Italy Archives - Page 3 of 4 - A.J. Cattapan

Tag Archive for: Italy

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 16: Siamo stanche e sporche (We are tired and dirty)

June 29, 2015/0 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Last night, I left off with our leaving Siena, so I’ll start today with a quick recap of our arrival in Florence yesterday afternoon.

The bus from Siena to Florence took a little over an hour and dropped us off at the main train station. We were told by our school that we could take a taxi to our apartment, but we couldn’t seem to find one on the street. There was no obvious taxi stand, so Katie researched taxi numbers on the travel ebook on her phone and called two different cab companies. One never answered, the other hung up on her. Finally, we found a cabbie who had just dropped off someone at the train station.

Katie wanted to make sure he started the meter running so we could watch the price, so she said something like, “Quanto deniro?”

The cabbie laughed. “Deniro?”

“That’s espanol,” I said. “You want soldi–money.”

The cabbie laughed again and started the meter. When we got to the street with the apartment, the cabbie turned left, but our apartment was to the right, so he ended up driving backwards across the intersection!

Katie tried to tell him he could stop and we’d just walk the rest of the way, but she said, “Andiamo, signor,” which can mean “We go, sir,” but it also has the meaning of “Let’s go!”

The cabbie thought Katie was telling him to drive backwards faster! Ha! Then he started saying in no-uncertain Italian that we should not say that. It was “brutta” (ugly) to say that. He took it all in good humor, though, and even gave us his card and a free map of Florence when he dropped us off.

The apartment is two floors up in a building without an elevator, so just like in Siena, we had to drag our luggage up a bunch of stairs. The cleaning lady met us at the apartment. She was still cleaning the place, but showed us around in a mixture of English and Italian. If you haven’t already seen the photos I’ve posted, the apartment has a bunch of books in it, which is perfect for a high school librarian and an English teacher/writer.

Books, book, and more books!

After we unpacked, we decided to walk to Il Latini for dinner. It was recommended by my Italian teacher back home and in my guidebook. It’s the busy kind of place where they seat you wherever there’s room, so Katie and I ended up next to a couple from New York who had just spent a week in Florence for a friend’s wedding. We had really good gnocchi with rabbit (that’s right, I ate rabbit) and then some roast chicken, which wasn’t that great, but the nice couple from New York let us sample the very expensive steak they had ordered, and it was amazing. (We shared our wine bottle with them in exchange.)

Gnocchi with rabbit was the special pasta of the day

For desssert, we had zuppa inglese, which was good, but we wouldn’t have ordered it if we’d known that the waiter was going to break us biscotti and Vin Santo (cookies that you dip in sweet wine) as well as some limoncello. Mamma mia!

A recap of our meal at Il Latini

By the time we got home, we were exhausted. I finished my Siena blog post and went to bed.

This morning, we headed to the language school in Florence. My map app didn’t give us the best directions, and we got there a little late, but that’s okay. They immediately gave me a short written test (different and shorter than the Rome location). Then I headed to the interview room. A guy immediately took my written test, corrected it, and asked me some questions. I also showed him my book from Rome, so he could see what I finished.Thenn I was immediately whisked off to a classroom. It was a little after 9:00 at this time, so class had just started. At thiss point, I had no idea what had happened to Katie. She had been in line behind me at the desk.

The Florence school has different books than the Rome school even though they are the same company. I’m not exactly sure how the levels compare, but I’m in the middle of their “Intermedio 1” book, and we’re working on passato prossimo and imperfetto verbs and prepositions so it seems to be right where I was before. This is fine because I need lots of practice with all of these. Prepositions are really hard because different languages don’t have exact translations and synonyms between them. I’ve noticed this a lot with my students who speak other languages. I even made my teacher laugh today when I let out an exasperated, “Ugh! Preposizioni!” while trying to write a story in Italian.

Katie and I met up at break time. She didn’t have to take a test. They just put her in an early beginner class because she’d had only two weeks of instruction in Rome. We followed the students (and my teacher) to a nearby bar to get our morning coffee (cappuccino for me, caffe latte for Katie) and some chocolate croissants.

Eating breakfast just like the Italians do!

Back in class, we worked on more exercises with verbs. There are only seven of us in this class, and they all seem really quiet. There’s a girl from Ireland, a girl from Japan, a girl from Australia, a boy from Germany, and a couple others I’m forgetting!

After class, Katie and I went to the Mercato Centrale, which reminded me of that big French market that’s in downtown Chicago. Lots of different stands with fruit, veggies, meat, fish. Katie and I bought some sandwiches, dried fruit, and bottled water, which we took to a park that’s on our way home and had a little picnic lunch, which probably sounds really fun, but it was hot out and the pigeons were after our food!

In the afternoon, we wanted to go to a laundromat because we were both running out of clean clothes, but we were so tired that we both ended up napping for a bit once we returned to the apartment. Katie napped longer than I did, so I had time to work on my homework.

Finally, we headed out to the “Wash and Dry” (yes, it was in English), and Katie and I learned how pricey laundromats in Florence could be. The good news was that it included the detergent, and our clothes smell really good now.

Wash and Dry, anyone?

Too bad we still can’t seem to get our feet clean. Ha! I woke up this morning with these black marks on top of my feet. They were even dirtier than the day we’d made the trek around the dusty ruins of Ostia Antica. I’m not sure how that happened. They are doing reconstruction work on our apartment building. (There’s scaffolding right outside my window, so I can’t even open it, but I think the sawdust or whatever is still working its way into our apartment.)

While our clothes were washing, Katie and I took turns going to the local supermarket.

After our laundry was finished, I made a pasta dinner back at the apartment with the goods I’d bought at the store. Last year when I did my Speak, Pray, Cook tour, one of my original goals was to cook in Italy like a real Italian woman. I never got to cook in my apartment because the landlady didn’t seem to want me using her kitchen other than to store a few things in her fridge, so this year I can say that I checked another goal off my list–I made an Italian dinner in an Italian apartment!

Dinner!

For dessert, we had cherries that Katie bought. They were really yummy! (And my dad will be happy that we’re having fruit for dessert–real Italian, right, Dad?)

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 13: Roma è la mia “montagna.” (Rome is my mountain.)

June 26, 2015/0 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

When people think of Rome, they often think of its seven hills, but after today I will always think of it as a mountain–my personal mountain. This may make you think of my post from Monday when I was talking about the uphill climb I’m having learning Italian, but I have a totally different meaning in mind this time. As Fraulein Maria would say, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”

This morning I told my landlady that I could not believe it was my last day at school in Rome. As I walked the familiar streets to school, I thought about what I would do on my last afternoon in Rome. Perhaps I would go to visit the churches I couldn’t see with Katie a couple nights ago. She had gone with some friends yesterday morning while I was in class. Maybe I could take some time this afternoon to make my own visit. It’s always nice to go back and visit old friends.

But when I got to class this morning, I quickly discovered that my plans would have to change. Only one other student was there. By the time the teacher arrived, only three of us students were in the room. The teacher then explained that there was a strike going on today for bus drivers and Metro operators, so probably a lot of students would be late or not show up at all.

Uh oh. So much for visiting those churches on the other side of town.

During our morning break, I got my last Roman cappuccino at the best bar (a.k.a. coffeeshop) near school. After downing it quickly (it’s a very busy place during the school’s break time), I walked to the piazza in front of school to eat a snack. I was kind of sad. My plans for the day were ruined.

Suddenly, a voice deep inside me said, “You don’t have to run all over. You can find me close by.”

Oh.

Right.

Visiting old churches is like visiting old friends, but I don’t have to go to them to find God. He is everywhere–in the churches far from me and in the churches close to me; in the people I see in class and in the people I pass on the street; in the museums and in the coffee bar.

Then I began to wonder if this meant I shouldn’t have traveled to Italy at all. I can meet God at home, too. But then I remembered that even Jesus had to take time away from his friends and family to go off alone on a mountain to pray. He needed to be away from the ordinary, away from the crowds that always wanted his attention in the cities or along the shore, away even from the people He loved so much. He went to the mountain to talk with His father, to have that close relationship that comes from time dedicated solely to nourishing that bond.

Rome has become my mountain. It is the place I go to when I need to reconnect with God in a way that is different from my ordinary prayers. I can’t spend forever here, just like Jesus couldn’t remain on top of the mountain, but it is good for me to come here occasionally (and I’m extremely blessed to be able to do so), so that I can have that experience away from the ordinary.

In the months leading up to this trip, all my free time outside of work was spent on marketing for my book. I’d been warned that the real work for authors comes *after* writing the book. It was exhausting to be sure and consumed much of my time. This trip forced me to take a break from all that marketing, a break I think I really needed. It’s easy to get caught up in Goodreads reviews and Amazon rankings.

Today’s bus strike forced me to take a break from playing tourist, too. I spent a long time in Chiesa Nuova this afternoon (a church near school). Partly I just sat, partly I prayed. I wrote a good amount in my prayer journal, and for a while I just listened to some music on the “meditation” playlist on my phone.

Chiesa Nuova

When I hit “shuffle,” the first song that came up was “Oceans” by Hillsong United. It was a song my spiritual director had recommended to me last year when I was learning to trust in God’s plan, and it was the perfect meditation song in the church. And God was there–in the church near school. I’m sure if I had traveled to those other churches, I would’ve found Him there, too. But it’s nice to know it’s okay if I don’t make it to the Scala Santa or Santa Maria Maggiore on this trip.

Tomorrow I head to Siena, and God will meet me there, too. 🙂

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 12: Il Tempo Vola (Time flies)

June 25, 2015/0 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

How could it possibly be that I have only one more full day left in Rome? Where did the time go? I’m sure to my mother it must seem like I’ve been away forever, and while I miss my family, I still feel like the time has flown by really quickly. These two weeks seem a lot shorter than the two weeks I spent here last summer for the Speak, Pray, Cook tour.

This morning’s class was on family relationships and the “ne” partitive. It’s difficult to explain because we don’t have any exact synonym in English. It’s like a pronoun and can be something like “any” or “of those.” For example, if someone asked you how many apples you wanted, you could say, “Ne prendo 6.” (Of those I’ll take six.)

After class, I headed to the Musei Capitolini, which is a pair of museums on the Capitoline Hill. I only ended up visiting one of the two museums since I like to appreciate my art in smaller doses. Here are a couple things I saw. (Hopefully, the pics turn out right-side up.)

Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf:

Medusa:

Caravaggio’s Gypsy Fortune-Teller (Notice how she’s pretending to read his palm. Apparently, she’s actually stealing his ring.)

The views from the museum are pretty nice, too.

Then I stopped by the Trevi Fountain to discover that it is still under renovation.

Then I bused it out to the train station Katie and I will be taking on Saturday to get to Siena. I’m really glad I went there ahead of time to get the tickets, because it’s a major station with inter-city trains, Metro trains, city buses, and inter-city buses. I’ll be much more relaxed Saturday morning knowing that our tickets are purchased, and I know right where to go.

After class today, I met up with Katie and some of her classmates. Someone in their class had brought up Giolitti’s, which is a famous gelato place I’ve been to many times in the last year. I had told Katie we should go, and when her classmate brought it up again today, she asked if today could be the day we visit it. Why not! We don’t have much time left in Rome!

So six of us headed out to Giolitti’s with me leading the way since I’m the only one in the group who had been there before. When we turned the corner, I said, “Uh oh, this doesn’t look good.”

There was a film crew blocking the street right in front of Giolitti’s. Those of you around for Speak, Pray, Cook last year, might remember the day I walked across Ponte Sant’Angelo while they were filming a TV show. I wondered if this was another TV show or a movie.

We couldn’t see much of what was going on, and we debated where we should go next since Giolitti’s seemed out of the question. But then one of the crew guys told us they were leaving, and we’d be able to get in soon.

Sure enough, they lifted the yellow tape five minutes later, and there was a rush into Giolitti’s. (It really is popular and always crowded.)

So there I am, fighting the crowd to get my limoncello and raspberry gelato, as the film crew wraps up their cables and picks up their dolly tracks. As soon as I get my cone, I turn around and see two of the other girls from our group.

“You just missed Ben Stiller,” one of them says.

“What?!?”

“He was seated right over there.” She points to a table just a few feet from us. “And then he walked right past us.” She holds up her phone and shows me a picture she snatched with about 60% of Ben Stiller showing.

Yep. I was so distracted by gelato that I missed the fact I was standing within feet of Ben Stiller.

After our gelato escapade, we headed to Campo de’ Fiori to check out the action, and then had dinner at my favorite wine bar, Mimi e Coco. Last, but not least, we found a liquor store handing out free samples of limoncello. Only in Italy.

Tonight I’m back at the apartment where I spent a few minutes out on my balcony overlooking the northern Roman hills. I can’t believe my time here is almost over. It seems like I waited for so long to return here, and sometimes I need to nearly pinch myself to realize I’m really here. I’m actually typing my blog post at this ancient little desk while the Roman teenagers hang out in front of the school across the street.

While I’m sad that my time in Rome is nearly at an end, I can comfort myself that I still have adventures in Siena, Florence, and Madrid to look forward to.

Buona notte, tutti!

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 5: Non funziona (It doesn’t work)

June 18, 2015/0 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Last night I couldn’t finish my blog post because the wifi in my apartment seemed to cut out. After a frustrating hour or so, I went to bed around midnight. Four hours later I wa awakened by a weird nightmare involving Harry Potter and zombies (I blame it on that Harry Potter Lego statue I saw the other night and posted on Facebook and Instagram).

To make it even worse, the wind blew the French doors off my balcony open, and I awoke from my nightmare convinced someone had entered my room. However, that would have been impossible. The doorway to my balcony has these heavy wooden-slat type of blinds that come down at night. They only be lifted from the inside, and there is only enough room between the slats to let a little air in. Also, I’m up on the seventh floor. No way is someone getting onto my balcony, much less through the wooden slats.

Nonetheless, by the time I’d come to this rational thought, I was completely awake and couldn’t fall back asleep until it was nearly time to wake up again.

When my alarm went off, I begrudgingly awakened. I got even crankier when I realized the wifi still wasn’t working. I decided to leave for school a little early to see if I could get my blog to post via the wifi there. However, the wifi wasn’t working in my classroom either.

During break, I took my iPad to the hallway. Up and down I walked trying to get a wifi signal. Finally, I found a weak signal in the stairwell. However, it was going too slowly and didn’t finish before the break ended.

After class, I tried again, but I was still having difficulty. The signal seemed to have disappeared from the stairwell. Finally, I got reconnected and posted the blog, but by this time, I was incredibly tired (given the five or so hours I’d had of sleep) and really hungry.

After grabbing a quick lunch, I returned home to drop off my school stuff and ran off to meet Katie. We had tickets for the Scavi tour at St. Peter’s. Only a small number of people can take this tour each day, and you have to request your tickets in advance. The tour takes you two levels below St. Peter’s to the necropolis (city of the dead, or cemetery) that was on the original Vatican hill. This is where St. Peter was buried. Constantine wanted to build a monument for St. Peter, so he had the old cemetery hill covered with dirt so that the land would be leveled off for the monument. Then a church was built around the monument. Twelve hundred years later, a pope decided it was time for a new church, and it was built on top of the old one. This is the current St. Peter’s that we know today. The old church underneath it is where many of the old popes are now buried.

The tour took us through the excavated part of the old necropolis (think family mausoleum after family mausoleum) right up to where they believe St. Peter was buried. Then we went up a level to where the monument to him was built. On the wall there are prayers people wrote. There is also writing that says something like “Peter is here.”

Finally, we were free to walk around the “old church” level where the popes are now buried and then up to the current-day basilica. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures during the Scavi tour, but I got this nice shot of St. Peter’s before we left.

Homework and dinner in the our neighborhood tonight. Here’s hoping the wifi works tomorrow, or you may not see a blog post from me again for a bit. I’m typing this one in Katie’s apartment. 🙂

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 4: Nulla Pazza (Nothing crazy)

June 18, 2015/2 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Last year, I was blessed to see Pope Francis give the General Audience while on I was on pilgrimage (btw, check out The Catholic Traveler for great Catholic pilgrimages). After Katie and I got our tickets for the General Audience, we started making plans for where and when to meet. Last year, my pilgrimage leader had us lining up at 7:00 a.m., and without giving away any of his secret methods, let’s just say we ended up with perfect seats that may have involved me nearly tripping over a woman and her children, as well as nearly accidentally body-slamming a Swiss Guard. Okay, I exaggerate. A little.

After describing to Katie how we got such great seats, we came to the decision that we wouldn’t do anything crazy to get seats. We were okay with meeting at 8:00 a.m. instead of 7:00 a.m., and if we didn’t get seats in the front row of the second section, that was okay, too. We’d be happy with any sort of perimeter seat where we’d get a nice drive-by from Pope Francis.

So at 8:00 a.m, I met Katie and her roommate at a piazza near St. Peter’s, and then we walked the rest of the way to the square together. There seemed to be a long line ahead of us. We shrugged it off. Oh well.

Then Katie’s roommate said, “I think we’re actually in the wrong line. I see people going on up ahead. I’ll go check it out.” To make a long story short, we think we were actually standing in line for the group of people who get seats up on the stage with Pope Francis. Oops.

So we left that line and soon found ourselves at the security checkpoint. A quick scan of our bags (was anyone even looking?), and we were in the square. They hadn’t even opened the second section of seats yet, and the first section only had people sitting around the perimeter. The center was all empty. Hmm. I guess the square doesn’t fill up as much when there isn’t a huge canonization happening the next Sunday.

So we waited near the front of the second section after the guards told us they wouldn’t open it until the first section filled. Slowly, more people filled in the first section, but more people also milled around the second section like we did. The three of us wondered where exactly they would open up the barricades for us to enter.

Suddenly, we heard shouts from behind us. The guards had opened the second section from the back, directly opposite us, and a crowd of German high school students were running directly for the seats that were just on the other side of the barricade from us–a mere two feet from us. There was no way we could run all the way around the barricade and get any sort of decent seats. They would all be taken by then.

“Throw your bags over the barricade and onto those seats!” I yelled to my companions.

Then the British girl and I lifted the white sheet that hangs in front of the wooden barricade.

“I’ll try to climb through,” said the British girl. The barricade has wooden beams crossed like an X. She tried to crawl through the lowest opening in the X because it was hard to lift the white sheet very high. She got halfway through and said, “I can’t make it!”

Peering over the barricade, I spotted the Germans. They were halfway to our seats by now.

Ducking down, I lifted the white sheet higher. “I’m going for one of these side pockets,” I announced. I thrust my head through the “hole” at the right side of the X. I figured if I got half my body through, the other half could follow.

Did I mention I was wearing a denim pencil skirt while doing this?

“Are you kidding me?” cried Katie. “You’re actually going to fit through there!?!”

With my head and right arm through, I grabbed hold of the plastic gray chair I’d thrown my purse on.

“Yep!” I cried to Katie, and with nothing but sheer determination, I wiggled my body through the opening. The British girl followed my example.

“I can’t believe you two just did that! I mean, I’m glad you did, but I’m going to walk around now.”

The British girl and I sat across the three chairs we’d thrown our purses on and waited for Katie.

What was that about not doing anything crazy to get those front row, second section seats?

There had been threats of rain on all the weather maps, but the morning ended up so sunny, we put on sunscreen used my umbrella for shade. The pope talked about how death affects families (you can find his talk online, I’m sure), and we got a really nice, slow drive-by from Pope Francis. Check out my Facebook page for the video.

The afternoon was spent mostly working on homework. Then in the evening, I took the school’s guided tour of Isola Tiberina, which is a tiny island located in the middle of the Tiber River. For those of you who read the Speak, Pray, Cook blog posts last year, you may remember this as the island where I had my cooking class.

After the tour, I went out to dinner with ten other students, a fun collection of people from the U.S., Turkey, Russia, and Bulgaria!

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!

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 2: Il primo giorno di scuola

June 15, 2015/2 Comments/in Travel/by AJ Cattapan

Today was the first day of school. I met Katie and her two British roommates at a corner on the way to school. It was fun to walk the old path to school and say, “Buongiorno, San Pietro!” while crossing Via della Conciliazione. Again, I was amazed that I’ve returned successfully. Even as I sit typing this at the desk in my room, I find it hard to believe I’m really here again. In some ways, it seems like just yesterday that I sat here typing out my blog posts. At other times, it feels like I’m in a dream as I sit here. Perhaps it’s the jetlag!

At school, there was a long line of students waiting to check in. The two Brits and I took the test to see where we would be placed. It seemed to be the same written exam as last year. Then there was a brief oral exam, which was basically just to hear us talk and see how well we understood spoken Italian. Listening in a foreign language has always been very difficult for me. Half the time, I catch just enough words to guess at what the person is saying, and then I just hope I didn’t miss an important word that would completely change the meaning.

After our exams, we had over an hour to kill before our results, so I went with Katie and the Brits because they had to pay for their apartment. The guy who runs their housing accomodations recommended a place where we could get good fruit smoothies. They were indeed good, but I got my red smoothie onto my white shirt! Katie and I thoroughly impressed our new British friends with our Tide-to-go sticks and our Shout wipes, which almost completely removed the red spots from my white shirt. Apparently, they have no such things in England. This is why I love coming here! You meet people from all over and learn something new!

When we returned to get our class assignments, I was put in a morning class. Basically, I’m right where I had left off last summer, which is fine with me. I’m just glad I didn’t regress! Katie and her roommates all have afternoon classes, so after my class, I did a little grocery shopping (sandwich for lunch, yogurt and fruit for breakfast tomorrow) and headed back to the apartment to read and rest for a bit.

A piazza near school

Then at 3:30 I headed out to meet up with a Roman woman I met while in Guatemala on my spring break trip! We had exchanged info at the end of our trip. We spoke Italian together, or at least I tried as best I could. Her Italian (like all the other natives) is pretty fast for me. We stopped for a drink where I ordered Chinotto (an Italian cola), and another Roman friend of hers came to chat with us. After an hour or so, I had to leave to meet up with Katie.

Back at the school, we attended an orientation meeting and then went out to dinner at Polese, a restaurant I’d eaten at during last year’s pilgrimage as well as my solo trip last summer. Seriously, the best bruschetta ever.

After dinner we had gelato (gelati, veramente) and sat in the piazza watching the children play. The weather during the day was cloudy and humid with a bit of rain, but the evening was absolutely beautiful with clear skies and a light breeze. A truly gorgeous night in Rome.

One of Katie’s roommates said, “I’m already getting sad about the idea of leaving here.” And she gets to stay a whole month!

I replied, “You see why I came back here.”

“I’m surprised you ever left,” she said.

Mom, if you’re reading this, don’t worry. I’m still not moving to Rome, but I sure do like it here!

Mi Piace, Mi Gusta – Day 1: Sona a Casa

June 14, 2015/4 Comments/in Travel, Uncategorized/by AJ Cattapan

Welcome to “Mi Piace, Mi Gusta”! (Mi Piace is Italian for “I like” and Mi Gusta is the same in Spanish.)

Well, this trip started out with a whimper. On the way to the airport, I got a call from my friend Katie, who was already there. Our flights (ORD to PHL, PHL to FCO/Rome) were both cancelled. They had been fine an hour earlier when I’d checked online at home.

Some polite begging at the desk got us transferred to another airline with a direct flight to Rome. The only problem is that we were seven hours early for that flight. Oh well, we’ll eat a meal (or two) at the airport. Our new flight was scheduled to leave at 6:20, but we soon found out it was delayed and wouldn’t leave until after 10:00.

The funniest thing that happened at the airport occurred as we were going through security. Katie had wanted to bring some peanut butter for her lunches. They don’t have peanut butter in Italy (a fact that truly worries peanut butter lovers like Katie, me, and Cardinal Dolan). When Katie ran out of room in her luggage, she stuck it in her carry-on. Yeah, guess what counts as a “liquid”? Peanut butter! Out went the brand-new, still-sealed jar at the security point! Katie invited the security guard to eat it himself, but he said he couldn’t.

After nearly 12 hours at the airport, we left on our direct flight. Apparently, there had been a fire at the international terminal in Rome back in May, but they are still recovering. When we landed at four this afternoon, the employees at Terminal 3 at Fiumicino were all wearing gas masks.

Using my landlady’s advice from last year, we took a coach bus into the city. From there, we walked several blocks to Katie’s apartment, which she is sharing with two Brits. Only one of whom was at the apartment already. We chatted with her for a bit (she seems lovely), and then headed over to my apartment, which is 7-8 blocks away.

My landlady was very happy to see me again. Like real Italians, we kissed each other on the cheek. She even insisted on the same with Katie. Then she made us coffee, and we chatted as best we could. Katie speaks Spanish, and apparently so does my landlady, so we had an interesting tri-lingual conversation. Mostly Italian with some Spanish from Katie, and a little English between me and Katie.

My landlady had some funny stories to tell us about a previous tenant who didn’t seem to ever use to shower, and kept mistakenly using the bidet as a toilet even though she was left messages in Italian, English, and her native language not to do so. Ha!

Katie and I enjoyed a nice pasta dinner, ate some gelato at one of my favorite gelato places (Old Bridge), and then sat for a bit in front of St. Peter’s. Tomorrow we head off to class. I will have to take a test to see what class they put me in. Katie will go in the beginner’s class.

Sono a casa. I am home.

The thought that keeps running through my mind is that I can’t believe I am really here. Last year, on my last night in Rome, I spent a long time in front of St. Peter’s praying that I would one day come back. Who knew that it would be so soon! Grazie a Dio! Thanks be to God I am back!

A domani!

Tag Archive for: Italy

Join the Insiders Club!