It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

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....

Cibi d'Italia

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.

Goats for Chels!

Look at their sibling bonds! 

They just love each other unconditionally

Bunny kisses are the best.

I loved the farmers market and Danielle and I found a lot of great things to make a delicious dinner with! It was a great day.

Local wine from the market

Ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach 

Tomato sauce from the market

That's my kind of party.

Danielle adding pecorino romano 

Perfection was achieved.

What's Taters, Precious?

"Mash 'em, boil 'em, put 'em in a stew."  - Samwise Gamgee

So I had a week break in between my Italian practicum ( 1 quarter's worth of Italian credits smashed into 3 weeks) and actual classes... And where do I go? IRELAND. Oh yes. It was so beautiful! Honestly, everyone who has been there says 'It's soooo green!' And I am just one more of them. It was like watching t.v. in HD imax after a life of fuzzy 70's technicolor. I didn't know that colors that rich could exist. If it's possible to fall in love with a landscape, I did...

The Cliffs of Moher

I arrived in Dublin with 3 of my friends: Lindsey and Carmen, whom I live with, and Amy, a brand new friend. I love these girls. They are way too much fun and are exactly the kind of people I need to be around. Everyone is just so outgoing and high energy. They don't give me time to get too deep in my head, which is good, because that's when the problems start.

We stayed at Ashfield House in Dublin which was wonderful because it was a short walk to everywhere. Our first destination was the Temple Bar area. Seriously, where else would 4 college students who just finished exams go? We had some great grub and met a cheeky waiter who convinced us to head over to another bar and play a joke on a bartender for free drinks. So we go and ask after Dom at Padraic O'Grady's and tell him our cover story: we were regulars at his old pub in NYC. Carmen tells him that her brother finally married the girl and all of a sudden Dom's coming around the bar to ask us how we are doing and what drinks we want. I told him I'd have my usual and he just was looking around like 'Cor, blimey...' until we told him that since we were in his city we would drink what he recommended. The relief was palpable. We stayed for a while and listened to some great pub music and learned songs like 'I'll Tell Me Ma' and 'No, Nay, Never.' We had so much fun. 

The next night we went to almost every bar in the Temple Bar area and we made friends with the bouncer at Temple Bar. I was getting talked up by some Armenian guy... so I pretended to only speak French as he spoke at me in English and offered me money for some 'alone time.' Needless to say my new bouncer buddy came in handy! After that disaster we headed off to another bar with a couple of nice Irish boys who kept the Guinness flowing and then took us out to get burgers at 2:30 in the morning. That was wonderful, plus I totally have a soft spot for gingers...

Our second day in Dublin we went to tour the Guinness Storehouse, which was fascinating. After the tour you head up to the Gravity Bar on the top floor and get a free pint of Guinness and a panoramic view of all of Dublin. Afterwards we went shopping and strolled around St. Stephen's Green. The fashion in Dublin is surprisingly amazing. I found the perfect l.b.d. and fell in love with Topshop, which is way too expensive for me. 

I dragged the girls to the National Museum of Ireland of Archeology to see the bog people. I absolutely love them! They are like naturally made mummies. The Celtic peoples would execute hostages from other tribes (princes, dignitaries, etc...) or criminals who didn't deserve an honorable burial and just toss the bodies into the peat bogs. The peat has low oxygen levels and other biological factors that preserved not only the bodies, but their hair, clothes, jewelry, and skin. (So if you're squeamish scroll down a bit quickly)

This guy is an ancient ginger!

Check out his hand!

We made our way to Galway by train after a long trek to the train station in 18°C rain... with no umbrella, but we made it! Cold and sniffly.... but we got there. We went out that night to see what the scene was and we ended up at the Quay's (pronounced keys) and found some traditional Irish music. We just chilled there and listened to the music and drank some guinness. It was a good night. Lindsey and I retired a bit early, meaning at 10:45. But Carmen and Amy stayed out for a bit longer and had quite the tale to tell. As Carmen leads me to believe, Galway is like a backwards Cinderella town. As the clock strikes 11:00 the masses of pissed drunk lads come out and swam the town. There was even an instance of a group of 12 guys lifting Amy up and hauling her off. They eventually put her down after saying some rather crude things, but we did not go out the next night. 

The best part of Galway was going on a bus trip to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. Our driver/guide was a little old Irish man who had been doing this tour for 19 years. Desmond (Des) was adorably funny and we spent the entire day laughing and visiting some beautiful places.

Des

The Cliffs of Moher were breathtaking. The wind was intense though, and we felt as if we could easily be blown off. Apparently 60 people fell to their deaths from the cliffs last year alone. That only makes me respect nature all the more. The cave that is at the bottom of the left side of the cliffs was actually used in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when Harry and Dumbledore go into the cave to find the locket. I was a bit stoked. The land is just so beautiful and it makes you think about what it would be like to live a simpler life and live off the land... and then I remember how much I love running water and central heating. 

The cave is that dark spot on the second outcropping.

After Galway we headed on to Cork to kiss the Blarney stone! Cork itself was not too exciting, but Blarney Castle was gorgeous. The gardens were lush and fragrant, but the best part of it all was climbing to the top of the castle, on a super steep, ridiculously winding, perilously small staircase. I highly advise those who tend toward claustrophobia to skip this adventure. When we reached the top we were delayed by a film crew hovering around the stone. They were filming a travel show for itv that was hosted by James Nesbitt. We had no clue who he was or what was going on until they asked if they could film all four of us kissing the stone while James Nesbitt held us. If you've never kissed the stone let me explain the process. You lay on your back on the floor of a battlement on the top of the castle. A trained guide helps pull your torso off of the ledge so you can grab two vertical bars and lower your head upside-down off of a building to kiss a rock. There are some safety bars below you so you don't fall to your death, but it's still a rather frightening experience. After we signed release forms for the camera crew we headed down to the bottom of the keep. A huge group of French students began shouting and swarmed James asking for photographs. We casually asked his film crew if he was 'sort of a big deal in Ireland.' They told us that he was to be a dwarf in the Hobbit trilogy that is going to come out this December. And at that moment my life was a bit too cool for me.

Amy getting all up close and personal with the Nes.

Yeah, I know a dwarf...

Can I just stay here forever? 

After all of the excitement we had one last day in Dublin before we had to catch our flight back to Roma. I love Dublin so much. And the guys are all so cheeky... witty banter is a major plus for me. We went out and Carmen and Amy met some drop dead gorgeous guys who are coming to San Diego to open up their own pub and one of them is a professional golfer. I spent the evening getting chatted up by a couple of Italian guys with minimal English... at least I could practice my Italian. Why is it that I meet a perfectly nice guy in Rome and he runs off to Sydney without even leaving a phone number. Yes, I know, I told him not to.... but seriously. Grrr.

Ireland was wonderful. I really want to go back and take my family. I want to marry into a cute little Irish family. I just want to go back. I almost cried when getting onto the plane to go, but then I remembered that I was going back to my flat in Roma... Life is rough guys. I seriously think that I'm going to sob like a child when I have to return to the states.

All in all, a successful adventure