Thursday, May 19
As an adopted New Yorker, having worked there for the last two summers navigating Times Square, Rockefeller Plaza and Central Park like it's nothing, you'd expect me to be a master at maps. Well that'd be a big fat lie. I'm terrible with directions, the City is just different; all the streets are in number order and for the most part everything's perpendicular and parallel, meeting at a right angle for every intersection. Italy streets are a completely different ball game. Luckily, there were a few students who were gifted in navigation skills. I just wish I could too, it would evaporate the nervousness of being in a foreign place and fear of getting lost.
On this partly cloudy day we trekked on over to Vatican City.
I was convinced our tour guide lived in the Vatican because she knew every square inch of the place and the history that came with it. She spoke about Michelangelo's assumed mental depression based on how he rarely bathed, had a poor diet, and avoided speaking with most people- Despite any possible mental conditions, he was one hell of an artist!
Unfortunately, this was my least favorite site mostly because the information didn't resonate with me. I'm not Catholic like most of the other students, I'm a Christian, so I've interpreted Bible stories a slightly different way. I grew up not knowing the Saints, so this long part of the day did not interest me.
Nonetheless, the Vatican had a beautiful collection of the world's most sacred paintings and sculptures.
Trastevere Food Tour
Now it was time to eat! But this wasn't a sit down at a restaurant and order off the menu kind of meal. We were on a traveling food tour! We stopped at many different shops and restaurant, starting off at a small family-owned deli which served us an assortment of fresh cheeses.
Next stop was a pizzeria that cooked the dough pies in traditional brick ovens; a hole-in-the-wall eatery where we ate baccala (fried cod) from a paper wrapping; a restaurant for my first fried artichoke - my only artichoke, which I loved!- and to top it all off, we hit up a gelato shop where I got a small scoop of stracciatella (vanilla with chocolate chips). |