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Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 10: Niente speciale (nothing special)

June 23, 2015/0 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Tonight’s blog post will be short because nothing too unusual happened today. In the morning, I stumbled my way through Italian class. (We’re learning passive voice verbs. Ugh!)

After class, I stopped in Chiesa Nuova for some quiet prayer time. I expected to be closed for the “riposo” (siesta), but it wasn’t. While I was there, I lit a candle and said some prayers for my aunt who passed away a couple days ago. I’m sorry I can’t be home for the funeral, but my mom and I agreed that praying for her in Rome is a pretty good substitute for actually being there.

Candle lit for my aunt in front of a painting of the Assumption of Mary at Chiesa Nuova. I think she’d like this painting. 🙂

Then I ate a quick lunch outside the church.

Afterward, I found the gelato spot that Katie and I had failed to find the night before. Turns out we had been only a few doors down from it when we gave up and turned around.

Then I went back to the apartment where I tried to ask Marcella about how to catch the bus to Siena on Saturday. Unfortunately, I was really having trouble understanding what she was saying. I got only a few words and then had to put those words together with the info I could find online.

After working on homework, I returned to school to meet Katie after her class. We went out to a bar with three of her classmates for some pre-dinner drinks. It was a very American sort of bar.

Then we went to the Tuesday night dinner organized by the school. We had a full meal with bruschetta, a main course (I had pizza with tuna), and then dessert. I was so full afterward I thought my stomach would burst. Thankfully, the restaurant was close to our apartments, so Katie and her roommate headed back to their apartment, and I returned to mine.

Pizza con tonno (pizza with tuna)! Who would’ve guessed this exists? Not me! But I like it!

That’s it. Simple day, right? But that’s okay because it’s still a day in Rome!

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 7: Cucinare (To Cook)

June 20, 2015/4 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Today I got to do something I’ve been waiting a year to do. Those of you who have been following me for a while may remember that during last year’s trip to Rome, I took a cooking class. However, it was not the cooking class I had originally wanted to take. I had been hoping to get into Chef Andrea’s Cooking Classes in Rome, but it was already booked for that one free Saturday that I had during my trip.

So this year when Katie and I started planning our trip back in February, I immediately said, “Let’s try to get into that cooking class in Rome that I couldn’t get into last year.” Well, it’s a good thing we booked it right away because Chef Andea’s classes book up at least three months in advance.

Chef Andrea’s school is located in the fashionable and family-friendly neighborhood of Trastevere, which (as its name implies in Italian) is just across the Tiber River from the center of Rome. Katie and I arrived a bit too early, so we stopped in a nearby bar for some coffee (cappuccino for me, caffe latte for her). Like proper Italians, we drank ours standing up at the bar. (Only 1 Euro! I love it!)

A different type of glass for each type of wine, plus a glass of water for good measure

When we walked into Chef Andrea’s school, four other students were already there, and the table was already set. Katie and I had opted for the additional wine pairings with each course, so there were four different wine glasses set up at our places. Chef Andrea came out of the kitchen to greet us and offered us coffee, some little pieces of toast with three different jams, and some really yummy pastries for breakfast.

Once everyone had arrived (a few people were a teensy bit late because they got lost even though their hotel was around the corner–just take that as a warning that it’s easy to pass by the small entrance to the school), Chef Andrea explained the menu for the day and then led us back to the kitchen.

The appetizers we made were Fiori di Zucca. These are zucchini flowers that we had to take the stamen out of. Then we stuffed them with things like prosciutto and mozzarella. They were later fried in a beer batter.

We even made a really yummy red pesto sauce for dipping the zucchini flowers. Super yummy! Seriously, I don’t have the words to describe how good this was. Even though the zucchini flowers were fried, they weren’t greasy or heavy, and the sauce was just heavenly.

Our first course was cavatelli pasta in a fresh tomato sauce. Katie and I helped to peel a lot of tomatoes for this sauce, but it was worth the messy hands covered in tomato guts. 🙂 We also had a lot of fun using our thumbs and these cool wooden paddles to roll the pasta into the cavatelli shape.

For our second course, we had Roman style chicken with peppers and roasted potatoes. Simple but very yummy. (Here’s the thing I’ve learned from the Italian cooking classes I’ve taken. They don’t load their food with tons of different ingredients and spices. Simple recipes with good, fresh ingredients make all the difference.)

Roman style chicken with peppers and roasted potato

Then for dessert we made tiramisu. Some of you know I’ve made this before using a recipe from a cookbook I bought in Rome last year. Good to do Chef Andrea’s recipe was the same. Hint: if you’re making your tiramisu with liquor, you’re making it wrong. Or at least, you must be planning on not finishing it soon, so you’re using the liquor as a preservative.

We each got a personalized dessert plate.

There were a total of twelve students in the class, and everyone was really nice. Chef Andrea is a lot of fun, and he takes his time to explain why the Italians cook the way they do. You’ll learn a lot and have a great time in his class.

The class started at 10:00 and went until at least 3:00, after which Katie and visited a few of the beautiful churches in the Trastevere neighborhood (Santa Maria in Trastevere, Santa Cecilia, and San Francesco a Ripa). Unfortunately, a wedding was just about to start at Santa Cecilia, so Katie and I will have to head back there some day.

Chef Andrea and me

If you find yourself in Rome and you enjoy cooking, try Chef Andrea’s Cooking Classes in Rome. You’ll have fun, learn something new, meet nice people, and eat some truly amazing food. Seriously. I wish I were better at describing food with words or that I could send some of it to all of you. Sorry. You’ll just have to come here yourselves.

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 3: Non posso parlare

June 16, 2015/7 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Today I lost the ability to speak Italian. Well, only briefly.

I did okay in class today. We had a student teacher visiting our room, and our teacher asked us (in Italian, of course), “Who is she?” A couple people made some guesses like “Un’amica?” (A friend?). However, since I’m a teacher myself, I know what it looks like when a student teacher visits a room, so I said, “Un’insegnante futuro?” (A future teacher?). However, I really should have used “futura” because it was a female student teacher. Oops. My Italian grammar is pretty bad when I’m speaking off the top of my head.

Despite that mistake, I felt like I did okay in class. We were working on verbs in different tenses, which is very hard for me in Italian (easy in English), but I think I finally figured out the difference between passato prossimo (which is like present perfect tense in English) and imperfetto (which is like simple past tense). At least, I hope I got that right.

My inability to speak Italian came after class today. I made arrangements to meet Katie in St. Peter’s Square so we could pick up tickets for tomorrow’s General Audience (when the Pope gives his weekly address to the public on whatever he’d like to talk about). The tickets are free and can be picked up via the Swiss Guards near St. Peter’s. I had done a little research on where to get them, but one website had given me bad intel, so we had to ask for help. Some nice police officers pointed us in the right direction.

Finally, Katie and I found a couple Swiss Guards on the south side of St. Peter’s. One was helping a family; the other was available. As we approached the available one, Katie said, “Scusa,” and I picked up with the Italian line I had been practicing in my head for the last five minutes: “Dove possiamo trovare i biglietti per l’udienza generale?” (Where can we find tickets for the General Audience?)

The problem was that the Swiss Guard was what my mother would call a “very nice looking young man.” So as I started to say my prepared sentence, I began to fumble over the words. “Dove . . .uh . . . possiamo trovare . . . uh . . . i biglietti . . per . . . ”

And the “molto carino” (very nice looking) Swiss Guard started to smile at my faltering Italian, which only made it worse, of course.

“Per . . .l’ude . . . l’u. . . l’uda.” I gave up with a sigh. “The General Audience?”

The Swiss Guard smiled some more and pulled some papers out of his pocket. At which point, Katie exclaimed in English, “Wait! You have them in your pocket!?!”

“Quanti?” he asked. How many?

“Quattro,” Katie and I both responded in Italian. Her two roommates may come with us tomorrow.

He handed over four blue tickets, and we thanked him in Italian. Well, I may have been rendered a bit speechless by a Swiss Guard, but at least he didn’t start speaking English with us.

After shopping at the “Catholic Costco” and a quick bite to eat at a pizza-by-the-slice (pizza al taglio) place, Katie and I parted ways. She headed off to class, and I returned to my apartment. I had told my teacher that I would be missing class, and she told me what pages to look at in the workbook, so I wanted to start on them.

After a couple hours of working on Italian, I headed out to Santa Maria dell’Anime, the German language church that I had visited last year. It was one of my epiphany moments last year, so you can read a bit more about it in last year’s blog post. I got a little more prayer time in this year.

Then I met Katie and one of her roommates at school after their afternoon classes. We headed over to Santa Maria sopra Minvera, the church where St. Catherine of Siena is buried. (Or at least, where her body is entombed. We’ll see her head when we’re in Siena. Not creepy at all, right?)

Then we headed back to school where you can meet up with a teacher and other students for an optional dinner outing. They walk us to a local restaurant where they have worked out a special price for us. It’s not a bad deal. Sixteen Euros for wine, water, an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert. We had five different types of bruschetta, a choice of main courses (I had spaghetti alla carbonara), and then a choice of four different desserts (I had profiteroles, which are pastries with gelato inside, kind of like an eclair, and often with whipped cream and chocolate sauce on top).

Yum!

Off to bed kind of early tonight for the big General Audience at St. Peter’s tomorrow!

How to Buy Fruit in Rome

September 21, 2014/0 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

In honor of Monica over at Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families who is headed to Rome for a twelve-day pilgrimage, here’s what I learned about how to buy fruit at a supermarket in Rome. This came in very handy during my last trip to Rome as my lunches were often on-the-go and consisted of a piece of fruit, a granola/protein/fiber bar, and some gelato.

The first thing you should know about a Roman supermarket is that they are not huge like they are in the U.S. They are more the size of a 7-Eleven. However, they do carry fresh produce. When picking out fruit or vegetables, be sure to use the plastic gloves and plastic bags that are supplied. They don’t want you touching the food without gloves on your hands.

While bagging the fruit, check for a number on the sign that says “tasto” next to it. Not actually sure what “tasto” means, but it’s some kind of identifying number. For example, the golden apples (mele golden) in the picture below are “tasto 5.”

The “tasto” number is in the upper left on this sign for golden apples (“mele”).

Take your bag to the weighing station. Then just hit the number for your item. For example, for the golden apples above, I simply pressed number 5.

Press the “tasto” number you want.

The machine will spit out a little sticker that gives the price for those items based on their weight. Put the sticker on your bag, and you are ready to head to the cashier.

Here’s the sticker for my golden apples!

Really a pretty simple process once you get the hang of it, and a great way to buy fresh fruit and veggies while in Rome.

And don’t forget to check out Monica’s website as she’s the official blogger for this pilgrimage she’s on. Can’t wait to hear all about her fantastic adventures!

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