Colosseum

Went to Da Augusto for lunch. I had rigatoni with tomato sauce and basil, then me and the two girls from Indiana shared a plate of broccoli with olive oil and then some tiramisu. I've probably had tiramisu less than five times so I don't know what the really good stuff tastes like, but this tiramisu at Da Augusto was incredible.

Then we walked to the Colosseum and met up with some other people.

Tonight we are returning to Cacio e Pepe in Prati. My favorite restaurant in the world. I'll try to sneak a pic.

Venice Pt. 2

I woke up Sunday morning at 5:00 hoping to be out walking around when the sun came up. Octavio, the head of my program, said the light in Venice is one of the most breathtaking things he's seen.  The sun never came out. I assume it rose above the horizon, but this can't be proven. I went back to sleep for a couple hours and went back out at 7:00. This is the view ten feet from the hotel entrance.

Not bad. That is ice forming on the canal. It was five minutes before I saw any signs of life. For the next hour it was just locals walking their dogs and professional photographers. It was lightly snowing which probably made Venice look better.

Hotel Tre Archi with the lights

Ponte di Rialto. Next 4 are from on the bridge.

About this time (8:20?) I stopped in a little cafe and got a cappuccino and an almond croissant.

This is me. Really bad place for a picture.

Occupy Venice. No, seriously.

Steam engine at the train station.

Tuscany

Snow Tuscany

The Best Coffee I've Ever Had...

...in Rome...

...on a Thursday.

I left my apartment around 10:30 for my 12:15 class. I think we're out of coffee, which was good since I hoped to find a good cup in the city. I took the tram to the Largo di Torre Argentina stop, which was the site of Julius Caesar's murder in 44 B.C. I walked north a few streets to the Pantheon, hoping to have better luck than the Caesar. For some reason, the two most famous coffee shops in all of Rome are both a block from the Pantheon. I randomly chose Sant'Eustachio over Tazza d'Oro. I walked in a wood paneled, mirror lined coffee shop expecting a really good cappuccino. What I got was a cappuccino with cacao sprinkled on top (gimmicky?). I was trying to tell myself that it was really good, but I'm not easily convinced. I left out disappointed. As soon as I stepped out I immediately saw the real Sant'Eustachio right across the street. I was in an impostor. Sant'Eustachio had Best Of... stickers all over its door. This had to be the right place. I walked up to the register, ordered a cappuccino senza zucchero (without sugar), and gave the receipt to the barista. (The money is too dirty for the barista too handle, plus he is much too important to handle the business side of caffè, apparently.) The cappuccino was good. Very good. But it lacked what the "Third Wave" American coffee shops have, which is freshness. The first wave of coffee is the at home brewers that use Maxwell House and other coffees too gross to discuss on this family friendly site. The second wave is your Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, and other express coffee shops. The third wave is your hipster coffee shops. These places mostly source, roast, and brew their own beans. Sant'Eustachio is sort of a 2.5 wave. They definitely care, they do roast their own beans, but it's just not the same as the 3rd wavers in America. I should stop being such a coffee snob and enjoy a really good cappuccino, but I can't help it. Espresso at Intelligentsia tastes nutty and sweet. It is a dessert. I'm sure I'll find some more very good coffee places. Maybe there are even 3rd wave coffee shops in Rome, but if not Sant'Eustachio will suffice.

Hi. My name is Henry, and I am a coffee snob.

Dinner was fantastic. I'm too tired to write. I will tomorrow. I learned a lot about olive oil tonight. The olive oil Giovanna gets is like no olive oil I've tasted in America.

Feb 13

I've gotten to where I can understand the subject of all conversations Gio and Fede have. Most of the time I can understand well over half of what they are saying. However, this doesn't translate into succeeding in my Italian class as well as I'd like. From here on I have Italian from 3-4 on Tuesday and 4-5:30 Wednesday and Thursday. If I pass my quiz tomorrow, that is. If not I will be dropped down to Italian 101. Studying for this quiz is why I haven't written Venice Part Due yet. Tonight Gio made pasta with broccoli and heirloom tomatoes. It was molto buono (not molto bene, because that's improper grammer). Gio's friend joined us. I was told his name, but I'm too tired to remember what it is. I had three of my four non language classes today. Roman Architecture from the Renaissance to Present Day will be my favorite, but Renaissance Art History will be very good too. The other, Italy and the European Union, is an economics class. It doesn't count towards my major, but it should be an easy A. I'm the only Economics major in the class who has had advanced coursework. Today we discussed the same topics discussed in Econ 101 class. Tomorrow I only have Italian and Forma Ubis, which is on the Archeology of Ancient Rome. Gianni teaches, so the attendance won't be as laxed as Arch, where the instructor said she'll not only cover for us if we are in another country, but she will advise us on where to go. Gianni is the Dean of Students (and my future best friend) so he will likely have to be much stricter. Based on how Econ went today, I'd feel comfortable taking the final exam now, so perhaps the instructor will allow me more than the two unexcused absences.

Tomorrow I'm going to an IES sponsored apertivo, then Cacio e Pepe again for dinner. That's how good it was. Hopefully they have changed the menu, but if not, it'll still be some of the best food I've had. I have a long break tomorrow between classes. Hopefully I'll meander out to "the best coffee shop in all of the world" to get "the best cappuccino ever." Hopefully it'll live up to its bold review, but beating Intelligentsia is nearly impossible.

I'm staying in Rome Thursday night and all day Friday, but going to Florence early Saturday to stay with Tally the Tour Guide and Alex's friends from Indiana and have them show us around. Next weekend I'm not going anywhere. The weekend after that we were planning on going to the Amalfi Coast, but if the weather isn't nice we may decide to push that back to April or May.

I should hit the sack so I can make it to my 9:30 class.

Ciao Ciao for now!

Italian Coffee

As many of you know, I'm a devout coffee snob. Since Italy is known for coffee, this seems like the epicenter for good coffee. So far, I disagree. Almost all coffee I've had here is good, but it's not anywhere near the craft coffee places I've been in Chicago, Austin and San Francisco. There, the baristas study coffee, know the farmer the beans came from, and have it down to a science. I haven't been anywhere yet in Italy that serves coffee roasted locally. Coffee enthusiasts know coffee always tastes best when consumed within 10 days of the roast date, and especially within 72 hours. All bars here serve Illy coffee. It's good. Better than Folgers and cheap American coffees, but it doesn't hold up against the American "Big 3" which are Blue Bottle, Intelligentsia, and Stumptown (I've never had Stumptown, but I've heard it's the best). The average espresso in Italy is much better than the average espresso in the States, but I have yet to find a place that prides themselves in their coffee. I am not giving up hope though. I have seen a few of the of the "Best Coffee in Rome" lists, and have seen raving reviews for Roman coffee from coffee snobs who have been to the best in the U.S. Maybe I'll find something better.

Italy Disney Pt. 1

Venice is awesome.

I stayed at Tally and Alex's apartment Friday night, got up at 5:20, found online that our 6:45 train was cancelled because of snow. Luckily the 7:45 was still running. We caught the subway, one of Rome's two subway lines, to Roma Termini. I was impressed with how comfortable and fast TrenItalia was. Our top speed was 155 mph. The seven of us sat in two sets of four train-style seats across the aisle from each other until we got to Florence around 9:15, the first stop on the three hour and 45 minute trip to Carnevale. Here we encounter an unexpected cultural difference with some Asian girls. Our actual seats we very spread out, but Tally said in his experience that it was open seating and no one paid attention to their actual ticketed seat. Tally had apparently never riden a train with Asians. They spoke English just well enough for us to explain that there were people sitting in our real seats too and the ticketed seat assignment doesn't matter. This fiasco lasted at least 25 minutes. I may have gotten a little sarcastic with the Japanese girl, but detecting it must develop later in the English learning process. Once we sorted everything out I ended up sitting in a different coach by Breezy, one of three girls in our seven person group. She's from Manhattan, and no, Breezy isn't her real name.

Bologna from the train. At least a foot of snow.

Our train went across a very long bridge and let us out on the northwest side of the city. Hotel Tre Archi was about a 10 minute walk from the station.

After we found our hotel we found a restaurant then took a water taxi from the terminal to Piazza San Marco. I expected Venice to be overrun with tourists, but it was overkill. All bar owners and waiters were fluent in English since they only serve tourists. Pretty much every restaurant we saw seems like a tourist place. It seemed like no one even lived here, hence the title.

It was about 30 degrees on the boat, but the wind was whipping around pretty well. Wind chill had to be in the single digits. Also, I had no gloves.

Tally, Paige, Ali

Nice front door 

 Coming up on Rialto. Shops are closed.

 Under Rialto

Creepy woman. Kept staring at me.

 Accademia Bridge

 Santa Maria della Salute

San Marco after Grand Canal opened up into an open harbor

 Bridge of Sighs (the higher one)

 Herd

This is where Italy Disney really begun to shine. There was an elaborate parade over the canal where the bridge of sighs is located, going over into the piazza. In the piazza there was a stage with a Venetian man (actor) dressed in his full Carnevale garb speaking in full English to the mainly American crowd.

 Leader

The pictures of the actual official event aren't too good. It felt a little gross to be participating because I doubt the performers where even Venetians. Everything seemed really fake, and we had fallen right into it. We were all extremely cold after the water bus, so we agreed to go into the Hard Rock Cafe to warm up and go to the bathroom. This is a little more defensible when you learn that not all places have working heat. Of course the HRC did though. None of us wanted to go to HRC, but we almost felt like we had no other choice. We were all making fun of us because we were such conformers. We got a table and stayed here two hours.

Tally and Alex

So gross

After this embarrassing episode we followed Tally back to the hotel. This would be a good time to try and explain how useful Tally is. I don't know if I previously talked about this, but he knows everything about traveling. He knew his way around Venice perfectly without the use of a map. He showed us his favorite views and sights in Venice, most of which we wouldn't have seen if it wasn't for him. He had been backpacking through Europe for nearly a month before our program started. By his estimates, he's been to around 30 countries. Not just been in, but traveled around in. He knows their people's customs, the countries history, former rulers, major events, fun facts and everything else you can think of. I am very lucky to have him as a travel partner. He's practically a tour guide.

View of the Cannaregio Canal from outside our hotel

Our hotel room. 5 beds, 7 people.

After this we went back out on the streets and experienced the Carnevale scene. It was a little crazy at places, but we didn't feel like going full blast with our fellow Americans. We went back to the hotel around midnight, with the expectations of me and Alex waking up at 5am to see the sunrise over Venice. 

To be continued...