No Pasta Left Behind: One Day More

Ciao, internet! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I'm trying to take in as much of Roma as I can before I head to the airport and back to the states tomorrow at a bright and (not) sunny 6AM.

This past Sunday my dad landed in Italy. My mom and I took him out to celebratory Father's Day lunch & dinner. You're welcome again, Italian economy. Eating in Rome with my family is great, and apart from the good parent/daughter bonding, I can finally order meat and fish. Over the past four weeks I've been budgeting like a college student and ordering the cheapest meal on the menu and conserving my money toe spend on wine. I have priorities. Now, I can have the best of both worlds and finally stop eating 10 euro Tonnarelli Cacio e Pepe (fat spaghetti with pepper and cheese and goodness) and start eating 20 euro grilled chicken and sautéed vegetables. One month of living in Europe and I can honestly say one of my favorite parts is the vegetables. Even though my blog is entitled "no pasta left behind" and not "no spinach left behind," the same law applies. In the states I have a hard time eating raw vegetables without feeling some kind of allergic reaction coming on. In Europe, I've been eating vegetables with ease. I'm in heaven.

On Monday I had lecture, and once more reminded me of the harsh truth that studying abroad has to include studying somewhere. Don't get me wrong, I have been doing a lot of work for my art course, but this week's workload was a little bit elevated. I decided to take on the hard task of doing my final photography project on my feet. (Yes, you read it correctly, my feet.) My parents have always told me that in the city, you can always tell who's a tourist because they're the people looking up. So, in trying to embrace as much of the Italian culture as I could and blend in, I found myself looking down. However, I had to somehow come up with a 1,000 word essay about the places my feet have been, (and presumably the rest of my body, as well), and take 30 artsy-fart photographs of my shoes. It was a strange challenge but I pulled it off. (I'll include pictures below!) Tuesday we visited more churches (huge shocker there) and a catacomb located in the Trastevere district of Rome. Trastevere is basically the Roman equivalent of Brooklyn, minus the good bagels. Thankfully, the district was artsy enough that I could take a lot of pictures of my feet. (There's a sentence that's never been typed before.)

On Wednesday we visited the Villa Borghese Gallery/Museum Estate Look At Our Money and Our Marble Statues and Ceilings and Stuff. But that's just the unofficial title. Our professors decided to make it super fun for us and we walked all the way there and all the way back. Our pedometers said that one way was 4 miles but it felt much longer. On our way there, my friends and I started to talk about our favorite and least favorite tour guides on the trip so far. We started joking about one tour guide we had at the Vatican who had the worst possible tour guide voice in the world. Nice lady, but excruciating to listen to for four hours straight. God has a weird sense of humor. She was our tour guide, "and-a she-a talked-a like-a this-a for-a four-a hours-a" at the slowest possible human pace. Every word took about four years to say and each word came with an unexpected vowel sound at the end. We were even given headsets to amplify to her monologue of the galleries but after 5 minutes of unwanted vowels, I muted her. After we struggled through the tour-a, I walked 4 miles more to my parent's apartment where I had an egg and cheese sandwich waiting for me. God bless my parents, and god bless whoever invented egg and cheese sandwiches. I have seen a lot of Italian attempts at bacon, egg, and cheese on a bagel but I feel like it went against my tri-state religion to even attempt to eat an Italian bagel. In Italy, just as in Rhode Island, the words "NYC style bagel" on a menu is the equivalent of a 1 star hotel. Don't do it. (Re: Florence Blog Post)

Thursday we had our very last church visit. (Woohoo!) I think I've seen more churches in the past four weeks than most Catholics have in their entire lives. Also, I think I've heard the phrase "no photo, no video, no flash" more in the past four weeks than anyone would like to. After class, I went back to my parents apartment to find them in a food coma. They went to a wine tasting at a local vineyard on Via Appia. I'm pretty sure my mother has already booked my wedding there... and I'm not complaining. My parents were able to snag a couple courses of food for me to try and I was in heaven. And those were just the leftovers. Apparently, the vineyard grows everything that it cooks and serves, even down to the wheat in the pasta. I don't think I've ever seen my dad so relaxed. (Thank you, carbohydrates!) And I think he'll continue to be super relaxed until we have to drive up to the cape with a barking dog in the car.

Thursday night was the last night that I spent in the dorm because Saturday morning our cab leaves at the butt-crack of dawn. So today I had class in the morning and packed up my belongings to sleep in my parent's apartment tonight. By the grace of God, my suitcase closed, but I did have to sit on it. Never trust anyone who packs light.

In a few hours we have our last dinner as a program at the same restaurant that we had our welcome dinner. Things are coming full circle, and it is quite bitter sweet. Next time I post, I'll either be a couple thousand feet in the air, in an airport terminal, or drinking Dunks in good old Jersey.

Ciao,

Sue :)