A wonderful end.

Ciao amici :)

Today was an interesting kind of day. Most people from my program left today yet I still had the whole day here in Rome. I walked all over my favorite places, completing the near 15 items that were on my to-do list for today. It has been quite busy, but it's been a good day.

And I must say it ended wonderfully. I went to the delicious bakery right next to our apartment and I wanted to get a "ciambella," Italian for donut. I am so glad that I didn't discover these ciambelle before last week, because I would have been eating far too many of them. For just discovering them last week, I have already eaten three. I like donuts in the States, but there is something different about these Italian donuts!

They're larger than American-size donuts and they are just plain with sugar covering them. They are so simple and delicious, I really don't even know how to describe it. But fortunate for me, when I went to the bakery for the last time tonight, wanting to get a ciambella for tomorrow morning when I leave for the airport, I got scared because I didn't see them at first! Yet to my happiness, there was one single ciambella left for the day, and I told the barista how happy I was that I got the last one. "Che fortunata!" :) Such a great end to a bitter-sweet last day in Rome.

Too, I've been meaning to mention and was reminded today on my walk home, something interesting about Italy that I have found is that the Smurfs are incredibly popular here! They sell special jars of Nutella with Smurf characters on them and today walking home, I saw Smurf stickers and other merchandise for sale. Just about everywhere you go you can find something about the Smurfs and I think it's fascinating. :) However, here in Italy, they are not called the Smurfs, they are called "Puffi!" So everywhere you go, you see Puffi, and it still fascinates me to this day. :)

Off to Norway tomorrow!! I am so very excited, I cannot wait! I just want to leave right now; I don't want to wait until my flight tomorrow morning. :)

A presto!

Love and Style,
L.M.

American food.

The more time goes on the more I find myself missing American food. Right now, I just had a flashback to Steak n' Shake and I literally almost ascended into food heaven. A steakburger, fries and a chocolate milkshake sounds sooooooo good right now, it is not even funny! :)

Then thinking about the milkshake got me thinking about American ice cream in general and goodness do I miss that! The other night I got gelato for the first time in over three weeks and honestly, I didn't even miss it that much. At first its allure was daunting, but now I find it to be too rich, to fancy and too thick. I long for delicious American ice cream, either from Baskin Robbins or even just Dreyer's at the grocery store. Some double-churned would be absolutely amazing right about now.

Hamburgers, good ole' American french fries and ice cream are all things that I miss so very much and it all collided in my memory banks just now. I cannot wait!! So glad there's a 24-hour Steak n' Shake near the airport...definitely going to ask if we can stop. :)

Love and Style,
L.M.

It looks like Christmas!!

It isn't just beginning to look a lot like Christmas here, it already does!! There are Christmas lights down so many streets (my favorites being the red, white and green Italian-flag Christmas lights spanning close to the entire width of the street and going all the way down Via del Corso, one of the main shopping streets in all of Rome).

Too, they have these things called Christmas markets, which I had never heard of before. I went to check out the one I kept hearing about, located in Piazza Navona, and it was almost like a taste of home! It was set up just like a small carnival or fair with stands lined up in rows and lit up by florescent lights. They had a carousel, food stands that sold Nutella crepes and these giant donut-looking things that seemed to be very popular, and then they also had games and vendors. The games were much like those of an American carnival (hit the balloon with the dart, etcetera) and then the vendor booths were very unique. You could buy jewelry or leather notebooks, big hanging lights or even nativities. That stand stood out to me the most - it was an entire stand devoted to the selling of Christmas nativities. In a phrase, it seemed to me to be an American-style carnival similar to those we have back home but with a definite Italian twist to it. :) It was so much fun!

What made it even better, too, was the fact that I got a Nutella crepe for my journey to check out the festival. A restaurant worker recommended a good crepe place and he was right! It was quite delicious and made the whole experience even better.

It's already December 10th! Where has the time gone?! I feel the Christmas spirit getting stronger and stronger and I couldn't love it more.

Love and Style,
L.M.

I want to take a moment..

to re-emphasize the deliciousness of Italian yogurt. I know I've said this before but it just is so true. That's one of the things about the food that stood out to me last time I was here, as weird as that may seem and I was so excited to come and eat it again. It's truly been wonderful. Yogurt is such a healthy snack for you yet I'm so picky with my yogurt in America. For me, Yoplait is too sweet.

I have really gotten into the Greek yogurt craze, where the yogurt is thick and plain and kind of even sour, but then you mix in the fruit or what not in it and it's so delicious. However, this yogurt is just normal yogurt that I buy at our local supermarket for €0,22!

It's 1:36 in the morning and I'm studying for my art history final later this morning and I literally craved a yogurt. So odd. But so healthy, so I'm definitely not complaining. Well, only about having to leave Italian yogurt yet again in just 11 days now. Oh well. Maybe Italian yogurt will become the next new big yogurt craze. I would like that.

Love and Style (and yogurt yumminess),
L.M.

Schoooool.

This semester's school schedule while in Rome has been so fantastic for many reasons regarding schedule, yet one thing in particular that has been so nice for me is having no class on Fridays! I have not yet been able to successfully plan my schedule at my home university to have Fridays off (though it seems as if eeeveryone else is able to do that just fine), so having this semester without class on Friday has been a real treat.

However, now I'm spoiled.

I don't ever want to have class on Fridays again, and on the rare occasion that we do have to go to class on a Friday while here, for a field trip or makeup class, etcetera, it is a near dreaded event. Like tomorrow, for instance. This coming Thursday we have off of school because of a national holiday (Immaculate Conception), just like we had All Saints Day off of school because it, too, is a national holiday here in Italy. However, I'm guessing it is because our program is so short anyways, they cannot simply let us have the day totally off, rather, we have to go in on Friday (as we did for All Saints Day make-up) and have a make-up day for the day we are going to get off.

Thus, I don't want to go to class tomorrow! I've become so accustomed to having Thursday nights be the start of my weekend that having to go to class tomorrow is not something I'm loving. Honestly and truly, this is not a big deal. However, I've much enjoyed all of my Roman Fridays off, having time to catch up on all of the sleep I've not been getting during all of the excitement, as well as getting an extra day to go out and explore the city in ways that I normally may have deemed that I didn't have time for.

But as they say here in Italy: Basta! It's a saying that I have come to like a lot; it means "enough!" So enough with my ranting and off to bed. I actually have to get up for class tomorrow. Purtroppo! :)

Buona notte!

Love and Style,
L.M.

An up and a down.

One thing I keep being thankful for every time I go to the grocery store is the price of food. Grant it, I've only recently started doing a lot of hard-core shopping at the grocery store, but I generally know the prices of things and food at the grocery store here in Italy is so much cheaper than in America! If I want to buy a box of Barilla pasta it will be about 50 cents, a single hamburger will be about 75 cents, a loaf of Italian bread also 75 cents. There are so many things you can get here for cheap! It's so wonderful and I could definitely get used to this! 

One down I ran into (yet again) today that really stuck out in my mind is the pace of pedestrians on the sidewalks. The pace in Italy is certainly a lot slower than somewhere like New York, and this is quite evident whenever you walk on the sidewalks here. People often stroll, rather than briskly walk, which is wonderful but I must admit when you're trying to get somewhere on a time schedule, it can be a bit difficult to weave in and out of all the leisurely strollers. Today, I was booking it to class near the Colosseum and no one else seemed to be in near the hurry I was. That slower pace is certainly a good thing in the big scheme of things, but it definitely is something that I've had to get more used to.

Anyways, just some random thoughts for the day. Buona notte, tutti!

Love and Style,

L.M.

An Italian Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving yesterday was a lot of fun. It was incredibly sad being away from family for the first time on a major holiday, but it was really great to be amidst the company of friends. And while Thanksgiving isn't a big holiday here in Italy, our program took us to an exquisite restaurant where we had turkey dinner with an Italian twist and it was so posh and wonderful. A really great evening indeed.

Today, however, would normally be a monumental day for me, as it is Black Friday in the States!! Being that Thanksgiving isn't a big holiday here, definitely neither is Black Friday. This makes me sad, as it is a true experience and such a fun thing to go shopping on Black Friday, in my opinion. 

But oh well, there is always next year! It's crazy to think that now it's past Thanksgiving and one step closer to Christmas. Time really does fly.

Love and Style,

L.M.

Gonna miss this.

It has become our "thing" to cook rice for dinner pretty much every night here lately. It's delicious, fast and it is so easy!! Our local grocery store sells these packets of rice, each packet has two servings, and there are about 10 flavors total. Each one is under €2.00 and all you do is add the packet's contents to two cups of water and boil for 15 minutes. It is so good!!! For something so cheap and so easy, it is absolutely delicious rice. It even has the classic Italian texture of being "al dente," meaning firmer and chewier than fully-cooked pasta.

Today they were on sale at the store so I got four packets for us to eat for dinner and I bought three packets just to bring home to the States. I am sure going to miss those things. I'm pretty sure they're in one of the sub-definitions for the word perfect. :)

Love and Style,
L.M.

In the midst of history.

It's so interesting being here in Italy during the economic and political change that is going on. I believe it was three days ago now that Burlusconi resigned and two days ago that Italy got a new government, which is absolutely monumental. Sometimes you don't even realize all that is going on because you get so wrapped up in school and your daily activities and seeing the city that you forget to envelop yourself in the true culture around you - the establishments of the country in which you are living.

Walking around Rome, you see political buildings with guards outside of them all the time, and we would always walk past Burlusconi's old palazzo when passing to a certain area. When you really stop to think of it, there is so much that goes on that you don't even realize and here in Rome we're fortunate enough to be right in the center of it.

One has to realize, however, that with political and economic change comes unrest and this is also something that I actually feel very fortunate to be witnessing here during my time abroad. As you may or may not know, the Euro currency is facing much difficulty right now - Greece being arguably the most affected and Italy being one of the next most.

This issue, along with all of the political issues taking place right now cause many riots and protests. We witnessed a demonstration on Thursday during our Italian class. We paused class to open the window and watch the protesters that were right on the street outside, along with police and many, many journalists. They were all university students our age, which made it all the more fascinating. Here in Italy there seem to be a lot more public demonstrations regarding social, economic and political issues and I, personally, think it's fascinating to see. Below are two pictures I took outside of our classroom window, overlooking the university-students' demonstration.

I don't know what the future holds for anything regarding politics or the economy, but I know that I truly feel lucky and privileged to be witnessing so much history in the making.

This past weekend.

It was amazing. I could go on and on about it but, in short, it was phenomenal. It was my second time going to both Verona and Milan and I felt basically the same way about both as I did last time. Verona melted my heart, yet again. There's just something about that town, it's so romantic and adorable. The way the street lights light up orange at night makes the setting so cute and makes it look like it's straight out of a love story. I don't fully know how to describe it but it is just fantastic.

Milan was awesome - so cool to be in such a renowned city, but I got the same vibe I did last time. It truly is a city and, in my opinion, it kinda makes New York look clean. There are beautiful sites like the Duomo and, of course, all of the shopping, but all in all the city was very dirty and I really didn't fall in love. But that's ok because Sunday made up for it!

Sunday I went to Cuggiono, and my article this Thursday will tell all about my trip there. It was, however, an experience that is impossible to ever forget. The family friends I met were so kind to me and basically adopted me into their family for the day and meeting my distant aunt was so much fun. Truly amazing indeed.

One funny experience was after we all had lunch and the mom of our family friends offered me Italian coffee, which is basically espresso. I said yes and then she asked if I wanted milk - I said no and she asked if I wanted sugar - I said no again, to which she said to the others "Che strano, che strano! Che le piace il caffe come questo," meaning how strange that she likes her coffee like this! I thought it was funny because that's how I always drink my coffee, yet to them who usually have either milk or sugar or both, I suppose it's a bit of an odd notion. :) It was really cute.

And Cuggiono is so adorable!!! Oh my gosh, such a cute, tiny Italian town!! Just like something straight out of a movie, both the city and the whole fantastic situation as a whole. It's such a rewarding feeling getting to know the town of your ancestors. They say you can't know where you're going until you know where you've been and now I know where my familial history began.

Love and Style,
L.M.

C'è il weekend!

I am sooo happy! Three out of four of my midterms are done (I'm just just going to be happy about that for now and not think about research papers that are due soon...) and tonight we leave for our weekend trip!

Two of my friends and I are taking an overnight train tonight to Verona and are going to spend tomorrow in Verona, then Saturday in Milan and Sunday the two of them are going to Torino while I venture off and go to Cuggiono!! If you're from the Southern Illinois area, maybe you know this town!

My ancestors on my mom's side immigrated from there and I'm so excited to go and see the town of my heritage! :) I associate completely with my mom's side of the family since my father left Mom and I when I was 10 and I've never met his side. I love my Italian heritage and I'm so excited to see the home town and maybe I'll even get to meet some distant relatives!!! :D

Love and Style,
L.M.

Caffè Americano.

One thing that I miss most about the food in America is the coffee. Here in Italy, if you order "un caffè" it's a shot of espresso. Which I must admit, is actually awesome because you can get them for around 80 Euro cents and they're the perfect start to a morning or pick-me-up in the afternoon.

On a side note, did you know that tiramisù is actually Italian for "pick-me-up?" The word tiramisù is the opposite of an Italian saying "sono proprio giu," meaning "I'm so down." :) Funny, huh?

But back to coffee. So you only get an espresso shot when you order a plain coffee here which is awesome in its own way and is a super popular thing to do. If you go into any little cafe or coffee bar at around 2 p.m. there will be somewhere around 20 espresso cups sitting near the sink needing to be washed from the rush hour.

However, as awesome as espresso is, I really miss American coffee; an actual cup of coffee. This is something that us coffee lovers on the trip have been talking about and my roommate and I have finally found a solution. There's this little cafe near our apartment and it's absolutely adorable. The decorations are red and black and super trendy and eclectic and they even play awesome music. Last time we were there they played "Hey Jude" by the Beatles and then today they played Nirvana's "Teen Spirit."

But why we have gone back twice now: caffè Americano. It's one Euro and fifty cents and you get an actual cup of coffee! Plus they even give you a little chocolate biscuit on the side. It's so wonderful and it's actually very delicious coffee. So now we have found the solution: just order caffè Americano. And this coffee shop we found is so adorable. It's the perfect place to sit on a Sunday afternoon with friends, chill on the couch with a cup of coffee and talk. Life is good.

Love and Style,
L.M.

Red carpets and wonderful films.

Buona sera!

Oooh my gosh we had such a fun time last night at the Rome Film Festival. I've never been to a film festival before, but the atmosphere was so cool and the film we saw was phenomenal. It's coming to the States eventually, so keep an eye out! It's called Too Big to Fail and it was absolutely fantastic!

The festival was on the other side of the city, a side I hadn't been to yet, so we got to venture out to a new area, which was awesome, and then when we got there it was such an amazing experience. Everywhere you looked there were all kinds of trendy people and it was night-time so the big lights were shining on the red carpet.

Rai, one of the largest broadcasting companies in Italy who is in charge of holdings in both radio and TV, had a stand up where they were broadcasting live from the festival and the musicians were performing on the stage right there in front of us. The radio-show host was interviewing them from a chair to their left and they would perform live songs. The one guy even played the electric cello! They were so phenomenal - both groups we saw. It was good, chill Italian music and it was made all the better by the ambiance surrounding us.

There were heat lamps with the flames setting the mood and there was a resting/seating/relaxing area set up by one of the sponsors, a coffee company, and they were giving out free espresso shots in adorable little disposable cups.

Then, the red carpet. When we first went in we had to just walk on the side of the carpet because the main carpet was blocked off, however, after the show they opened up the main, center carpet and we got to walk on it! I'm posting a picture below.

All in all, it was one of the most exciting nights yet. We got to see a movie, something we haven't had a real opportunity to do since we've been here, we got to see an American movie at that, so it was extra fun to see an American film, all in English with Italian subtitles (I tried to follow along during the movie by hearing the English and then reading the Italian) and we got to attend the Rome Film Festival. That's not something you get to do everyday! Che fantastico! :)

Love and Style,
L.M.

Film Festival!

Tonight is going to be quite a fun experience! The Rome Film Festival is going on for two more days and for my cinema class we get to go for free! Tonight we're going to see a film at the main festival center with red carpet and everything! Celebrities have come for their films, so it would be awesomeeee if we could see someone tonight! Though there's no guarantee, so we'll just have to see.

It's quite a trek to get there, but it's going to be so worth it!! Ciao!

Love and Style,
L.M.

Two picture-perfect afternoons.

I don't quite know what it is, but something about when the weekend rolls around things go from fantastic to stellar. Our weeks are always amazing and, because I'm nerdy like that, I actually really enjoy going to class, but there's just something about our weekends - they always bring really exciting adventures.

For the past few weekends in particular, it has just been awesome. I've been going into the weekends with just a few plans and not too many expectations and they have just been turning out like a dream.

On Friday night we did something that we hadn't yet done, and that's to go out at night in our particular area of Rome. It's a really hip, young area with lots of bars and hot-spots that stay open late at night/early morning yet my roommate and I hadn't yet been out. So Friday night we went out to this bar with a group of our friends and it was sooo amazing!! It was super small and crowded upstairs but then we discovered that there was a whole downstairs with tons of seating, cool tables and awesome patterns and prints on the furniture and walls. They had TVs playing music videos of popular songs but then the DJ from upstairs was blasting all downstairs too. It was so amazing and we had such a blast.

Then, the next day, we slept in and when we woke up we decided to get some lunch and explore our area a bit more, being that going to that bar opened our knowledge up to a whole different part of our area. So we went over there and what did we find? A little hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant!!! Now, while this may not seem all that exciting, you have to realize that here in Italy like 98% of the food is pizza, pasta or panini so when we saw a Chinese restaurant it was so amazing!

We went in and it was far from a hole-in-the-wall, by the way. It was very large, so nice and the food was soooo good!! It was only $4.50 for my chicken with cashew entree and they even took the meal vouchers we get through our program that pays for some of our food and groceries! Score!!

Then today we went back to that same piazza and ate pizza for lunch while sitting on the steps of the fountain in the middle and then went to this adorable coffee shop down one of the adjoining streets. It was so peaceful and truly was an "I'm in Rome" moment.

Such a lovely day, and might I add, one of the best study environments I could ever ask for! Ahhh [contented sigh] :)

Love and Style,
L.M.

My roommate and I at the adorable bar!

The awesome Chinese place! A total gem of a discovery. :)

Viva Roma!

Anyone who might know me would know that I, of all people, am not a sports person. I'm much, much more on the side of music and arts rather than sports. I've been to a few sporting events in my life, but it's never been something I get really excited about.

However, coming to Italy, I definitely wanted to see a soccer game, since soccer is so, so popular here, and yesterday was my chance! My school put on an outing to a soccer game at the Olympic Stadium here in Rome and tickets for us were only 10 Euro! 

The game was Roma versus Palermo and I was, I can't believe I'm going to say this, extremely excited to go! My roommate and I got Roma shirts with the team colors on it and wore them proudly yesterday!  Of course, I had to keep it stylish, so I also rocked my new brown suede Italian boots and Louis Vuitton tote bag, but that's beside the point. :p

There was just such an energy about it all. The fans were so supportive of their home team - much more than I have ever seen in my (be it little) sports experience. They were so passionate and so involved, it was wonderful.

By the end of it, I was even humming the Roma chant song in my head, though I couldn't really make out the words with the -what seemed like- thousands of people singing it all together.

And soccer is a good sport for me I'm realizing. If I had to choose one to watch, I think it would be soccer. Games are only 90 minutes without stopping the clock, plus some added time at the end, and then that's it! I can totally handle that. :)

My roommate and I both said we would love to go to another game while we're here, so we are now on the lookout for a guest team we would like to see Roma play. 

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really loved that soccer game yesterday! It was so much fun and the atmosphere was out of this world. I can't wait to go again!!

Love and Style,

L.M.

Speaking of fashion and travel...

Check out this article I saw today! For me, and I'm sure it's the case for many of you too, it's always such a challenge to figure out what you're going to wear when traveling. You need something comfy, something to fit the weather in the plane and outside and you need something without a ton of metal to take off when going through security. And we mustn't forget you need something with style!

This article comes at a perfect time! I love their looks for travel and, even though they're still out of my budget for now, maybe I can create something similar with what I already have!

Check it out here!

Love and Style,
L.M.

An awesome day.

Today my friends and I went out shopping on one of the main streets for shopping in Rome! It's called Via del Corso, and we had some serious good times today!

We started the day off by sleeping in (something we hadn't done in a long time) and then got up, got ready and went to our friend's apartment for what was a totally awesome lunch! We had manicotti, green beans, fruit salad and periferols for dessert!

Then we headed out for a day of shopping! I had many things on my list and I found most of them, the thing I'm most excited about being real Italian boots!! There are boot stores everywhere here. Boots are so popular and you see people wearing them everywhere you turn and just as much you see boot and shoe stores everywhere you turn as well. And we're talking nice boots here.

They're usually anywhere from 135 Euro to 160 Euro and upwards, bearing in mind that it's even more when you convert it to U.S. dollars, since one Euro is equal to about $1.40, roughly. However, I am suuuuuuuch a boot fanatic. I could literally wear boots every day, no other shoes, and be completely fine. They just make me feel like I'm so set to go anywhere and they go with so many things! So, with that said, I knew that I would really like and appreciate getting a pair of Italian boots.

However, they needed to be within my price range. I decided that, rather than buying 20 small things, I would rather buy 10 nice things while I'm here in Italy. Things that will last me for a long time and things that are truly special. And alas! I found boots today! They're such nice boots - brown, distressed suede with wooden soles that are going to be so great for walking around on all of the uneven, unfilled in cobblestone that is literally everywhere in Rome. It's so difficult to walk on because it's so uneven, it hurts your feet and scuffs up your cheap shoes something awful! But these are so sturdy and just walking home I could even tell that it was so much nicer walking with the thick, wooden bottom. Italian items are so well made. I've noticed that with clothes, shoes and handbags alike. Everything is leather and everything is real, classy, so nice and truly well made. You indeed may have to pay more, but the quality of the items is guaranteed to be nicer.

My new boots are so well made, real suede and they're made in Italy, bought in an authentic Italian shoe store (not some chain store; they are an actual Italian leather and such shoe store) and I only paid 110 Euro. Grant it, that is a lot more than I think I have ever spent on boots, but I am soooo happy and so excited to wear them. I got something that is truly special and that I can cherish for years to come.

I love shopping and I love Italian boots!!!!

Love and Style,
L.M.

Blogging on the highway.

I officially think that this is really cool. At the moment, I am riding in the inner lane of a highway going to Rome on our group bus. Since our apartments in Rome don't come with internet, we all got the internet sticks and I just found out that you can connect almost anywhere, including the freeway!

I love the internet.

I just checked my emails, tweeted and checked Facebook, all while stuck in traffic going back to Rome. Which leads me to my observation of the moment - traffic going into Rome (we're coming back from Pompeii) is very heavy. I don't know for sure, but I wonder if it has anything to do with the riots.

We have officially been on the bus for three hours and 15 minutes on a trip that Google maps tells me should take two hours and 30 minutes. I'm kinda ready to get off the bus, but, then again, now that I know I can get internet... I 'm actually enjoying it more than usual, even if it has been a looooong time and we aren't even off the freeway yet.

Anyway, that's all for now!
Ciao tutti!

Love and Style,
L.M.

Witnessing history.

Ciao tutti,

It's with a different tone that I write you tonight, as much has been going on today in beautiful Roma. We are on a trip to Pompeii, Naples and Capri this weekend and, thus, are not in Rome at the moment, but we learned this evening that riots have been taking place in Rome near the Colosseum since earlier today.

The riots are due to economic unrest going on and these riots are not only being seen in Rome, but in many, many countries, including the U.S.

See this article for a brief overview of the happenings.

Then see this for more details and history.

Tomorrow we head back to Rome after our weekend away, and I'm so interested to see what's going on. Tomorrow is also a very large soccer game which is sure to bring even more uproar, plus if these riots continue - it is sure to be an interesting time. Adding more turbulence to the situation is the fact that the happenings with Berlusconi just occurred yesterday.

While I'm excited to witness history in the making, I really hope and pray that things can settle without too much destruction to property and human life.

Love, Style and Thoughts for Peace,
L.M.