Frascati

The same day that Shelly and I attended the Carnevale party, we also took a day trip 30 minutes south of Rome to a town called, Frascati. I had spent a few hours the night before googling different cities near Rome that would be fun to go to.  This town sits in the Castalli Romani hills and people raved about the white wine that is produced here.

We got on the first train in the afternoon and once we arrived, we searched for a place to have lunch.  We walked up the main road, only learning later that we were walking away from the city center, but found a great cafe that had a stellar lunch.  A piece of bread, bottle of water, lasgna and grilled vegetables for only 5.50euros and it was really good!! We wandered about the town for a while walking up and down the hilly streets, taking pictures.

We found ourselves lost most of the day and unable to read the googlemap I had pulled up on my iPod.  It was fantastic though because we had no agenda and no specific time we had to be back. Of course we had to try some Frascati wine, so we bought a bottle and shared it on our afternoon stroll.

The center of town was very cute with a beautiful church, carousel and children running in the square with their Carnevale costumes on, throwing confetti all around. We sat on the stairs of the church for a bit basking in the sun and enjoying the "small town atmosphere."

It was in Frascati that Shelly had her FIRST gelato since arriving in Italy. We were sitting on a ledge overlooking the hills when a group of guys started talking to us in Italian and told us that they were policeman there.  I love the bold Italian men who just strike up a conversation! We then found a shop that sold used clothes, antiques, used books, etc.  Shelly found a Japanese costume which she wore to the disco that evening. The store clerk asked us where we were from and when we told her Ohio, she said, "don't tell me Cleveland, because I lived there for 7 years when I was younger!" Such a small world that we would meet someone in Frascati, Italy who had lived in Cleveland.  She spoke great english and we fully enjoyed hearing  a few of her stories.

As the sun was setting, we stopped in an Antica, where there were only men over the age of 65.  An older man smoking a cigar with an Obama hat greeted us as we walked in. He asked us what we wanted and we told him to surprise us.  We enjoyed a sparkling red wine that is made in Frascati. Another older man kept walking past our table, smiling at me.  Finally, after walking past about 4 times, he stopped and said hello, nice to meet you and kissed our hands.  I talked to him for about 15 minutes in Italian.  He was very sweet; I heard him go back to his table of friends and tell them everything we had talked about.  He came back to offer us some of his wine, but we politely declined as we had to get back to Rome for our Carnevale party.

Carnevale

Carnevale is a big festival every year in Italy that begins on Thursday and ends on Fat Tuesday.  Discopubs always throw parties that weekend where everyone dresses up in costumes.  In the past, everyone wore masks during this period because it was the one time where there was no distinction between classes.

Me and Jessica Rabbit (aka Annalisa)

On Fat Tuesday, all the children dress up in costumes and have a big party at school.  The children told me today that they ate lots of sweets (most famous are frappe-sweet pasta fried and castagnole-dough fried in oil), potato pancakes, ricotta ravioli and lasagna, among others. They throw confetti in the streets and each Saturday during the Carnival, a parade takes place.

I love that I found these neat glasses :) 

Rome was once the headquarters for Carnival. Every year, they hosted a horse race down the famous Via del Corso, but that was abolished in 1884 when an incident occurred.

Shelly won the limbo contest AND a free drink

Last Saturday, my friends and I went to a disco called, Qube.  A couple that I teach gave me a giant afro wig that they used for Carnevale last year, as well as, a "hippie" dress. Everyone was dressed up in costumes and we danced until 5am!! Never a dull moment here.

Papa Smurf and his gals 

They say that Carnevale after all, is only excess and transgression before the sacrifice of lent.

Shelly and I pre-going out 

Venice is very famous for their Carnival where the first one was recorded in 1268. Masks were seen as very transgressive and people were able to be themselves regardless of gender or social status.  Every year, millions of people visit Venice to experience a small part of what Carnival once was back in the day.

The whole gang

Brussels and Bruges

Abby is studying at Cambridge this semester in London.  We took full advantage of being in the same continent by meeting in Brussels, Belgium last weekend.  Brussels is a place that has always been high on my list of European cities to visit, but higher on that list is Bruges.  After watching the movie, "In Bruges," i've always dreamed of visiting.

Bruges

Shelly and I got flew out Thursday morning while Abby took a train and met us there Thursday evening.  The weather was quite cold in Brussels, but luckily, we stayed in a great part of town with many restaurants/bars within a very short walking distance. Our first night, we walked across the street and dined at, Houtsiplou. I had one of the best burgers along with fries, which Belgium is famous for, among many things. They had a beer of the month, DeKonink, which ended up being our favorite of all the ones we tried.

Friday morning, we walked to the train station and took the one-hour train to Bruges for the day.  When we arrived, it was a beautiful sunny morning, but that soon changed when the snow fell in the afternoon. We walked along the canals and dined at a family-owned restaurant where we had the most delicious belgian waffle. We shopped in some little boutiques, visited Onze Liev Vrouwekerk which holds one of the only Michelangelo statues outside of Italy and sat in a fritterie in the famous Markt Square eating french fries while watching the snow fall. We tasted our first belgian chocolate, drank Brugse Zot (the last family owned brewery in Bruges), ate the famous belgian croquettes and had a beer at a hostel filled with dozens of 20-somethings backpacking Europe.

Abby and I in Markt Square

Bruges is much smaller than Brussels and a city where they mostly speak Dutch rather than French.  I highly recommend anyone and everyone to visit this city if you get a chance. Although it was snowing fairly hard at points and the weather was less than perfect, we still managed to see most of the things that Bruges has to offer.

along the canal

Saturday, Abby and I visited the Belgian Comic Strip Museum. They had a description of "how to design a comic strip," which was very interesting! They also had samples of over 200 comics; most were in dutch and french, but we found a few in english. Upstairs was a history of each famous belgian comic artists and a display for each of their works.  Most famous was the TinTin exhibit.

Abby at the Tin Tin exhibit

After, we met up with Shelly and went to the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate in Grand Place Square. They give a complete description of how chocolate is made starting with the cocoa pod and the different places it comes from.  They had samples of clothing made out of chocolate and even had a chocolate statue of Christopher Columbus.  We watched a chocolatier give a demonstration on how to mold chocolate and fill with different ingredients.  The best part of all was the free samples that they gave out! I must say that belgian chocolate is about as good as it gets.

clothes made out of chocolate

Next up for the day was Cantillon Brewery. Being in the country famous for beer, of course we had to learn how it was made.  This is a family owned brewery that has been brewing beer for over 100 years and one of the last places that has barely changed the way they make beer in the last century. They produce lambic, kriek and framboise beer here.  At the end, they gave us samples of the lambic and kriek.  The taste was completely different than expected.  I can't say that i'm the biggest fan of these types of beers, though i've never tried them before, but I still enjoyed learning about the process and hearing the history of this small brewery.

bottles at the brewery

That night, we dined at a restaurant in Grand Place.  Our waiter has hilarious and highly entertained us for the three-hours we were there.  After dinner, we visited Delirium Cafe.  It's the most famous bar in Brussels because it holds the Guiness world record for having the most beers available at a bar in all the world.  They have 2,004 beers ready to sell at any given moment. It was crowded with both foreigners and locals.  We ended up meeting two Italian boys who live in Brussels. They took  us to a few other bars in town and certainly gave us a night we will never forget.

Ted and Valerian, our new Italian friends

Sunday, it's worth noting that we had the most amazing pastries we've ever tasted in our entire life.  There was a market outside the train station and we were looking for breakfast before Abby's train departed. A lady recommended that we go to the "jaune" or yellow tent at the market.  We found it and ordered various pastries such as the croissant, pain-au-chocolat and one filled with jelly. They were fantastic, amazing, delicious, etc. Shelly and I had a few hours before we had to take the shuttle to the airport, so we walked around the city some more and ate at a fantastic little creperie for lunch.

Grand Place

What a memorable trip Brussels and Bruges were.  I'm in love with Northern Europe and am now interested in exploring other cities in that region.

seeeester <3