Day 59, 60, 61 & 62: Living The Slow Life

Thursday - July 15, 2010:

Finally -- down time! We didn't travel anywhere this weekend because we knew we'd be so tired and I didn't want to pull a Lindsey Lohan and go to the hospital for exhaustion. So we made us a stacked agenda to keep us busy on our free days... Psych! We had ZERO things planned and that is music to my ears. So hence the lack of posts the past few days -- not much to report from the Chigi Palace!

Thursday consisted of three morning classes and a free afternoon! So we embraced the Ariccia-ness and got a Porchetta sandwich for lunch. (In case you didn't know, Ariccia is known for one thing and one thing only -- Porchetta, a type of meat). And it was surprisingly really good -- I mean I definitely wouldn't trade the Thanksgiving turkey for a slab of Porchetta, but it was a nice change of pace for lunch!

Then the afternoon consisted of me lying on my bed, watching rerun episodes of The Bachelorette because that's the only thing on my iTunes and stocking up my playlist by getting music from my roomate's computers. Yep, that's about it. And then for dinner, we decided to go out to a restaurant in Ariccia because we haven't eaten out in Ariccia in forever. So Katie, Becca, Katherine, Lindsey and I go to a cute restaurant and have ourselves a fun dinner! It was so nice to know we didn't have to set an alarm the next morning or have a set intinerary for the next day... It was actually a weekend! I'd almost forgotten what those were like.

Friday - July 16, 2010:

Ahhhh the beauty of no alarm... It's pure heaven. I slowly wake up at 10:00, go make my coffee (which has been totally revamped ever since the discovery of left over Coffee Mate!) and do basically the same thing I did Thursday afternoon! It's one of those days where I felt like I was so lazy (which I was), but yet so productive (which I was). I guess I felt lazy because I didn't change out of my pajamas until 5:00, but I felt productive because I marked so many things off of my to-do list. For example (to make my 5:00 pajama change look a little less lazy-looking..) I finished my homework assignment, called and purchased tickets to see the Last Supper in Milan (so excited), bought my bus ticket to the Milan airport, did laundry, cleaned my room (I feel like a new person with a cleaned room), finished reading my book (it was depressing, but it sort of redeemed itself in the end) and multiple other to-dos. It was so glorious, though. I loved having a day to myself like this -- and everyone in my room did practically the same thing! After I changed, got some much-needed endorphins from doing a Jillian Michaels video and showered -- it was time to get going. So we all dressed up, did our make-up big (I actually wore eye-liner, that's a big accomplishment) and did our hair because we just needed to get ready and go get a nice, fun dinner!

So Lindsey and I went to go meet up with Becca, Emily and Brittany (they had been having a "photoshoot" around Ariccia) and we all walked to BBQ (ironic, that we Southerners are eating at a restaurant called BBQ in Italy) for dinner. We had been to this place one time before, in the first week we'd arrived in Ariccia. So it was funny to see how different our dinner experience was after living there for two months. We could translate the menu (mostly). We knew to order acqua de rubbineto (tap water). We knew which wines to choose. It was a much more enjoyable, less stressful, experience! We chose a vino bianco de casa (house white wine) and Becca, Emily and I got some fun drinks (we decided to splurge and treat ourselves because we weren't traveling this weekend)! We had a three hour dinner --- I don't know how it happened, but we just ordered our food, ate and sat there talking for hours! We are totally embracing the Slow Food Movement -- carpe diem'ing! We had the absolute best time and it made me so thankful for the wonderful group of girls I have gotten to know and grown to love this summer. It's funny to think we've all been at Auburn for three years and it took coming to Italy to find eachother. Go figure!

{The only picture from our fun Friday BBQ night!}

Saturday - July 17, 2010:

Another morning with no alarm... I could get used to this! (Too bad we're going to Milan this week and will have 8 a.m. wake up calls every day...) So my biological clock causes me to wake up around 9:45 and that's fine by me! I fix my routine coffee and seriously lay around all morning doing not much of anything. I think I've mastered the art of this. Emily wakes up an hour later and finds me on my computer in the common room, so she fixes her coffee and joins me. We sit there for a good hour or so and then we look at each other finally saying "what are we going to do with our lives?!" We felt so worthless. But then we remembered that it's summer and we're college students... its pretty much in our contract to have days like these. So we sat there for another two hours. Once Peek and her friend walk in and some other people join us in the common room, we decide it's time to get moving. So Brittany, Emily and I walk across the street (we don't stray too far from the Palace) to get Pizza Maxi, but it isn't open -- depressing. On a side note, I couldn't make it in Italy. Nope, these random store hours and train departures are way too sketchy for me to rely heavily on. After Maxi grants us this sad moment, we turn to the next best thing... Porchetta! I wasn't lying when I said it is about the only thing you can find to eat in Ariccia. We get us a sandwich and it was pretty good... I'm still not going to have withdrawals when I leave though.

Around 3:00 Brittany, Becca, Emily, Lindsey and I leave for Rome. We take the 3:20 train into Roma Termini and ya'll... it might have been the hottest moment so far this summer. We were all dripping in sweat the entire train ride. I know it is not a pretty visual, but I couldn't help but give it to you straight. There was no sugar coating this story. We all got to questioning how we have survived previous summers in Alabama... it was stifling! So we finally make it to Termini, get off the train and air out thanks to a beautiful, steady breeze. Then we take the Metro to the Spanish Steps and our first stop is at Caffe Grecco. Some of the girls were needing a pick-me-up and they embraced the "When in Rome" motto and headed straight for this famous sit-down cafe. Even though I resisted from ordering something, I had a grand time just sitting down and enjoying the Air Conditioning (something that is very rare in Italy).

{Brittany and Becca with their Cappucino Freddo}

{Lindsey got a Cappucino Freddo also}

{Becca with her 5,00 Euro muffin and Lindsey with her 7,00 Euro Canolli -- way over priced, but hey, it's Caffe Grecco... "When in Rome"}

{Outside Caffe Grecco}

After Grecco, we head down Via del Corso towards our next stop -- Piazza Novana and these vintage shops. On our walk towards the Piazza we passed numerous, huge Roman monuments like the Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, The Wedding Cake... and we just shrugged and we're like "been there, seen that... no biggie!" I think we've gotten way too comfortable with Rome.

So we get to this street that Lindsey Mercer had researched and we just pop in every little store we see. There were 5 vintage stores and all of them were a bit different than the vintage stores we're used to... they actually had nice, old stuff -- not the junky stuff we are used to! So instead of purchasing, we just browse and play dress up!

{Brittany and Becca modeling some very beautiful vintage headwear!}

Once we had exhausted our modeling abilities in the vintage stores and had browsed through all the musty clothes we could stand, we decided to go get dinner earlier than planned. I was so excited about dinner because tonight we were going to try a restaurant that Emily's mom suggested -- The Old Bear (her mom is a flight attendant and has been to this restaurant during multiple lay overs). It took us a while to find it because all of the little alley-ways in Rome can get so confusing, but we finally stumbled upon it. Since most Italians don't eat until 9:00 and it was 7:00, we practically had the place (and the air conditioning/fans) to ourselves. This was fine by us because we were so tired, we didn't know if we could handle crowds. When we saw the menu (in English!) we we're taken back by how many different, fabulous options there were to choose from! We got so overwhelmed because we wanted everything. They had pastas, meat, salads... you name it, Old Bear had it. We first ordered Crostinis, which is basically Bruschetta with melted cheese on it. Just by looking at it, I could tell it would be the best Bruschetta/Crostini we've had so far this summer... and it was! But the sad part is that it filled us up.... but we didn't let that stop us from ordering our main dishes. Nope, we just postponed ordering for thirty minutes so we wouldn't be so full. For dinner I had lamb kebabs with roasted potatoes... the meat was fabulous and the potatoes were delicious. The other girls were pleased with their choices as well. I would say Old Bear was quite the success -- it is definitely going on the to-do list for the next semester's girls.

{Our Corstinis}

{Bittany for-goed the Crostini and got tortilla chips with salsa instead!}

Did I say we were tired? I can't even put into words the energy it took to keep our eyes open... the hot Roman sun took it out of us. We were delirious at this point and thought it'd be a good idea to take pictures to show what'd it'd look like if we could fall asleep right there at the table...

{Becca...}

{Me and Emily...}

{Brittany...}

{Becca and Lindsey...}

{Lindsey is an all-star doodler -- you should see her class notes. This is what she did at the dinner table}

{Outside The Old Bear}

We still don't have the public transportation down, and it turns out that there is a bus that leaves at 9:15 and 11:15 from Rome... we got done with dinner at 9:30. So that left us with an In-Limbo time in Rome before we had to head back so we decided to be major tourists. This involved us first walking to the Trevi Fountain (I've never seen a more crowded place in my life -- I was holding onto my purse for dear life, in fear of being a pick-pocket victim) and then got gelato. After that, we still had time to spare so we ventured to the Spanish Steps and sat there people watching until it was time to head towards the bus station.

{Being total tourists on the Spanish Steps}

{The Spanish Steps at night were really fun, actually. They were busy, so we had to keep an eye on our purses, but still enjoyable!}

Tonight we relied on the bus to take us back to Albano (and walk from there to Ariccia). When it pulled up, we were so thankful to discover that it was air-conditioned! So we rode the bus back, walked to Ariccia, and fell asleep as fast as we could!

Sunday - July 18, 2010:

The productivity continues! It isn't even 12:00 and I've written a paper, uploaded pictures and researched Prague. I'm going to hate giving up these free mornings. But today will mostly consist of us getting ready for the week.

This week we are headed to Verona, home of Juliet's balcony (I'm hoping I can write a letter to Juliet!) and then to Lake Como, which is supposedly where all these famous people have houses, and we will end up in Milan with a stocked professional-visit schedule. It is going to be hotter than in Rome, which makes me sweat just thinking about it, so packing is going to be a challenge. And then after our week of traveling, the whole group is flying to Prague for the weekend! I feel like this is the home stretch of our summer journey in Italy. It is going to be exhausting, I know, but we must push ourselves! Go big in the end!