Ciao, ragazzi!
Continuing backwards in time! However, since I remember things from the end better, and they were more fun anyway, I may trail off at some point and never get to the first few weeks. But that's okay, because I updated about them (sort of) at the time.
Last time we talked I was leaving for Perugia on Friday morning on exactly zero hours of sleep. Why on earth did I do something so ridiculous as that?
Since Thursday night was the last night of the program, I wanted to go out and spend time with program people, and I really wished I had done more of that earlier. I was invited to dinner by my friend Carolyn, who was going to this place called Il Latini with a group of people I didn't know very well, but it sounded like fun so I decided to go along. She had mentioned that the place was slightly upscale, but we figured we could manage under 20 euro if we just had an entree and no wine. Not so! When we got there it turned out that it was a 35 euro all-you-can-eat-and-drink meal, with many courses and unlimited wine. At first I was a little miffed at having to pay so much money for one meal, but once the courses started rolling in (and the wine started pouring in), I was a little happier. Before we get to the food description, let me point out that there were thirteen of us at this last supper. When we were outside the restaurant I mentioned that if 13 people sit down to dinner the first to get up will be the first to die, but this girl Katie was like, "Sure, Professor Trelawney," and that made me happy. Later more appropriate references were made when this guy Byron (Byron Bonaparthe -- you need to get the full effect of his name) made a toast and held up a piece of bread and a glass of wine, saying "This is my body, this is my blood." Actually, maybe I meant to say less appropriate references (for what it's worth, this guy Byron is totally bizarre and for some completely mystifying reason has a flock of girls constantly around him, who constituted most of the rest of the dinner company). For the first appetizer-type thing they brought us prosciutto with canteloupe, but at this point I was still trying to figure out if there was a less expensive option so I asked if they did a vegetarian version of the meal. They didn't give us a cheaper menu, but they did bring out mozzarella and tomato for those of us who don't like prosciutto so much. YUM, mozzarella! After that came the pasta course, one dish of baked ziti with meat sauce and the other of cheese ravioli, my favorite. Everyone started drinking a lot of wine, too -- it was quite a spectacle, especially since I didn't know these people that well. Just when we were all feeling very full, the waitor brought out two massive platters of steak as the main course. This steak was delicious, possibly the best I've ever had -- and I didn't even expect to like it that much, because I wasn't really in a carnivorous mood. Unfortuantely since I was so stuffed I didn't get to finish mine, but I did enjoy the few bites of it I had. After the steak, they let us sit for a while and then brought out biscotti (something like it, anyway) and dessert wine to dip it in. The dessert wine was so stong, I only dipped into it once and then gave up. Then, my absolutely favorite part of the meal, they brought us champagne and vanilla gelato with fresh strawberries. It was heavenly. I was so full, but the dessert was so good that I had no trouble finishing it all. Oh, those strawberries!
Anyway, a quick sobriety status update for the end of dinner: most people in our party were quite drunk by this point, having taken full advantage of the bottomless wine carafes. I probably had two glasses of red wine and a glass of champagne, which would normally be a lot for me but I guess there was just so much food, it didn't affect me very much at all. After dinner I went by myself to Capucaccia, the bar on the Arno that I went to once before, because my roommates had said they'd be there with a lot of program people. And they were indeed! Pretty soon after I got there we trooped over to this place called Astor, which is a bar/dance place right by the Duomo. It was pretty intense, because it was so crowded and there were so many sketchy Italian guys in there trying to dance with the American girls. They wouldn't leave us alone, even when we told them we weren't interested -- they just kept following us everywhere and telling us how much they liked us and how bellissima we were. A lot of the boys on our program actually had to whisk us away and dance with us themselves to rescue us from the Italian boys. :p I danced with one particular boy Will quite a bit, and we ended up spending the rest of the time together. We hung out with Freddy and Jen and Mike for a couple hours at one point (Freddy is the one who knows people at Swat through a student free culture movement, is minoring in my dad's department at NYU, and has the same birthday as me), which was SO much fun and I wish I had gotten to know them all this well earlier. The last night was kind of bittersweet overall -- on the one hand it was very fun, but on the other hand it was almost too little, too late. Why get to know people eighty-seven times better the night before you're never going to see each other again? I do think, though, that it was better late than never, and I'm glad I had a fun night to remember Italy by. I was often lonely on this program, but the happiness of the last week makes that less important somehow.
And that was Thursday. Next up: Italian class dinner on the last Monday night of the program. Descriptions of food will be involved. ;)
Last time we talked I was leaving for Perugia on Friday morning on exactly zero hours of sleep. Why on earth did I do something so ridiculous as that?
Since Thursday night was the last night of the program, I wanted to go out and spend time with program people, and I really wished I had done more of that earlier. I was invited to dinner by my friend Carolyn, who was going to this place called Il Latini with a group of people I didn't know very well, but it sounded like fun so I decided to go along. She had mentioned that the place was slightly upscale, but we figured we could manage under 20 euro if we just had an entree and no wine. Not so! When we got there it turned out that it was a 35 euro all-you-can-eat-and-drink meal, with many courses and unlimited wine. At first I was a little miffed at having to pay so much money for one meal, but once the courses started rolling in (and the wine started pouring in), I was a little happier. Before we get to the food description, let me point out that there were thirteen of us at this last supper. When we were outside the restaurant I mentioned that if 13 people sit down to dinner the first to get up will be the first to die, but this girl Katie was like, "Sure, Professor Trelawney," and that made me happy. Later more appropriate references were made when this guy Byron (Byron Bonaparthe -- you need to get the full effect of his name) made a toast and held up a piece of bread and a glass of wine, saying "This is my body, this is my blood." Actually, maybe I meant to say less appropriate references (for what it's worth, this guy Byron is totally bizarre and for some completely mystifying reason has a flock of girls constantly around him, who constituted most of the rest of the dinner company). For the first appetizer-type thing they brought us prosciutto with canteloupe, but at this point I was still trying to figure out if there was a less expensive option so I asked if they did a vegetarian version of the meal. They didn't give us a cheaper menu, but they did bring out mozzarella and tomato for those of us who don't like prosciutto so much. YUM, mozzarella! After that came the pasta course, one dish of baked ziti with meat sauce and the other of cheese ravioli, my favorite. Everyone started drinking a lot of wine, too -- it was quite a spectacle, especially since I didn't know these people that well. Just when we were all feeling very full, the waitor brought out two massive platters of steak as the main course. This steak was delicious, possibly the best I've ever had -- and I didn't even expect to like it that much, because I wasn't really in a carnivorous mood. Unfortuantely since I was so stuffed I didn't get to finish mine, but I did enjoy the few bites of it I had. After the steak, they let us sit for a while and then brought out biscotti (something like it, anyway) and dessert wine to dip it in. The dessert wine was so stong, I only dipped into it once and then gave up. Then, my absolutely favorite part of the meal, they brought us champagne and vanilla gelato with fresh strawberries. It was heavenly. I was so full, but the dessert was so good that I had no trouble finishing it all. Oh, those strawberries!
Anyway, a quick sobriety status update for the end of dinner: most people in our party were quite drunk by this point, having taken full advantage of the bottomless wine carafes. I probably had two glasses of red wine and a glass of champagne, which would normally be a lot for me but I guess there was just so much food, it didn't affect me very much at all. After dinner I went by myself to Capucaccia, the bar on the Arno that I went to once before, because my roommates had said they'd be there with a lot of program people. And they were indeed! Pretty soon after I got there we trooped over to this place called Astor, which is a bar/dance place right by the Duomo. It was pretty intense, because it was so crowded and there were so many sketchy Italian guys in there trying to dance with the American girls. They wouldn't leave us alone, even when we told them we weren't interested -- they just kept following us everywhere and telling us how much they liked us and how bellissima we were. A lot of the boys on our program actually had to whisk us away and dance with us themselves to rescue us from the Italian boys. :p I danced with one particular boy Will quite a bit, and we ended up spending the rest of the time together. We hung out with Freddy and Jen and Mike for a couple hours at one point (Freddy is the one who knows people at Swat through a student free culture movement, is minoring in my dad's department at NYU, and has the same birthday as me), which was SO much fun and I wish I had gotten to know them all this well earlier. The last night was kind of bittersweet overall -- on the one hand it was very fun, but on the other hand it was almost too little, too late. Why get to know people eighty-seven times better the night before you're never going to see each other again? I do think, though, that it was better late than never, and I'm glad I had a fun night to remember Italy by. I was often lonely on this program, but the happiness of the last week makes that less important somehow.
And that was Thursday. Next up: Italian class dinner on the last Monday night of the program. Descriptions of food will be involved. ;)