It has been almost a year since this picture was taken, but seeing it brings such a smile to my face that it seems like yesterday. Saturday evening and I've officially survived my first week of Italian school. So far it's all just review, but it's so hard to keep everything together in the moment when you're trying to have a conversation. The Romans speak so quickly, especially as soon as you say a phrase in Italian and they assume you can understand. The days are beginning to blur together in a hazy flurry of sightseeing and oppressive heat, but I'll try to remember the choiciest bits for you.
On Wednesday we had our first "class excursion" (one of many activities planned by the school to enhance our knowledge of Italian culture). We met at an un-obtrusive restaurant in the Trastevere district of Rome* called "Spirito di Vino." **Inside, we were taken past the white tablecloths and sparkling flatware, down worn stone steps into the wine cellar. According to the restaurant's owner, the building was actually home to the oldest Synagogue on record. In Roman times, the Jews weren't allowed to build any new synagogues, so old buildings were reclaimed as sites of worship (Naomi probably knows all this- expert on Judaism that she is becoming). The wine cellar was still home to remnants of a mikvah (for any non-Jews who might be reading: a ritual bath) and prayer room, and some lovely examples of Roman architecture. Back upstairs, we were treated to a long discussion (in Italian!) on Roman cuisine, including a mouth watering description of the restaurant's menu, which I'm sure was miles out of my price range, but tempting nonetheless. At the end, the head cook (and wife of the proprietor) asked if anyone was interested in going into the kitchen. Of course, I immediately said "Io!!" and sure enough she led me back into the narrow kitchen, where a pot was bubbling on the stove, filling the room with one of the most intoxicating scents imaginable: freshly made pasta sauce. She also treated me to peeks of homemade chicken liver pate (formed into elegant cylinders with a single cranberry in the center) and Italian creme brulee (more like flan, lacking the traditional crispy burnt sugar top). We chatted a bit (in Italian!) and when I left she suggested I come back to work for her when I learn the language better. I might just take her up on it someday.
Last night I went out with my roommates to meet up with some Italian men they met on a night out in Trastevere. We were treated to a breakneck drive through the streets of Rome, squeezed into the backseat of a rickety Honda, clutching desperately onto anything within reach. We were taken to a very trendy restaurant for an aperetivo.*** The girls' friend turned out to be a sommelier in training, and picked us out a very nice white wine to go with our fantastic Italian pizza (cherry tomato, radicchio, zucchini, gorgonzola... oh my) and was patient with our halting attempts at conversation. We were later joined by two more Italian men and went down to the river for Sangria. The night was nice enough, but I found myself far more interested in the view of Rome I was treated to from Carlo's speeding car as we wove through the nighttime traffic from one end of the city to the other. It's funny how little taste I have for going out these days. At night all I really want to do is mull over the adventures of the day, write, and try to do some Italian reading (I bought "A Little Princess" in Italian and am stumbling through it one heavily underlined page at a time).
We made it home around 1 o'clock, just in time to get a few hours of sleep before waking up for today's planned excursion to Ostia Antica, about 45 minutes away on the beach. Ostia Antica is a fantastically well preserved Roman port town, comprable to Pompeii in its perfection. The site is enormous, we only covered half of it in about three hours. You can walk into houses (apartment buildings with shops below), bath houses with incredible mosaics and pools, a statium, a temple, and on and on and on. Our guide apologized for the overgrown paths, apparently abnormal for the usually well groomed site, but the wildflowers growing on the floors of apartments and along roads only added to the poignant beauty of the ruins. Our guide was fantastically knowledgeable and filled with the sort of daily-life trivia that can bring ancient sites to life more effectively than any documentary. All I wanted to do when I got home was watch the second season of Rome, but I guess that will have to wait until I'm back in the Berk (oh the irony...).
I can't imagine anyone has time to read much more than this, so I'll leave you here and go attempt to understand some Italian television. I miss everyone so much- if there's anything that is lessening the wonder of this city it is the feeling of isolation. Sometimes living surrounded by people you have little in common with is more lonely than being alone. I think it will be good for me to learn to be on my own, to find my own way, but it's hard without anyone to talk to. All the love in Italy is being sent your way.
*Once a seedy, lower-class neighborhood by the banks of the Tiber, Trastevere is now an up-and-coming hipster neighborhood filled with bars, cafes, and restaurants frequented by the young and beautiful of Rome (as well as the decidedly inelegant herds of American tourists). In the summer, the banks of the Tiber are lined with make-shift bars, shops, hookah lounges, and food-stalls and the center island is home to an outdoor film festival projected on a giant screen. Very hip, very touristy, and quite fun on a hot summer night.
**Spirito di Vino is a very cute play on words- it could mean either, the "Spirit of the Vine" or the "Divine Spirit"
***By far my favorite Italian custom. Italians usually eat dinner late, around 8 or 9, but before dinner (7-9), most bars and some restaurants serve an aperetivo, a kind of pre-dinner buffet. All you have to do is buy an alcoholic drink and you can eat as much as you want! Of course, many Italians take advantage of this, treating the aperetivo as a free all-you-can-eat-buffet dinner.
