Wrote this one quite a while ago...

Well, it has been six weeks since I last posted. Writing has always been in the back of my head-I know I should (and want to) keep up a journal so that I can remember all the great times I've had since I made it to Europe, though at the same time I haven't stopped for a second yet to even catch up with myself. These past six weeks have been a flurry of classes and schoolwork, the park, gym, bars and cafés, travel and culinary adventures. Siena, Sicily, and Madrid have been the major destinations, however I find myself discovering more and more of Rome every time I step outside of the Centro.

The second weekend at the Centro, a group of 18 of us traveled to Siena for an overnight stay. Having already been there, I offered to plan travel and accommodations for all of us. My goal was to find a budget hotel near the Campo, my favorite place in Siena and the liveliest at night. A good hotel wasn’t too hard to find, so I grabbed my Italian-speaking roommate, Courtney, threw my phone at her with the hotel’s phone number, and due to her superior Italian speaking skills, we had a place to stay. Next up was finding a train for all of us—we wanted to make sure we left early Friday to maximize our time there, but just about half the group had art history class Friday morning. This is where it got interesting… The art history field trip that day was to the Vatican Museum, which apparently was going to run over the allotted time for the class. I came along on the fieldtrip even though I’m not in the class, and by 1:30 pm, I was extremely anxious to make our 2:30 pm train (Vatican city is across Rome from Termini Station). By some stroke of luck, we were able to leave the Vatican by 1:45, sprinted to the Metro station (which somehow I was able to remember its location from 3 summers ago when I was in Rome with Lizzy and Shanna), and was at Termini by 2:10. We bought our tickets, found our train and got on… except most of our crew didn’t validate their tickets, a fact we didn’t realize until 2:25 when we got on the packed train. Feeling responsible for the group, and trusting myself to get the job done, I grabbed everyone’s tickets, sprinted off the train, attempted to find a functioning validation machine (a feet harder than one would expect at the busiest train station in Rome), validated the tickets, and sprinted back onto the train. The fates were definitely with me, I made it back on the train with a couple minutes to spare. With adrenaline pumping, I finally found a seat on the train and relaxed for the next few hours of travel.

Once in Siena, we walked into the city center, found our hotel, and discussed our options for dinner. Our hotel was located just about a city block from the Campo, and so was very close to Ristorante da Mugalone, the beautiful restaurant I went to with Paul just a few weeks previous. The restaurant has amazing food, and priced accordingly—we were celebrating Troy’s 21st birthday, so everyone agreed to the restaurant despite our budgets, and I led the way. Once we got there, I immediately recognized the two waiters who led us to our tables—both immaculately dressed in suits, and with the manners of French finishing school graduates. Evan and I shared the antipasto fantasia, a selection of “surprise” Tuscan meats and cheeses, with an olive tapenade crostini and another crositini that I couldn’t quite figure out. I ordered the Tagliatelle alla Sienese, another Tuscan specialty of thick flat noodles with a red cinghiale (wild boar) sauce. We also managed to work our way through four bottles of wine for our table of eight, at which point someone mentioned that it isn’t alcoholism until you’re out of college. Our meal was as delicious as ever, however I couldn’t help but think that we should do something special for Troy. I mentioned that to Evan, who very slyly spoke to the waiter about bringing out a surprise birthday cake. Again, the gods must have been smiling down on us, as Troy was sitting with his back to the room’s entrance, and as soon as we saw the cakes arrive we all burst into song for the birthday boy. To make the situation even better, our cake was more of a chocolate torte, but had a cherry filling—delicious. The bill ended up being much more than we expected (I made the mistake of thinking the bottles were 8 euro each, rather than the 24 that they actually were), but in my opinion it was definitely well worth it.

Once we left the restaurant we ventured onto the Campo, where we sat and hung out while we planned our next move. In search of a bar, we started walking out of the Campo and back towards our hotel. On our way we found a bar where the shots were 3 for 5 euro…the rest is recorded in very incriminating photos. (one thing worth mentioning, we met an Adrien Grenier look alike and made sure to take photos with him).

The next day was our touristy day, so Emily and I started it off well by grabbing cappuccinos and checking out the novelty shops. After a suspect run in with advances from garbage collectors (who later saw me shopping in a lingerie store and gave me a thumbs up… eek!), I found some gifts for my sisters and met up with the rest of our group, who were slowly recovering from their hangovers. Through the course of the day, we walked all around the city as well as the outskirts, but ultimately found our way back to the Campo where we got gelato and enjoyed the warm sun and people watching.

After this second trip, Siena is for sure hitting the top of my favorite Italy destinations, giving Rome a run for its money. Siena is small enough that you could feel like a local within a matter of days, and preserves its Tuscan roots very well. You don’t need to search far for typical Sienese culture like you have to do in Rome, a beautiful city that is far too overrun by tourism and the tourism industry. If I am to live in Italy in the future, as I would like to, I feel that Siena would absolutely be my home base.

The next few weeks I spent in Rome, where Courtney and I invested in gym memberships, and I continued my culinary adventures. About 4 days of the week, Courtney and I head over to Vascello Fitness, our local gym, where we take the step aerobics classes in Italian. At first we were stumbling our way through class, now however we are more confident and having a lot more fun. Our instructor is a tiny Italian woman, with a mass of blonde curls, who is sprightly to the extreme, and has a great attitude. She also has a great taste in music—our classes are basically work out dance classes with routines set to popular dance/electronic music. Yves LaRocke and David Guetta are regulars. Usually Courtney and I go to class after we play a game of football, soccer, or ultimate Frisbee in the park with other Centristi. The usuals are Me, Court, Tiff, Evan, Troy, Jenny, Emily, Caroline, Jacob, Amol, Rich, and Nick (this is more for my memory than anyone elses). At home, I would usually opt out of these games, too embarrassed by my lack of skill in any organized sport, but I’ve learned that even if you are the last picked or no one ever passes to you (factually true—Evan), it makes for a great story later.

Wednesday nights, you can probably find Centristi at On the Rocks, an American bar in Trastevere. Although this isn’t helping our Italian immersion in the least, we know the bartenders and they tend to give us free drinks. I really don’t want to say much more about it, as my plan is to stop going there altogether. I definitely need to start focusing on the main goal of making Italian friends. Thursday nights is more of a chill out and relax night, as most of us can be found getting gelato from Mi Ami, or watching a movie at home. It’s our day of recovery before we go out again Friday night. The weekend is reserved for homework, playing at the park, caffe americanos at Ideal Bar, and adventures out into Rome to find some good grub.

This past week, the Centro made its way around the island of Sicily for 8 days. We have since renamed it “Big Ass Temple Week”, as the majority of our time was spent seeing and learning about the well-preserved temples in Magna Grecia. As the week progressed the temperature steadily decreased until I was freezing my Southern Cali butt off at a frigid 40 degrees. Even so, we continued our on site lectures, all heavily clad in raincoats and sweaters (we did have one lecture in the pouring rain). Every day was a new city and new temples, theaters, and forums. Because we had seven straight days of “big ass temples”, it is really hard to keep all the places straight in my mind. A couple of days I had to ask what city we were in, because I truly had no clue. Regardless, I had a great time—we were put up in four star hotels across the board and ate accordingly. I don’t think I've had that many fabulous meals consecutively in my life before. Highlights were the “homey lasagna”, “gourmet chingiale”, and


Despite the great times, I really messed up and somehow lost my camera. I am still pretty upset over it, because I hadn't uploaded one picture yet from the 6 weeks I have been here in Rome... I went through the entire day that I would have lost it in my head and I just cannot figure out what happened. The battery died at the museum in Reggio Calabria, so I brought it back with me to the bus, where I am pretty sure I put it on the seat next to me, and left it there while we went to all the other sites. Regardless, it’s gone and fortunately enough there is a guy here that refuses to use his camera so he's letting me borrow his from time to time.

The rest of Sicily went by in a breeze…

MORE LATER!