

Then we watched Napolean Dynamite. It was a pleasant afternoon.

Laura just told me a great story about her cousin Ellen. Who met Harrison ford in a bar and after talking to him for a while slipped up and told him she had had star wars sheets.

February 1st.

Tomorrow. Ok. Well I woke up and went to class. It was cancelled so I came home. I tooke a shower. Then I talked to Carla and was running late and told her to meet me at santa maria maggiore. When she got there she said I could kill you! And I felt really bad and thoroughly entertained. I was very tired. So I I just said that I would by her some coffee and some delicious pastries at a nearby caffe to make up for it. So I did and we talked about body parts and clothing and some other things. Mostly English cause I was just tired. I ate a delicious cornetto with chocolate filling. The first real thing that ive been able to eat. Then I went to the internet caffe and then I got a delicious piece of pizza from the very expensive bakery next door. i also ordered two small puff pastries, one filled with custard and the the other with nuttella. The whole thing cost me 6.83 Euro. I decided that maybe I shouldn’t go there again to eat. Because I think that 6.83 euro is pretty expensive. I ate my pizza and stuff in bed and talked to laura for a while then I listened to my berlitz italaian program and fell asleep for an hour and a half. I then went to check my email. i met Mario at 7 at the movie theater. We ate crepes and walked around san Lorenzo. Then we went to this great little wine bar! (describe here). And drank a bottle of great wine and talked. Again because I have been tired all day we talked in mostly English. He walked me almost all the way home. Tomorrow we are going to see about a bike. I got home and drank tea with laura and now im in bed writing this.

I bought arnica because my shoulders are hurting so bad.

Goodnight.