Laurea di Giuseppe

As I mentioned in the last post, Giuseppe graduated last Thursday.  It was a long time coming because he was supposed to graduate back in February, but Italy being Italy, it never happened. We arrived at his school on time for the graduation and waited 1.5 hours for his professor to show up to lead the ceremony...again, that's Italy for you. The ceremony was in a small classroom packed with about 150 people and only 100 chairs.  Luckily, it's nothing like our graduation ceremony in the states.  The whole thing lasted maybe 10 minutes.  Yes, that's right...we waited 1.5 hours for a 10 minute ceremony!! The graduation was only for the economics department and there were only about 15-20 students that graduated in his class.

35 of Giuseppe's relatives came into Rome from Irsina and Milan for the graduation. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, family friends. They travelled all morning in the horrendous rain storm (roughly 6-7 hours), but luckily, everyone made it safely. Giuseppe is the first person in his family to receive his Laurea, so it was a very big deal.

After the ceremony and the 30-minute picture-taking party, we headed to the restaurant that Giuseppe and Francesco work at, for lunch. This was not just any ordinary lunch, but a full-out 6-7 course meal with wine, of course. The appetizers kept coming and coming and coming...there were probably 10-12 appetizers that were brought to the table. Then came the pasta dish, followed by the main seafood course, followed by a lemon sorbet.  Finally, came the cake and champagne. I was SO full and tired by the end of the meal. The lunch lasted for almost 4 hours!!! It felt so surreal to be at a lunch with Giuseppe and 40 of his family members celebrating this special occasion.

Then came Saturday night, which was the real party! We celebrated Giuseppe's graduation with about 25 of his closest friends at the Irish Pub near his house.  We reserved a section of the bar and it worked out great.  There was a DJ and a big dance floor where we danced until 5am! Anna and I bought a cake for Giuseppe, but that was a bad idea because a cake fight ensued when we served it. What a disaster...there was cake EVERYWHERE!! The staff at the bar were not so pleased with our group.

Here is what a mess Giuseppe was after the cake fight: 

Raining Cats & Dogs

Last Thursday, I left my house at 8:15am like I always do.  I heard the rain pounding against the window and dreaded going outside. I stepped outside with my umbrella in hand and witnessed rain like i've never seen before.  It was blowing in every direction and by the time I got to the bus stop, I was completely soaked.  I was unable to get on the first two buses because they were so packed with people. Finally, I made it on the third.  The traffic was horrendous and was moving at snail-pace.  My bus-ride is usually about 20 minutes in the morning.  I had to be to work by 9am, but we were moving inches at a time.  9 o'clock rolled around and I called work to tell them that I was running late, but would be there.  After about 1 hour and 15 minutes of sitting on the bus, the bus driver came on and said, "in dietro" meaning, we're turning the bus around because it couldn't cross the road.  I got off and was going to attempt walking the rest of the way to work, which would've been about a 15-minute walk in the torrential downpour. I walked about 100 meters only to find this:

I suppose that's the reason the bus couldn't cross the road.  The water was almost up to the windows of these 2 cars under the bridge.  It was impossible for me to cross the road to get to work, so I ended up calling and told them I couldn't make it.  They completely understood and as it turned out, the person I had a lesson with called and cancelled as well.  I've never seen such a crazy rain storm in my life!!

It was a blessing in disguise as I was then able to attend Giuseppe's graduation ceremony, which I would've missed since I had to work. I had to brave the 15 minute walk on foot in the pouring rain in the opposite direction from here to get to his apartment though.  I was already completely soaked from head to toe, so I figured I might as well keep going.  I showed up to his apartment and felt like I had just stood in the shower with all of my clothes on for 15 minutes.  What a mess!!!

My Italian Birthday

I celebrated my 25th birthday in Italy this past weekend. Friday night, Anna made me a candlelit dinner for two at her apartment, complete with a bottle of moscato d'asti that we popped...our favorite!! She made veggie quesadillas.  It was the perfect dinner considering we used to make quesadillas ALL the time in Chicago and have not made them since being in Italy together.

We then went out in Trastevere to a bar called, "Bir & Fud"...pronounced, "Beer & Food." They had some very unique beers.  It was more of a restaurant than a bar, so we only stayed for one drink, but we'll definitely be going back again! Next, we went next door to another bar, not sure what the name of it was.  We had a drink there, got hit on by an 18 year-old Italian boy...fantastic night! We took the night-bus home at 2:30am.  While we were waiting for the bus, Anna and I were talking to each other and a young boy, around 19 or 20, who was waiting for the bus as well, asked us where we were from.  As it turns out, he's from Chicago! He's only been in Rome a week, but is here for 3 months, going to Greece for 2 months, then is going to Russia for 6 months. It's always fun to meet other foreigners and find out what has brought them to Rome.

Saturday, Giuseppe, Anna, Francesco and I all went to the mall.  Anna and I were determined to find new outfits for my party that night. After two hours of searching, we were unsuccessful.  That night, we went out to run an errand and walked past a store near my house that looked fairly sketchy.  Anna talked me into going in and we both found dresses for 15euros! It worked out perfect. We had plans to meet up with friends at, "Bar del Fico" in the city center that night. I had been to this place with Giuseppe in August; they make great cocktails! We stayed for a couple drinks, then wanted to go dancing at a club called, La Maison. We went, but it was too busy for us to get in, so we drove to the other side of town to go to the disco that Giuseppe used to work at called, Pure Night Club.  We by-passed the line and didn't have to pay a cover and got to dance until 5:30am!!! It was a great night spent in good company.

Oktoberfest in Rome

I really wanted to go to Oktoberfest in Munich this year, but life got very busy and I started work, so I didn't have the opportunity to go. There's always next year!! The closest I got to Oktoberfest was a festival in Rome.

We went last week when Giuseppe's mom was in town.  There were rides, games, booths with people selling items, live music, German food and, of course, beer tents! We went on a weeknight, so it was not nearly as happening as i'm sure it is on the weekends, but we didn't have to fight any crowds which was nice.

Me, Anna and Giuseppe took turns riding the mechanical bull.  It was my first time.  Anna stayed on 56 seconds and I stayed on 55 seconds...so close!! It was a riot. We also played some of the games and won stuffed animals.  A lot of the rides and games were similar to the ones they had in Irsina last month.

Anzio

Last weekend, Anna and I intended on taking a Saturday morning train to Orvieto for the day.  I looked at the schedule and it said there was a 8:45am train that got in at 10:15am.  We left our apartment at 8am to get to Termini (the main train station), went to the kiosk to buy our ticket, and discovered that the first train to Orvieto doesn't leave until 11am.  I had been looking at the weekday schedule and didn't even think that the Saturday times would be different...oops! We knew that we didn't want to wait, nor did we want to go all the way home to come back in 2.5 hours, so we looked at the list of upcoming departures and picked a random, cheap city to visit: Anzio.

Anzio is a small town one hour south of Rome that lies on the mediterannean sea. We found our way, no problem, from the train station to the center of town. We stopped for a cappuccino and cornetto at a local bar.  There were tons of cute clothing and trinket shops that we went in and out of and were both on our best behavior and didn't buy a thing! We walked up and down the street along the beach. We stopped in the piazza to people watch and soak up the sun by the fountain for a while. Next thing we knew, it was time for lunch.  We checked out all the menus of the restaurants that were on the beach to find a place that wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg for lunch and decided on a very cute restaurant that had a patio overlooking the sea.  It was very beautiful!! We split a bottle of wine and had gnocchi with prawns and zucchini.  This is what I call an ideal day!

We loved Anzio so much that we decided to go back again last Sunday.  Giuseppe and Francesco's mom was visiting for a few days and the boys both had to work on Sunday, so she came to the beach with us. A full day of practicing my Italian! We found an 11:07am train to take because we were still a bit exhausted from waking up so early the day before. We got a late start leaving the apartment and were cutting it very close to catch the train.  I was at the kiosk trying to buy my ticket and this particular one didn't accept cash and I tried 3 times to use my credit card, but it didn't work.  We were about to miss the train.  We literally stepped on the train and the doors closed behind us...it was far too close for my liking!!

The water in Anzio is MUCH cleaner than the water near Rome.  At first, there weren't many people on the beach, but by mid-afternoon, it was packed. It's amazing that it's October and it's still 85 and sunny here. It has only rained one day since i've been here...I know that more rain is on the way in the next couple months. We decided we wanted to take the 5:37pm train back to Rome.  We got to the station with 20 minutes to spare this time, but of course, the next train didn't leave until 6:37.  It usually leaves every hour.  Why this day it didn't? No reason. The town was too far to walk back to, so we just hung out at the train station for 1.5 hours. It never fails to be an adventure here!

Anna and I have decided that we want to do things like this more often.  Perhaps on an upcoming Saturday, we'll go back to Termini an pick another city to visit for the day.