la primavera.

It's been what seems like a century since I have last posted anything...things got busy here really quickly.
It is now officially Spring Break, the first friday of, as we all are stuck inside with a massive downpour of rain coming down, bundled in sweaters deciding over coffee if it is worth it to try to do anything today.
Most likely it will be an evening of movies and chinese food (some things just don't change) and more being lazy before we all go off on our separate trips. Alana and Carolyn both have their families here for the week, Garrison is off on a tour of Greece, MacKenzie to Tunisia, and I am bound for a long weekend in Paris starting next tuesday.
It is a little ridiculous to think that it is already spring break, that midterms are over, and that in six short weeks I will be on another plane headed for the warmth of Texas and familiar faces.

In the last two weeks the majority of my time has been spent living in the library in the stacks of the great poets, best known as the Dante cave, flipping through pages and pages of art text books, italian grammar lessons, and the history and development of opera with very few breaks between.

But now the books are to be put away for a while....HOORAY!

On the rare occasion that I wasn't living in the library we got out in Roma a bit, and once a little further outside to the hilltop town of Orvieto-best known for the wine made in the vineyards surrounding the city and the massive cathedral that dominates the main square. We couldn't have wished for a more gorgeous day to be wandering around Umbria.


Following the few hours of wandering through winding cobblestone streets we sat down to a four course lunch, which was just absolutely ridiculous to say the least...so much food. The food and the wine made for a very good nap the entire way back to Roma, though.







Aside from Orvieto I spent a few weekday afternoons wandering through the Vatican Museums, finally seeing the Raphael rooms and once more sitting in the Sistine Chapel. Dropping out of my philosophy class might have been the best choice I could have possibly made- leaving my wednesday afternoons free to go out and explore following my onsite class and usually involve gelato of sorts.

I am making it a point of my trip to have gelato as much as I possibly can. Once in every city I go to, and of course multiple times in Roma. Currently my favourite gelateria is "Old Bridge" which is located right by the 990 bus stop on across the street from the Vatican walls. Not only is it the best, but it is the cheapest. Some classmates of mine are making it a goal of theirs to try every flavour offered at Old Bridge (100 in total) while mine is to see which place makes the best Nocciola which is hazelnut and my personal preference. While some flavors come in a close second, I will never pay for anything but Nocciola, or in a worst case scenario a version of it. Nutella gelato is not very good- a swirl of Nutella in crema gelato, so basically vanilla with a ribbon of Nutella...eh. Bacio comes in as a pretty good runner up. Baci is a candy made in Perugia, also the Italian word for "kiss", it is a hazelnut surrounded by chocolate hazelnut ganache in a wafer shell covered in chocolate which is then covered with mashed hazelnuts. By far my favourite candy here- even compared to Kinder, which is another experience in itself. But then again, this is coming from the girl who eats Nutella off of a spoon and believes whole heartedly that it is good on absolutely anything.

And the best part is that Italians think it is healthy...