Sunrise Over Rome

Early this morning, I was woken from a dream of a delicious baklava-like dessert in order to climb the great Gianicolo and photograph the sunrise. My dad and I went together and we were both a little daunted by the clouds in the East (and West, for that matter), but they turned out to be quite the addition to our pictures.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

**Sophie

Bufala (*squeal!*)

Last weekend, we went (on the way back from the Bay of Naples) to a "Bufala" farm, where water buffalo are raised and their milk is used to make bufala mozzarella.

Our tour began in the last stages of the mozzarella making process, then moved back, so we went first to the room where the milk is turned into cheese and the cheese is salted and packaged. After that, we moved on to the animals, where Denis got sneezed on by a buffalo.

Every time we moved on to a new group of animals, a large number of the college students (always girls, I believe) squealed. First we saw the milkable cows- buffalo cows, not the black and white variety (squeal). After that, we saw the pregnant cows (slightly louder squeal) and the first time pregnant cows (still louder and shriller squeal).

Next came the 6 month old babies (squeals so loud and frequent that the poor buffalo were rather startled), then the 3- to 15-day-olds (you guessed it- squeals).
After the buffalo, we visited the piglets, then sat down to a huge and delicious lunch (consisting, as all proper Italian meals do, of an appetizer, pasta course, meat course, and desert).

After lunch, we got to wander around for a while (Denis and I raced through a field of knee high grass and visited the horses and donkeys), then we got back on the bus and left.

**Sophie

bIRTHDAY bLOG

We have been celebrating my thirteenth birthday for the past three days, so I will give you a quick description of each day.

We celebrated on the 17th because I wanted to celebrate in Belgium with our friends there and we were leaving that afternoon. We celebrated with chocolate cake (made by my friend Bethany with a little help from me and her sister Lisa) and a couple small gifts (a block of belgian chocolate and a book on drawing flowers with the instructions in Flemish).

There was some controversy over which day my birthday was because I was born at 6:18 p.m. on March 18th in Baltimore, which is 12:18 a.m. on March 19th in Rome. Unable to choose, we decided to celebrate on both days. On the 18th, we went out to lunch at a delicious restaurant nearby. Later that day, my mom made panekoeken (which are like Belgian crepes filled with sugar) as best she could without a recipe.

The final day of celebration, the 19th, was an ordinary day until dinnertime. For dinner we had pasta preceded by typical Roman fried zucchini flowers. They are fairly simple, but still quite a production to make. Here is how:

(1) Mix bread crumbs with one egg (the mixture is supposed to be crumbl rather than eggy, so you don't need much egg) and some salt and pepper.

(2) Gently fill the flowers with the bread crumb mixture and set them aside.

(3) Heat a lot of oil in a pan, but don't let it get so hot that it smokes.

(4) Fill a shallow bowl with flour and another one with a couple of well beaten eggs.

(5) Roll each flower first in the flour, then in the egg, making sure all of the outside of the flower is covered in both flour and egg.

(6) Put the flowers in the pan of oil and let them fry until they are lightly browned.

They have to be served fresh, so put them on a plate with several layers of paper towel and cover them until you are ready to eat them.

We finished the evening by staying up til midnight to watch The Matrix (which Denis and I had never seen before). Overall, my three birthdays were highly satisfactory.

Sophie

Ostia Antica

On Saturday the 17th, with my friend Ella from Baltimore, and then again on Sunday the 24th, with our friends Nathan, Tim and Bethany from Belgium, we went to the ancient Roman seaport town called Ostia Antica, which was more or less abandoned at the end of the 4th century as the river silted up.

Among the highlights were an open tomb full of jars for ashes,

an extreemely well preserved bar,

the piazzale of corporations, which had mosaics identifying what the corporations did,

several baths with impressive mosaic floors,

an amphitheater,

and a tower with a view of the tiber and much of the town.

**Sophie

My boots

** Sophie

Umbrian adventures

We spent the last three days in Tuscany ( Siena and Arezzo) and Umbria ( Assisi). I'll let someone else tell of our Tuscan adventures and focus on those we had in Umbria. Our second morning of travel, we woke up early and left our hotel in Arezzo around 9 a.m., headed for Asisi. After several hours on the bus, we arived in Asisi, where we visited the church of St. Francis and then went on a walking tour of the city. We ended up in front of the church of St. Claire, where we were released for a lunch and a free afternoon.

After a quickish lunch, we set off with a few of the students to visit to the castle above Asisi. On the way there, we ran into two student returning from the castle who informed us that there were secret passages in the castle! Running to the castle, we stopped for only a few minutes to apreciate the view before hurrying on.

After we got tickets (stopped by the man at the ticket booth who apparently didn't recognize us as people who can go anywhere without paying when Denis and I ran past him), we finally got to the castle and began looking for the secret passages. We found several that led only to walls, as well as a spiral staircase that led to the top of a tower from which the view was breathtaking.

As we were leaving, Denis found a hole in the wall that led to another spiral staircase, this one taking us to the top of the wall and a passage that we all hurried down. It went on for farther than we could see. When we finally came out, we were on top of a tower conected to the castle by a wall. We were all blown away by the view and almost by the wind as well. We clung to the rail and stared at Umbria, sprawled below us.

When it was time to go back to our meeting place from which we would be taken to the bus and Rome, we left reluctantly. Little else happened aside from me and Denis getting lost, in a sense (we knew where we were, it was just our parents who didn't). I can't help wondering how unadventurous our Umbrian adventures would have been if we hadn't stumbled upon that passage in the wall.

**Sophie

Views from the Gianicolo

A sunset over Rome, as seen from atop the GianicoloPalm trees on the Gienicolo against the sunset

More places to know in Trastevere...

• Toy shop: Via del Moro
• Pastry shop: Via del Moro

... and the rest of Rome

• Second hand clothing stores: Via del Governo Vecchio (2)
• Toy shop: Via del Governo Vecchio

**Sophie

"Due Rossi Peperone, Per Favore."

The morning started (for Thomas and me) with a small, jetlagged 2 a.m. gathering in the kitchen. For everyone else, it started with a quiet breakfast of bread, honey, and cheese that was eaten whenever you woke up.

Once everyone was awake, my mom left to try out the bus system and sign some papers about the apartment and my dad and I departed to look for a market. After much wandering, we finally found a small market that sold fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish. We bought some oranges for snacks and some vegetables for lunch and dinner. The last things we got were two red peppers, or, as I learned, due rossi peperone.

My dad had decided it was time to put my scimmia Italiano (monkey Italian) to use, so he made me ask for the peppers. I just pointed at the peppers and muttered something about "due... rosso..." . The woman at the stall undrestood me well enough. I had had my first conversation in Italian, if you could call it a that.

After the market, we set off in search of a bakery. We wandered around the alleys of Trastevere for about half an hour before finally asking a passer-by, "Dove pane?", or, "Where is bread?" He was carrying a bread bag, at least. We followed his directions to a small pizzaria/ bakery where we bought a loaf of warm, fresh bread, then headed home.

When we got home, we cooked some pasta for lunch (not bad, but a little undercooked and kind of wierd), our first lunch living in Rome. After lunch, Denis and I washed the dishes and I broke a wine glass by dropping a knife on it (basically).


PLACES TO KNOW IN TRASTEVERE

• Bakery: Via del Moro
• Gelateria: Via Benedetta
• Small grocery store: Vicolo del Cinque

**Sophie