Do as the Romans Do...And Go See a ROMA Game!

One thing that I was told to do was go see a Roma soccer game while I was here in Rome. After playing soccer for my whole childhood life and seeing numerous games in California whether it be the Chivas or the Galaxy or a competitive college match, I was pumped to see what all the hype was about Roma soccer! Let's just say I cannot wait to go back again! The game was Roma verses Bologna and the tickets were a mere 6 euros each to go and enjoy this famed spectacle. Even though this game was not a big game, it was so much fun to be a part of and I can't even imagine what it is like when Roma is playing one of their rivals! The crowd is beyond energetic and the people view Roma as their team, their celebrities, people they love and follow. It was an awesome experience being able to see what the people of Rome are truly passionate about.

A little video clip of the game!

GO ROMA!

They had at least 50 of these statues outside of the stadium, which are supposed to be Olympic athletes.

Outside the stadium, such a beautiful sky!

Buon Appetito!

One thing about living in Italy that I will dearly miss when I am back in the states is the fresh food. Now I have to admit, having pasta literally everyday can get a little old at times, but the ingredients that Italians use in their food is of the freshest kind! Kelsey and I signed up to take a cooking class through John Cabot University and we learned to make a full Italian meal and had an awesome time doing it. Our instructor, Andrea, reminded me of a little leprechaun as he spritely bounced around the kitchen teaching us what to do. I cannot wait to come home and cook a real Italian meal for my family, but until then here are the recipes we used in case any of you are feeling Italian for dinner tonight!

1. Appetizer: Bruschetta al Pomodoro, Basilico e Mozzarella di Bufala (Bruschetta with tomato, basil and Buffalo Mozzarella)
Ingredients (serving 4 people):
- 8 slices italian bread
- 4 tomatoes (the best kind you can get to make bruschetta this time of the year are called Pomodori a Grappolo or back in the US I suggest you to use the Roma Tomatoes type)
- 10 leaves fresh organic basil

- 1 bowl fresh Buffalo Mozzarella
- 1 clove garlic (remember to remove the heart of it, as it's heavy to digest when raw)
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

- salt

- pepper
 

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400°F (or 200°C) and toast the bread until crisp and golden brown for about 5 minutes. Rub each slice of bread with half a clove of garlic, then drizzle with one table spoon of Extra Virgin olive oil (since now I'll call it E.V. olive oil) and season with salt. You can toast the bread in the toaster, but using the oven dries it out more, adding an authentic touch! Be sure to use only a good cold-pressed E.V. olive oil as the dish depends on the quality of the oil.
For your tomato and basil topping you have to chop the tomatoes in small cubes, chop Buffalo Mozzarella in small cubes as well, sprinkle with salt and black pepper and garnish with fresh basil leaves. Drizzle with few table spoons of E.V. olive oil and serve.

2. First Course - Fresh Homemade Tagliolini all'Amatriciana (Fresh Homemade Pasta with Bacon Sauce)

Ingredients for the fresh pasta (serves 4 people):
- 4 cups/400gr all purpose flour 00 (remember if you're using all purpose flour 0 you have to sift it first)
- 4 eggs
Ingredients for the sauce (serves 4 people):
250gr / 8 oz guanciale diced (if you are not abe to find this ingredient back home, then just get pancetta)
1,5 kg / 3 lb can tomatoes, peeled and chopped (the best type is called San Marzano)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1 small red chilly pepper, seeded and chopped (I used chili flakes instead of the fresh one, as it's not so invasive)
salt and freshly ground pepper
100 gr / 1 cup pecorino cheese
2 leaves of bay leaves

Instructions:
Sauté the guanciale in a large frying pan over medium heat until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. In the meantime, in a large frying pan over low heat, stir in the "soffritto" made from carrots, celery and onion with E.V. olive oil and cook until it starts to brown. Turn on the heat over medium-high and if you want you can even stir in some dry white wine and cook it until it'll evaporate (please never use any sweet wine, it's disgusting!). Then you can add your chopped tomatoes and cook it for 15/30 minutes (depending on how much sauce you're cooking). Add the guanciale and bay leaves and chili pepper. Mix well and season with salt and pepper.
For the pasta dough all you have to is mix 4 cups/400gr all purpose flour with 4 eggs. Then roll out the dough powerfully to a thin, almost transparent sheet (don’t forget to use flour on the marble surface). Now it's time to cut the pasta into the tagliolini shapes, long and thin, as thin as you possibly can. Let the pasta sit before cooking, then put a large pot of boiling water over high heat. When the water is boiling, toss in a tablespoon of salt with the tagliolini pasta. Stir to keep the pasta from sticking. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until a piece of pasta tastes cooked.
When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the frying pan with the amatriciana sauce and add freshly grated pecorino cheese, serve hot.

Note: by the time you'll get back home, if you want to follow the original recipe and cook Bucatini (dry pasta) instead of fresh noodles, remember that the best brand you can get at the supermarket is called De Cecco. Consider to use 500 gr / 1 lb of Bucatini for 4 people.

3. Second Course: Straccetti di Manzo con Funghi e Rughetta (beef "carpaccio" with mushrooms and arugola)
Ingredients (serving 4 people):
- 500 gr / 1/2 Lb beef carpaccio (at the market in Italy they are called "straccetti di manzo")
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- freshly chopped parsley
- salt
- 1 cup dry white wine (the one I used for you in the kitchen is called Frascati wine)
- 250 gr / 8.8 Oz Champinion mushrooms (they are the closest type of mushrooms to the Bottom ones you can find back home)
- 250 gr / 8.8 Oz Pletus mushrooms (they are the closest type of mushrooms to the Elephant ears you can find back home)
- 250 gr / 8.8 Oz freshly grated Parmesan cheese

- 2 bunch fresh arugola salad

Instructions:
Saute in a frying pan garlic smashed without peeling the skin (as it contains all the nutrients and it's good for the anti-oxidant nutrients) and the mushrooms, cover with a lid and wait until all the water will be released for about 8-10 minutes with a lid (timing will depend on the type of mushrooms you are using) and then add the white wine and wait until it will evaporate.
In the same pan, heat up again and add more olive oil in case of need, and season the meat with salt and saute for few minutes. The outside should be nicely browned, but it should still be tender and soft overall. Adjust a bed of fresh bitter arugola salad at the bottom of your serving dish and spoon the mushrooms sauce over the beef, and add chopped parsley in the same pan to let it season with the rest of the ingredients.
In the end adjust the meat and mushrooms over and add freshly grated Parmesan cheese to coat the dish. Serve hot, and it will be delicious.

4. Side dish: Broccoli Romaneschi (Roman Style Broccoli)
Ingredients for 4 servings:
- 1 clove garlic (don't forget to keep the skin of it while you're sauteing with extra virgin olive oil)
- 2 heads of roman broccoli (about 2lb/1kg)
- Salt
- Chili Flakes

Instructions:
First clean and wash the broccoli removing the bottom of the plant and leaving the smaller leaves, cutting it into smaller pieces. Let the broccoli cook in salted boiling water for a few minutes, until each piace becomes tender and soft. Then in a large frying pan over medium-high heat, leave garlic to brown with extra virgin olive oil. Once the garlic is brown, toss in your boiled broccoli, leave to simmer with garlic until everything is nicely sauteed. Season your dish with salt and chili flakes if you'd like. Serve warm.

5. Dessert: Canestrelli alla Nutella (Nutella filled cookies)
To make the dough you have to mix 5 cups/500gr  of all purpose flour, 2 sticks/250gr of unsalted butter, 2,5 cups/250gr of granulated sugar and 2 eggs, a pinch of salt. Mix everything powerfully on a slightly floured marble surface, and leave in the fridge for min 2hrs to let your butter get less soft and the dough more suitable to stretch and easy to handle. Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C for any italian oven that you have in your apartment).
Use a wax sheet paper to roll your dough. Then use round metal forms as the one I gave you and give the right shape to your cookies, (cut half quantity of the cookies with a a smaller hole in center, in the way that you can use it as the tops of the cookie sandwich) bake for 10-15 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Sprinkle with icing (powder) sugar all the tops, while spreading on the bottoms a light surface of Nutella to have the tops stick. Use a pastry bag for the toppings.

Rolling the dough for the cookies.

We got to eat a little bit of Nutella before putting them on the cookies, YUM!

Cookie makers!

Enjoying our feast!

Rome's Unseen Gem

On Saturday, the roommates and I took a little trip to see one of Rome's "unseen gems," the Catacombs. Now, believe it or not there are actually 40 catacombs that lie beneath the surface of the hustling and bustling city of Rome, but only 5 of these catacombs are open to the public! The catacombs were constructed in the earliest centuries of Rome's existence as a reaction to Christians not being able to be buried within the city boundaries. The Romans took their sacred boundaries very seriously and would not allow any burials to take place within the sacred walls of Rome. Therefore, catacombs were built so that Christians would have a proper burial. The ones that we visited were the Catacombe di Priscilla, and were where the poor Christians people and some Christian martyrs were buried. When you step down into these dark, narrow passageways that are lined with shelves upon shelves upon more shelves, you can't help but feel a chill run through your spine knowing that so many dead people lay there thousands of years ago. Sadly we were not allowed to take pictures down in the catacombs so I just got one off of the entrance but if interested just look up Catacombe di Priscilla under google images and you will get a feel for what we saw.

The entrance to get inside the catacombs. 

Espresso, espresso, and..oh more espresso!

My beautiful roommates having a nice cappuccino before we head out for a day of sight seeing. This place actually gives free espressos to John Cabot University students and only charges 50 euro cents extra if you want a cappuccino. That is like music to a starving college students' ears!

Coffee is something that you cannot possibly visit Italy without tasting. It is EVERYWHERE. And when I say everywhere I mean everywhere. When you see a sign for a bar and look inside to only be confused by people drinking coffee and having croissants, don't be surprised! This is how Italians drink their coffee, at places they call bars. It is actually considered rude to take your coffee, or any food for that matter to-go and eat it on the run, it is simply unheard of. Italians take their time when it comes to meals and food and that is something that Americans can learn a lesson from since everything back in the states is about quick service and a quick exit. The coffee here is so pure, they do not put any sort of sugars or anything of that sort in them so unless you like drinking black coffee you have to add everything yourself. Even cappuccinos are just plain coffee and milk with no fancy ingredients added. I guess you could say I am going to come back to the states as a "coffee snob" since I am drinking some of the best coffee while here in Rome.

Roman Ruins...My Classroom

The Capitoline Hill.

Behind the Capitoline Hill where the remains of the Roman Forum lay.

One of the Triumphal Arches in which victory parades would march through on their way to the top of the hill where the Temple of Jupiter used to stand.

I didn't take a picture of the Largo Argentina when I had class so this one is from the bus tour but you get the idea!

It has been a while since I have blogged, merely since this past week and weekend have been so very busy I have not gotten the chance to sit down and write about what is going on here in Rome. However, this is something that must be blogged about...my art history class. Every Thursday morning from 9am-12:30pm I have an art history class. Now this is not just any art history class where you learn about paintings and mosaics from inside a classroom, using slides and books to view the art. This is an on-site class, meaning we never meet in a classroom, we only meet standing in front of our subject for that day. Also, it is titled an art history class but it is more of an archaeological class, in that we study the Ancient Rome whose ruins still lie scattered throughout the city today. The class is titled Cities, Towns, and Villas and it is a study of how the ancient Roman people lived their everyday lives. We met this past week at the Largo Argentina, where there are remnants of the four temples that used to lie there, which is also where Julius Caesar was stabbed. After having a short lecture there, we moved on to the Capitoline Hill, which is where the current Capitol of Rome lies but is also where the Temple of Jupiter used to stand. Behind the Capitoline Hill lies the last standing ruins of the Roman Forum and the Seven Hills of Rome. It is so awe-inspiring learning about such a magnificent past while actually standing in front of the ruins that date back to the B.C. centuries. How these structures are still standing remains a mystery to me, but you could say that this class is going to be my favorite for I feel as if I am a part of Ancient Rome by just being in the presence of these massive ruins.

Sonny and Cher's Big Debut.

Some of the roomies! (disregard my strange hair)

Singing Walking on Broken Glass, oh baby!

Our new Spanish friends.

Having a little bit too much fun!

Strut your stuff!

Loving life in the streets of Rome!

It's Sunday night...what do you think of? Maybe doing some laundry and homework, preparing for the busy week ahead, or even relaxing and catching up on a good book while drinking some tea. These all sound nice and all, but when in Rome, Sundays have a different meaning. KARAOKE. Now I am not talking about a small gathering of people and some boring music and awful singing, I am talking about a real hopping pub packed with a mix of study abroad students, local flavor, and other foreigners. My roommates and I went for the karaoke and we sure gave a performance to remember. Kelsey and I sang Annie Lennox's Walking on Broken Glass in quite a Sonny and Cher manner. After a night of endless laughs, singing, and funny moments we walked back to our apartment at 2:30 on a Sunday feeling so excited and ready for Tuesday karaoke night!

Living in a dream...

It is actually still unreal to me that I am living in Rome. It still feels like I am on vacation and will have to be leaving this beautiful city soon but the best part is is that I still have almost four whole months more here. The city has grown on me and I feel like I am truly a resident here, like it is becoming a home to me. Today I went with Kelsey and our friend Anna on a walk to the top of the Gianicolo hill which had a breathtaking view of the city. The hill is right behind our apartment and it was a very easy walk to make. We then took a walk down Via del Corso, which is the main street for shopping and tourists, and we ventured to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, both such lovely areas. The city comes alive and is so romantic by nighttime, it really is so wonderful. 

Blondes.

One of the best things about Rome is the night life here. Every night there is always something going on where me and my roomies can go and have a great time. However fun the night life here is, there is one thing, the typical Italian creepers. Now I am not trying to be boastful or anything when I say this, but seeing a blonde walk down the street in Italy attracts the same amount of attention as seeing a monkey walking down the street in the states. Italian men LOVE blondes simply because there are very few blonde women here. Whenever we go out anywhere we always attract unnecessary attention from very forward and very creeper Italian men (such as the lovely one in the picture above). Although it may seem flattering, it is definitely not flattering to have Italian men very aggressively intrude on your personal space. Seriously considering wearing a hat every time I leave the apartment...

The Roman Way of Getting Things Accomplished...STRIKES!

Today I had my first Art History class, which was titled Cities, Towns, and Villas, and is actually more of an archeological class in which we tour around the city and learn the history of the monuments and the art from ancient Rome. Our first day included walking over to an area called the Circus Maximus, which is a huge grassy area where a large racetrack used to stand. While walking over there we started seeing a large crowd forming around the edge of the Circus. We then learned that the taxi drivers from Rome and surrounding cities, including Naples, were on strike and were protesting the government out in public. As we learned from our professor, striking is an art of the Romans and they always seem to be on strike for one thing or another. This is the way Italians accomplish things here, by force, which seems to be pretty universal for how they act in everyday life as well!

Got milk?

One of the funnier moments of our adventure to the Vatican today happened on our way down from the top of the dome. As we were walking down and came to an open terrace over looking the city, there was a small coffee shop. So we decided to go in and get a hot coffee or espresso or something warm. So we go in and I try and order in Italian and it fails miserably. One of the men who worked there sensed our tourism and asked us where we were from, when I said California he asked us what we wanted. Thinking it was a delicious white chocolate drink of some sort we both ordered the latte bianca. He paid for it and we got our drinks and took a sip...latte bianca apparently means hot, foamy milk because that is what we tasted in disgust. Feeling embarrassed and touristy we booked it to where the exit was to save ourselves some embarrassment. Guess you could say it was a bit different from Starbucks!

The holiest of places.

After Kelsey and I had our first Italian class at 10:30 this morning, we took a nice stroll over to Vatican City to see the Vatican. What an amazing spectacle it was. It is just awe inspiring to look at the Vatican and think about all of the history that has taken place there and all of the people who walked the same halls that we walked in times past. After viewing the inside and nearly breaking my neck from looking up so much we walked up to the top (which is a hefty 537 step walk) and had an incredible view of the Eternal City.

Our lovely abode..

Since I have not posted pictures of our apartment yet here are a few... I live in a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with 6 other girls. Kelsey is my roommate and our other roommates are just the nicest group of girls, we really lucked out with an awesome bunch of people! Our apartment is located in such a special area and is only 15 minutes from the Vatican, 15 minutes from the Coliseum, and 15 minutes to Campo di Fiori!

These boots are made for walkin' and walkin's what they do and...ummm...Jessica Simpson I don't know what you are talking about but boots are NOT made for walking here in Rome! Can you say blisters? The cobble stones here make for some pretty painful walking especially if you are sporting a pair of stiff boots. Since walking is the main mode of transportation, I am so thankful I brought a pair of comfortable and support shoes to get me places without as much pain. Wishing I had a personal masseuse to rub my sore feet...

Eating with Andy Steves and others at this great restaurant! They even had a wine called "Sexy Wine" (hence my pose) and it was so delicious it tasted like a gummy fruit snack.

One of my absolute favorite areas was the Coliseum and the area around it. There is a sense of awe when looking at the Coliseum that nobody can describe to you, you almost feel as if you have just time traveled back into the times of the Gladiators. The building itself is magnificent and the ruins that surround it are amazing, the fact that these foundations are still standing is incredible. If only walls could talk, I would love to know what the Coliseum's would say!

These are some of the pictures from the open bus tour we took yesterday. I had such a hard time only selecting a few pictures to put on here because they were all gorgeous! (Had to include the awkward self shot though haha)