Eat. School. Eat.

Good afternoon, my fellow followers. Here’s a somewhat brief update of what when on in my world today.

As this is summer school, we had a group project to work on in the morning. Our group is studying pizzarias (it’s a tough job), so we needed to visit a few pizza places in Rome. We clearly have eaten lots of this specialty, but we had not yet visited a famous restaurant called Bir & Fud. The owner of this eatery is obsessed with yeast. He travels all around Rome to find new and forgotten forms of yeasts, feeds them (literally) and uses them in his pizza dough. We traveled to the restaurant, getting lost along the way.

In case you haven’t noticed, getting lost has become a current theme in my daily schedule. We asked three different establishments where the restaurant was located until we finally found it. We wouldn’t have missed it if we turned our heads to the left when crossing the street. Anyways, it was closed.

We headed over to a little-did-we-know fancy restaurant to eat at. It was called Fabrizio’s. How Italian is that!? I just ordered a slice of bruschetta and it was quite interesting. I couldn’t really read the menu, but apparently it’s covered in little clams. Delicious? Yes. What I expected? No.

Having just a couple hours before going to class, we did a little shopping. I didn’t buy anything, but one leather store had a very tempting supply of purses. Many of the stores were also closed. Roman store hours are so bizarre. Nothing’s open when you want it to be: restaurants are closed at lunchtime and shops are closed in the early afternoon. I just don’t get it.

After visiting a few shops, we briefly returned home to unload our bags and then hopped on the tram to get back to school.

The optional activity we were participating in was not what we expected. We all thought we’d be traveling the streets of Rome with a (maybe) professional photographer who would help us get some sweet shots of the city. Instead, we broke into groups and played paparazzi. Our group was on the hunt for pictures of foods that are only found in Rome. We had no idea what we were looking for (and neither did the other groups in their respective categories) so it was sort of a waste of time. What’s done is done.

Our group returned to Bir & Fud for dinner and feasted on deliciousness. Just cutting into my slice of margherita pizza, I knew there was something different about the crust. It was airy and soft and oh-so-good. Another meal, another success.

On the way home, we stopped at a shaved ice stand Fabio had pointed out in one of his lectures. I ordered lemon, watermelon and mandarin orange flavored ice and it came with some black cherries, a lemon wedge and a slice of coconut. Finally, we figured out where all the ice in Rome was hiding. It was a great refresher after a long day of walking.

The day’s just about over (well, it’s technically past midnight here, so it is over) and I’m almost ready for bed. The entire group is leaving bright and early tomorrow to visit Cilento for the weekend and I still have to pack. I don’t really know what to expect, but it should be fun. Maybe they’ll teach me how to spin pizza—I can only hope!

As for my blogging over the weekend: it’s not happening. I will probably write a summary post of the weekend when we get back to Rome. Internet access over there is super sketchy and I don’t think I’ll have the time.

Take a gander at the stars tonight. If you see the big dipper, I’m right below it. Anyway, see you on Monday!