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....

Rome If You Want To

I'm moving to Rome. I'm moving to Rome. I'm moving to Rome... Maybe if I keep saying it it will finally begin to feel real. I seriously cannot believe that this is my life!!! It feels like a dream! How on earth did I get so lucky? Perhaps it will feel real when I land...

So I'm biding my time between flights in Philadelphia (ugh...) in the posh US Airways club lounge. I expected more food... They have coffee, olives, and mints. Maybe I'm just here at an odd time. I'm about to board, so I'll next update from Rome!

3... 2... 1... Blastoff!!!!

It's officially one week until I depart!!!!! I am way too excited! I keep thinking about things as 'the last time I do x before I move to Italy!' 

Now my biggest worry is packing... I have to pack one bag for 4 months. At first you think, 'Four months? No big deal. Besides, Europeans generally own only a couple of outfits anyways.' And let me say, I am all for outfit repeating and getting clever with my wardrobe by turning five articles of clothing into twenty different looks. But the big problem is weather. I'm going to get there in the tail end of summer (which still means it's in the mid/upper nineties) and I'll be leaving in January... So I'm up against extremely humid heat and crisp chills at the same time. I'm thinking my plan is going to revolve around layers. This way I can switch things up while still having room for climate change. 

I'm looking forward to getting lost and discovering amazing things by accident. That's how I found the Trevi fountain the first time! I was walking down a tiny street lined with vendors and all of a sudden it opened into a large space and the Trevi fountain was right there! As much as I love tours and am grateful to the people who do them and supply the masses with information that they otherwise would not have known, I still prefer to discover things on my own. Probably because I dislike people scheduling every moment of my exploration time, and because I have an insatiable curiosity, but most of all because I am generally more well educated about some of the things that the tour guides have to talk about. I don't mean to sound like a snob, but I just get irked when people make blanket statements about history without going into the meaning and significance of specifics. So I'm going to get purposefully lost (don't worry, my sense of direction is impeccable!) and see what I find whether it be a hidden historical landmark or a really good gelatto shop!

I am way too excited to even wait for this week to pass! I'm about to just start jumping about and packing everything and anything! Just wait... I'll end up at the airport way too early and be vibrating with uncontrollable joy mixed with impatience and everyone is going to just assume I'm on drugs... oh dear.