Sunday, April 26, 2009
A perfect day in Trastevere
My sister and I spent the afternoon exploring Trastevere, my amazing neighborhood. We grabbed a quick bite to eat in a little pizzeria, I am loving the pizza con zucchine. The best part is it never has sauce on it! Right down the street from the pizzeria is my new favorite place, a tiny little organic grocery called Trastevere Bio. I picked up some organic pasta, olive oil, and some crackers. I will definitely be back!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Buon giorno Roma!
The past few days have been such a whirlwind, but I am here safe, sound, and exhausted!
The journey started Tuesday afternoon, I finally finished all my finals, loaded up the car and headed to Atlanta. After a short night, I went to the airport, said my good-byes and boarded the plane to Washington, D.C. It was a small 50 seater plane with an overhead bin that wouldn't close. We waited at the gate, with all of us stuck on the plane, for 45 minutes for maintenance to get there. The finally arrived and deliberated for 10 minutes on how to fix the latch. I turned to the person next to me and jokingly said, "Why don't they just use some duct tape?" In the mean time, the maintenance guy had gone out to his truck and was now back on the plane. He pulled out a roll of duct tape and taped the overhead bin shut, no joke! The entire plane bursted out in laughter. After waiting another 20 minutes for them to fill out official paperwork saying they taped our plane together, we were able to take off.
I had a 7 hour lay-over in D.C., so my dad came to the airport to spend some time with me. We had a nice lunch and were able to chit chat for a few hours before boarding the plane to Italia! I boarded the plane at 5:30, took off around 6:15 and began the longest flight ever. I took a sleeping pill, hoping to sleep the entire way, but it didn't work. I got about 3 hours of sleep, on and off. I landed at Fiumicino at 9a.m., Thursday morning. I stood at the wrong baggage claim for 30 minutes, but finally found the right one, grabbed my bags and was on my way. I went to the tabbachi in the airport and bought a phone card, called Simonetta, hailed a cab, and made my way to Trastevere, the quaint part of Roma I am living in.
By the time I got to the apartment it was about 11:30am, Simonetta greeted me warmly and showed me into her apartment. My room is fantastic, it is a good size with a tiny shower in the corner, only 1.5x1.5 feet. I have a huge private balcony that is about twice the size of my room with a beautiful garden. I had to be at the AACUPI Headquarters, near the Forum, to meet up with everyone attending the European University Hunger Summit. Simonetta told me it was a quick 10 minute walk from her apartment and that I would find it with no problem at all. I wrote down the street names, drew a basic map, and headed out onto the Roman streets.
A word of caution, roads may appear bigger on a map than they actually are, like the Via della Lungaretta, on my map it is huge it looks like there would be at least 2 lanes, not a tiny cobble stone street that will only fit a Smart Car. Needless to say, this misconception, combined with streets that aren't clearly labeled, made my "10 minute walk" turn into about 45 minutes. I asked for directions twice, once from a police man, second from a taxi driver. But, in the end I made it to where I needed to be. Dr. Giles, Dean Henton, and all the Spidle crew spotted me and called me over to sit at there table for lunch. It was so nice to see some familiar faces after a frustrating walk.
We proceeded to the World Food Programme Headquarters, located about 15 minutes outside of Roma, to begin the European University Hunger Summit. Walking into headquarters was such an amazing feeling. Our opening sessions were held in meeting room, which is one of the most amazing rooms I have been in. After struggling to keep my eyes open and dozing off a couple times, we had a nice reception in the courtyard.
The coolest thing about Roma is that around every corner, literally, there is either a magnificent church, famous landmark, or ancient ruin. For example, after the reception at WFP, I rode back to the city with Mr. & Mrs. Gogue, Julie, Jennifer & Prof. Finn. We dropped the Gogue's off near their hotel and began walking back to Trastevere, a nice 30 minute walk. We turned a corner, and very nonchalantly Julie said, "Oh, there's the Pantheon." Again on our walk we came to the end of a narrow street into a piazza, which happened to be the Piazza Navona. It is absolutely breath taking around 6:45pm with the late afternoon sun.
I made it back to my apartment in Trastevere around 7:15pm looking forward to crawling into bed and finally getting some sleep. Right after I got home, Simonetta arrived and said she wanted to treat me to my first Roman pizza. How could I resist. By the time I got home it was about 10:00pm and I was beat.
So that was my very first day in Roma.
The journey started Tuesday afternoon, I finally finished all my finals, loaded up the car and headed to Atlanta. After a short night, I went to the airport, said my good-byes and boarded the plane to Washington, D.C. It was a small 50 seater plane with an overhead bin that wouldn't close. We waited at the gate, with all of us stuck on the plane, for 45 minutes for maintenance to get there. The finally arrived and deliberated for 10 minutes on how to fix the latch. I turned to the person next to me and jokingly said, "Why don't they just use some duct tape?" In the mean time, the maintenance guy had gone out to his truck and was now back on the plane. He pulled out a roll of duct tape and taped the overhead bin shut, no joke! The entire plane bursted out in laughter. After waiting another 20 minutes for them to fill out official paperwork saying they taped our plane together, we were able to take off.
I had a 7 hour lay-over in D.C., so my dad came to the airport to spend some time with me. We had a nice lunch and were able to chit chat for a few hours before boarding the plane to Italia! I boarded the plane at 5:30, took off around 6:15 and began the longest flight ever. I took a sleeping pill, hoping to sleep the entire way, but it didn't work. I got about 3 hours of sleep, on and off. I landed at Fiumicino at 9a.m., Thursday morning. I stood at the wrong baggage claim for 30 minutes, but finally found the right one, grabbed my bags and was on my way. I went to the tabbachi in the airport and bought a phone card, called Simonetta, hailed a cab, and made my way to Trastevere, the quaint part of Roma I am living in.
By the time I got to the apartment it was about 11:30am, Simonetta greeted me warmly and showed me into her apartment. My room is fantastic, it is a good size with a tiny shower in the corner, only 1.5x1.5 feet. I have a huge private balcony that is about twice the size of my room with a beautiful garden. I had to be at the AACUPI Headquarters, near the Forum, to meet up with everyone attending the European University Hunger Summit. Simonetta told me it was a quick 10 minute walk from her apartment and that I would find it with no problem at all. I wrote down the street names, drew a basic map, and headed out onto the Roman streets.
A word of caution, roads may appear bigger on a map than they actually are, like the Via della Lungaretta, on my map it is huge it looks like there would be at least 2 lanes, not a tiny cobble stone street that will only fit a Smart Car. Needless to say, this misconception, combined with streets that aren't clearly labeled, made my "10 minute walk" turn into about 45 minutes. I asked for directions twice, once from a police man, second from a taxi driver. But, in the end I made it to where I needed to be. Dr. Giles, Dean Henton, and all the Spidle crew spotted me and called me over to sit at there table for lunch. It was so nice to see some familiar faces after a frustrating walk.
We proceeded to the World Food Programme Headquarters, located about 15 minutes outside of Roma, to begin the European University Hunger Summit. Walking into headquarters was such an amazing feeling. Our opening sessions were held in meeting room, which is one of the most amazing rooms I have been in. After struggling to keep my eyes open and dozing off a couple times, we had a nice reception in the courtyard.
The coolest thing about Roma is that around every corner, literally, there is either a magnificent church, famous landmark, or ancient ruin. For example, after the reception at WFP, I rode back to the city with Mr. & Mrs. Gogue, Julie, Jennifer & Prof. Finn. We dropped the Gogue's off near their hotel and began walking back to Trastevere, a nice 30 minute walk. We turned a corner, and very nonchalantly Julie said, "Oh, there's the Pantheon." Again on our walk we came to the end of a narrow street into a piazza, which happened to be the Piazza Navona. It is absolutely breath taking around 6:45pm with the late afternoon sun.
I made it back to my apartment in Trastevere around 7:15pm looking forward to crawling into bed and finally getting some sleep. Right after I got home, Simonetta arrived and said she wanted to treat me to my first Roman pizza. How could I resist. By the time I got home it was about 10:00pm and I was beat.
So that was my very first day in Roma.
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