buon viaggio!

I CAN'T WAIT TO GO TO LJUBLJANA. AND BLED. AND SALZBURG. AND VIENNA.
If you google image Ljubljana, you find a land that looks a little bit more like a magical fairy tale than Bavaria or Switzerland did. It's crazy, and I can't wait to photograph the hell out of it. Lake Bled looks incredible. Slovenia isn't on the Euro. It is going to be stunning, beautiful. And I can't wait. Gorges, castles, turquoise lakes, mountains, canals. YES.

Roman life has been nice lately- sort of filled with papers and homework, but mostly filled with wandering, eating, visiting with MICHELLE who came to Roma this past weekend!! and topping my gelato record. But perhaps I should backtrack and update on my trip to London, the past week a Roma, and other fun things.

36 hours in London: Caroline and I got on our RyanAir flight to London in the afternoon of my 21st birthday, ready to be in London, see our friends, and celebrate properly! So we get to London, take the [way freaking overpriced] Tube to wherever the ND flats are located, and realize.... oh, crap. We lost the paper with the Kamen House codes on it. And no one knows exactly when we're showing up .................crap. haha. So we sit outside on the curb, very frustrated and amused (HUNGRY) until her boyfriend happens to randomly pop outside to see if we're there [much happiness]. Finally we get inside, I see some friends, get some food [BEST chicken caesar wrap I've ever eaten in my life ever, probably because I was starving], and a big group goes out to O'Neill's. It was a nice 21st :) not too crazy, but fun. I slept on Flat 13's couch [WAY more comfy than Medag's beds..........] and saw London that Friday. Nice city, reminded me a lot of ..a European America. Weird comparison, I know. It just did. Oh yea, and everyone had crazy accents. It was honestly the weirdest feeling in the world to be in an English-speaking country again- I haven't been in one since I left home!

I'd been sick-ish since Paris, and by London I'd say that I was mostly over it, but 2 days after having gotten back from London, I came down with an excellent cough/fever combo. Fun. So I was feeling icky all week, hoping that by Friday night it would all fade in time for Michelle's Roma trip. On Friday I went shopping at the san Giovanni market near Via Appia//south Roma, went back to San Giovanni in Laterano, and visited the Galleria Corsini, an old cardinal palazzo-turned museum. Then my apartment-mate Jacqueline's parents took us out to dinner at what happens to be one of my two favorite restaurants in alllllll of Roma- Piacere Molise, on via Candia. I ordered a new kind of pasta, which ended up being sort of like a thicker fettucine, sort of square-ish in form, which had gambieri, zucchini, pancetta, some kind of wine sauce, and tomatoes in it. AMAZING. I think it was one of the best plates of pasta I've had in Roma. EVER. We also had this incredible secondo, a layered eggplant/cheese/pepper/tomato dish. Really good. So after this affair, I metro-ed over to Termini to meet Michelle. We did a night walk in Roma and soon after, I experienced the most harrowing night bus episode of my life, which I do not care to ever repeat. Little pretend-Italian me, piazza Venezia, night bus 4, 18, 5, 7, 8.... not 6..., sketchball creeps, 3 am. I lived. N6 arrived an hour behind schedule. But I'm alive. We had a lovely weekend, ate SO MUCH. I topped my gelato record and ate THREE coni in a span of like 12 hours- one from Della Palma, one from Giolitti, one from Old Bridge. I still need to try Fiocco di Neve and that little one next door to the Pantheon. Some exciting stuff happened last night and today, but I'll save that for another post. Ciao a tutti!