Un persone molto misteriosa!

Il tempo è bello e soleggiato! It was refreshing to wake up on Thursday morning and see that the weather was finally going to be pleasant! No piove, thank god! All of our church excursions this week must have finally earned us some points with the man (or who ever you think controls the weather). Taking full advantage of the beautiful weather, I got up and out of bed for a run. I ran up to the Villa Borghese, which is phenomenal in comparison to the somewhat dangerous streets of Rome and a nice break from the monotony of running along the post-apocalyptic looking Tiber pathway. The run was beautiful and I wished I could have stayed at Villa Borghese longer, but, alas, it was time for Italiano class, and who doesn’t love seeing Paola? Uh huh huhhh!

Simply put, Italian class today was amazing. It all started with a role-playing-twenty-questions-like game. Paola made us flash cards with names of famous people from all around the world, alive and dead. The rest of the class had to guess which person we were by asking simple yes/no questions in Italian. For example, I was given the card of Madonna. My classmates would ask questions, such as “É una donna? Lei è americano? Lei è un'attrice? Se si hanno i capelli biondi? Ecc..” My person was fairly easy, as Lia guessed it within the first five questions. However, Julia and Cami had un persone molto misteriosa. After several rounds of questions, Bryan astutely figured it out: the girls were Maximus, Russell Crowe’s character from the movie Gladiator.

After the game, it was time for us to venture out into the real world and practice our Italian with Italians. Gasp! Our class broke up into groups: The first group went to un bar; the second group went to il Forno; and the third group went to the mercato in the Ciampo di Fiori. In each of the respective places, we had to order items in Italiano. For example, “Posso avere un cornetto, per favore.” In the bar, we ordered the usual: caffe latte, cappuccino, etc. The foam designs were quite elaborate, almost making you not want to drink your latte in fear that you would ruin the barista’s artwork.

In the Forno, a popular item was the castagnole. Castagnole, a Venetian Carnivale tradition, are little fried pieces of heaven dipped in sugar. Hands down, they are much better than any donut hole I’ve ever tried back in the States. Although, supposedly Castagnole are made from a simple sweet bread dough recipe, I think crack must be one of the primary ingredients. They’re damn addicting! I might have to enroll in Castanole Anonymous upon my return to the States. Is anyone up for sponsoring me?
In the market, students ordered fruits and vegetables. Upon return to class, we buckled down and learned more about –ere, -ire, and –are verbs. During a listening comprehension exercise, a friendly squabble broke out among Bryan and Carly, which resulted in a head rub from Paola. And, I’ve never seen anyone’s face quite as red as Bryan’s was afterwards. Later that afternoon, we attended Mary’s class. In preparation for our departure to Florence, we continued to learn about Italian city states and the rise of the Medici.

After class, Nicolette, Julia and I set out to experience saldi shopping. We walked along the Via del Corso and many of the side streets. Saldi shopping was intimidating, exhausting and fun all at the same time. The people shopping were definitely a different crowd than the ones I normally encounter in my morning runs and during my walk from my apartment to the Rome center. In the midst of our shopping, we stopped at the Spanish Steps. With the backdrop of the moon and the stars, the Roman vista we saw was absolutely breathtaking. Although, Nicolette was the only member of our party to actually buy something, I felt like I experienced the Saldi scene. After resting up a bit, the three of us ventured out to a bar vicino a Coliseum. Paola would be proud: we tried our best at conversing with our neighbors in Italian.