A Different Approach and a Big Hunk of Mozzarella

At the beginning of this week I had decided to take on the week a little differently… completely full speed ahead. After a week of settling in, it was time to venture out after work every day. Despite my tired self after work (waking up at 6:30 and getting home to cook dinner at 6), I know I have to force myself to go out and explore. I can always sleep and bum around back home in the states. When in Rome, get a move on it!


Thus, on Tuesday night I went out on a long walk. I took the metro to the center and decided to slowly make my way back; slowly meaning taking every tiny street and wandering in a different direction. Ultimate goal was to get to Piazza Navona and enjoy a gelato. I wandered and found the cutest restaurants filled with Italians (because by this time the tourists had all already eaten) and the cutest Forno (Italian Oven/ bakery). I tried to remember where I had wandered to get back to these locations, but really all you can do is wander another time and hope to possibly find it again.

After continued wandering I did walk straight into Piazza Navona. Thus, I got a gelato and sat down to people watch. It was perfect people watching conditions: great weather, a week night, still with lots of people, but not crowded. After Piazza Navona I strolled back to Piazza Venezia (in front of the Victor Emmanuel Monument), took some pictures, and then walked past the Roman Forum and the Coliseum to get home.

Wednesday night proved to be a fun spontaneous adventure with going out to see Robin Hood (in English) with friends from work. Robin Hood was a great way to relax after a frustrating work day. After the movie we walked up tons of stairs to Villa Borghese to see the view of Rome at night from the hill. It was gorgeous and relaxing; too bad I didn’t have my camera seeing as we had just come from work. After the park, I walked all the way home. The longest walk ever…and won’t be happening again unless I am over ambitious again. Although, I must say the walk home at night is also a prime people watching time. ALL the people walking hand in hand to see the ruins lit up at night; almost a little too cute.

Thursday like Wednesday was a long work day, with a great lunch break surprise. As it turns out, there is a tiny market by our work on Tuesdays and Thursdays. THUS, we walked there, bought fresh local produce AND the biggest hunk of mozzarella ever. It was the buffalo mozzarella kind. Stretchy, light, and comes in a bag of water. Riding home on the metro I felt like I was bringing a fish home from the pet store, yet I knew I was about to eat some AMAZING cheese. Sure enough, the mozzarella was heaven.

Friday was a fun work day. Simply knowing it was Friday was a great feeling, then adding onto the fact that I got to sit into two PSR (Portfolio status report) meetings made it even better. Each meeting had two countries under review, so by the end I learned a lot more about Eritrea, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. After sitting at my desk for most of the past week, I loved the meetings more than ever!

Friday night was another long adventure walk, this time with a new intern from the states. So far we are the only two from the states, while the other interns come from all sorts of different places and (I think) mainly Italy. Luckily she was into wandering down all the cute streets as well. On our wandering adventure we came across the gelateria that I had gone to six years ago on the family’s trip to Europe. Who would have guessed I would have ever gone back?! Thus we bought gelato there, walked around the city some more, and eventually split paths to go home.

I would say it was Friday night that did me in, the straw that broke the camel’s back…but in my case my feet. On Saturday my feet said, no no, not again. Thus, Saturday’s long walking day had plenty of breaks in between; thank goodness my friend I spent Saturday with (from IFAD) was having a tired day as well.

Saturday was quite the wild goose chase. The first goose was Testaccio market. If it weren’t for a kind lady to point us in the right direction, we would have never found it. Testaccio market is the ROMAN market. There are some other good food markets, but this one as of now seems to be untouched by the tourists. My friend and I clearly figured that one out because even with a map and directions, we had the hardest time finding it. Once we found the market when it was about to close up. We still got to see a lot of the vendors, but it wasn’t as great of a picture opportunity. Now that I have a better understanding on how to find it, I will have to venture out there on another Saturday morning.

At the market were lots of fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese, and everything else. When spotting a meat vendor we would just look away, because it is known for the odd things that Romans eat and I didn’t want to see too much of that. After the market and buying some bread from a local oven we went off to my apartment to split a chunk of watermelon we purchased and then head off on the rest of our day’s adventure.

We had our next wild goose chase with getting on the right bus. We accidentally got on the bus going the wrong direction. We were exhausted and didn’t mind sitting on the bus, so we stayed on and got a tour of some of Rome we had never seen. By the end of the bus ride we finally made our way to Campo di Fiori where we shopped around and eventually grabbed some food for dinner. We both were just so exhausted and out of it we couldn’t wait to go home. Once I made it home I cleaned up and went to sleep immediately and oh how amazing the sleep was.

Today was a nice Sunday by myself, after being around friends (SO thankful for friends) and being around people at work all the time, it was nice to take a day by myself. The weather wasn’t too bad, so I knew I had to go out and enjoy it while it lasts. Once again I went to the center for some good walking down the gorgeous Roman streets. This time I was able to wander in and out of the stores since they were open during the day. I brought a snack to eat when I got hungry, but next time I plan to have a picnic lunch in Villa Borghese. It’s most definitely the next thing on the list to do, Villa Borghese picnic.

The walk home had perfect weather, with the sun setting and a nice breeze coming in. On my way home I stopped at the Coliseum to rest on the ledge there (my feet were dying in pain) and took in the beautiful day.

Perfect Sunday and the perfect start to a new work week. Now I cut my blog off because it is late and I am tired. CIAO CIAO!

(Sorry if it was boring!  So much to catch up on...hopefully next time will be more entertaining!!)