Diagnosis: Wanderlust: chelsea

Since Halloween and Thanksgiving aren't really celebrated in Italy (for some obvious reasons) I really haven't had that impending feeling that Christmas is coming. But recently things have been getting much merrier around here!

A few days ago a few of my friends and I ventured out towards Pizza di Spagna (the Spanish Steps) to go to Pompi: il regno del tiramisù which is the absolute best place to get tiramisù in Italy. Ask any Italian, they'll tell you the same thing. On our way we crossed Via del Corso, the main shopping street, and found it lit up with christmas lights! There was even a giant christmas tree from Mercedes-Benz with their emblem as ornaments. On the street connecting Via del Corso and Piazza di Spagna, the Via Condotti - one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world, we found it decorated with christmas light chandeliers. It was absolutely magical. Add the tiramisù and it was perfect!

It had just rained and the street beautifully reflected everything.

The next day, as a break between writing my final papers for my courses I went with my flatmate Wendy to check out the Christmas market that had sprung up in Piazza Navona. What was normally an austere piazza filled with sculpted fountains by Bernini had become a sort of carnival complete with games and a carousel.

They also had a ton of shops selling ornaments. What was interesting was that there were a plethora of witches being sold as ornaments, on stockings, as figurine, etc. I finally learned that she is la Befana - a kindly old witch. The story goes that the magi stopped at her house on their way to see the Christ child and invited her to come with them, but she declined. When she saw the star of Bethlehem heralding the child's birth she decided to try go to him with gifts as the magi had done. Unfortunately she never found him, so now she seeks him every Christmas and ends up leaving the gifts at the homes of other children. This explains the abundance of broom ornaments that also are said to bring good luck.

Another wonderful part of the market is the ciambella - a large doughnut-like sweet that is warmed and pressed in a panini maker and covered in sugar and sometimes nutella. Wendy and I each bought one and they were fantastic! Warm and sugary carbalicious magic!

Piazza Navona

A carousel with the horses of hell on it

Me and la Fontana dei Quattro Fiume

Sparkly things!

Brooms of la Befana

It was so adorable I almost died...

But what I am really excited about is that these decorations means christmas is getting closer and so is the arrival of my mom and sister! They're coming out to visit me and together we'll spend about a week here in Roma, the next week including Christmas in Paris, and a final week and New Year's in London. I cannot wait. It is going to be so beautiful!

I also just finished all of my papers for this semester (30 pages total!) so I decided that yesterday was a good day to relax. I ended up drinking an entire bottle of my favorite wine alone (over the course of 6 hours) and watching The Holiday and Love Actually. I may or may not have bawled my eyes out. It was just so cute and christmas-y ~~and I have nobody~~... I'm not pathetic. I'm just in touch with my emotions!

Maybe I went a little gif crazy....

This weekend Roma is hosting the Mercato di Campagna Amica's Cibi d'Italia festival. This is Campagna Amica's first actual festival. Campagna Amica is a farmer's market in Italy that meets every weekend to sell fresh, locally grown and produced products. The Cibi d'Italia festival took place in the Circus Maximus (Circo Massimo in Italian) and highlighted local farmers and other food businesses. They had everything from fresh fruit to giant roasted pigs being carved in front of you to local viticulturists offering samples of their wares. I went with a good friend from UCSC who inspires me to become more of a foodie, Danielle Worthy.

Danielle, my food advisor.

We had so much fun walking around and sampling a lot of great Italian food. The festival was only really attended by locals, so hardly anyone spoke Italian, which was wonderful practice for us. We found a great wine tent and sampled a great red. I asked one of the employees what her favorite wine that they had was and she gave us the red. Danielle and I are normally more prone to get a white or rosé, but we were definitely open to some tasting. This wine was fantastic! It was crisp and fruity with a bit of sparkle. We both were asking each other what the unexpected flavor was, but not being connoisseurs of wine ourselves we just appreciated the taste and bought a bottle. We even talked to the sellers about which foods the wines were best paired with. Living in Roma for a month has really improved my Italian.

We found an interesting booth that was promoting Italy's version of the Biosphere Project that is happening at the University of Arizona. It is called il Parco Nazionale del Cliento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni and is a UNESCO site. They're committed to preserving the natural Italian landscape and biology. To attract interest in their booth they were handing out shish-kabobs of basil leaves, balls of mozzarella di buffalo, and fresh small tomatoes; all of which were produced within the national park. The basil was so flavorful and when I got a bite of it with the fresh mozzarella I almost died. Danielle and I just looked at each other in sheer happiness and could only make 'mmm'-ing sounds and exclaim 'oh my God!' It was the best mozzarella that either of us had tasted and the tomato was bursting with juicy amazingness. Honestly, imagine the best tomato you've ever had and then multiply the freshness and flavorfulness by at least 10. It bursted and I got some tomato juice on my white top, but it was worth it. Caprese salad shish-kabobs at an Italian farmer's market, does it get any better than that?

Apparently it does. We found a great apple stand that had freshly picked apples that were amazing. I of course had to buy some because I love apples and fall, but they also had out tiny green fruits that looked like less transparent grapes. They were labelled as kiwis, but I assumed that the Italians just didn't really know what kiwis were. (They did as I later discovered at another stand.) So, attempting to be a bit more adventurous with my food, I popped on into my mouth not know what it would taste like or whether it had a pit or not. I was rewarded for my curiosity. It was actually a tiny kiwi without the brown fuzz outside that was actually able to be consumed whole. It was so tart and yet sweet and tasted exactly like kiwi. I was amazed and forced Danielle to try one as well and she ended up buying a kilo of the little buggers. We also ended up getting a citrus fruit that is like an orange on the inside but has a green peel like a lime. The Italians call it melanzawa and it is fantastic.

The food was great, but they hooked me with the petting zoo. There were goats, bunnies, turkeys, hens, sheep, and donkeys. I fell in love with the baby bunnies (even though the albino ones normally give me the creeps). And I got a bit sad for a moment when I saw the goats. I'm not that weird, it's just that my sister has wanted a goat for ages. She legitimately asks for one every Christmas. Honestly, what is a college student in California, let alone the desert that is Riverside, going to do with a goat? But still she remains persistent. At that moment I wished she were with me so that we could argue about how I think that goats are the devil's spawn because their pupils are sideways (really, it's unsettling) and she would argue about how adorable they are.

And then one of the baby bunnies lunged at a little Italian boy's finger that he had stuck through the cage, and thankfully missed, and we just looked at each other and laughed, because that bunny was on speed or something. It struck like a viper! And then of course I missed my little brother because that would be exactly something he would do. I just really missed my siblings at that point, which is weird for me because as much as I love them, I think I don't show them. And I think that that impacts our relationship, they think I don't care when I just have trouble displaying emotion while at the same time I'm pretty sure they're a bit scared of me. The reasons are complicated and would take way too long to explain... I just worry because we're all living apart and I feel like we keep growing further and further apart. I miss them quite a bit and being away from them is hard, especially because as a military family that moved every which way all the time they were my constant friends and playmates. ...Sorry... wow, who thought talking about farm animals would get this deep? In apology I offer up these adorable pictures of farm animals that might just break your heart too.