Italia

Italia.
Ciao a todos! I'm on Spring break this week so this past weekend I went to Italy! That's the number one country I've always wanted to visit so it was so amazing to finally live out that dream. To sum up the experience before talking about three main things: I saw the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, wished at the Trevi Fountain, sat on the Spanish Steps, walked around the Vatican area, did a bunch of shopping, thought every single thing there was beautiful, and ate so much amazing food.

Continuing that major theme of this blog, aka food (not going to apologize for it anymore..), Italy seriously has some of the best food I've ever had. I didn't eat a single thing I didn't like, and it was so nice to get to pick what I wanted to eat for 4 days straight since I don't get a choice at my house in Spain. I lived off the 3 main food groups: pizza, pasta, and gelato. I'm really lactose intolerant so I was nervous I might die there, but I took so many Lactaid pills the entire time and was luckily completely fine. It's pretty shameful how many of those pills I had to take though and I think I ate a year's worth of dairy in those four days...WORTH IT.

Getting to Italy on the first night was the exact opposite of what I expected. I was there with my friend Brendan from Exeter/UNH, and my friends Marissa, Haley, and Emily from my program in Spain. Brendan and I decided to share a hotel room for the weekend and when the bus from the airport dropped us off in the middle of nowhere on Friday night, we didn't know what to do except take a cab. I took a year of Italian last year and can understand a good amount of it, but it's really hard to respond especially on the spot because it's been a while and I don't know too much. I understood the cab driver though when he told us how to get to our hotel, La Casa di Maurizio. So, Brendan and I walked to where he said, and were so confused when our hotel was not...there... we backtracked like 3 times when I finally realized we had passed it underneath a ton of scaffolding and construction (weird vibe #1). To our surprise, it was in an apartment building and there was a hand written note addressed to me on the buzzer, telling me what to do (weird vibe #2). The guy tells us where to go and that he'll meet us in a minute, so we go inside and walk up really dirty/damaged stairs to the second floor (#3) and wait outside the door for at least 6-7 min (#4). By this point Brendan and I were freaking out and were about to run away and find a normal hotel, when the owner came and let us in. It was like walking from the black & white Kansas into beautiful Oz in comparison to where we had just been....and it was so weird. I was still freaking out though because I could barely understand him, and called my mom AND dad to get an opinion of if we should stay or not. We decided to stick it out for the night and figure it out in the morning.

Well, it ended up being a great bed and breakfast, and I'm so glad that we got over the initial impression. I really recommend it to anyone going to Rome! Brendan and I had a really nice room with 2 beds that we pushed so far apart (haha the owner probably thought we hated each other) and we loved watching the Italian MTV channel which is actually 100% music....why isn't America like that....
Anyway, don't judge a hotel by it's creepy dark and dirty staircase/outside appearance is the lesson I learned from that.

My third experience was with the Italian waiter that HATED MEEEE. It was the first night and 4 of us found a really nice restaurant outside; classic Italy with twinkle lights, happy music, vines, all the cliche stuff. But for some reason the waiter had a vengeance on me...I swear. I was unprepared to order and instead of giving us a second, he just stood over my shoulder while I read the menu and said one of the 3 English words he seemed to know which was "tomorrow" over and over as in, "you're taking forever hurry up." Later, he served me main plate which was mussels and clams with a side of broccoli. When I stopped eating for a second to take a sip of wine he swooped in and went to take my plates which still had food all over them and in English I was like "Hey no I'm not done!!" And he was like "Ohhhhh" in a mocking tone. Seeing my normal looking broccoli, he continues to tell me I'm doing it wrong, and takes the oil and vinegar from the table and dumps them all over it. Meanwhile I'm sitting there thinking "this dude would be fired for doing that in the US" and "NOOOO I EAT ENOUGH OIL IN SPAIN!!" He walked away saying "better, better" and I was like uhh ok...and ate it anyway. Finally, when my friends were ordering desserts I was trying to remind them what the options were, and when I was listing them he looks at me and hands me the pad of paper and pen as in "fine you take their order."

Ugh he haaaaaated me....and after charging us 10 euros extra for no reason, we left and he probably kissed the ground when I did. So, dear Random Italian Waiter Man: if you ever read this I just wanna say YOU OWE ME BROCCOLI. However, the overall experience in Italy was incredible, and it's my favorite country I've ever been to. If you have a dream place you want to travel to, do it when you get the chance.

Shout out to the funniest guy that I know, who never ceases to stop texting me ridiculous things. I love me...I mean..you. Don't you think I'm pretty excellent?? You're so lucky to have me for a daughter. Hehe. Miss you!!

Also have to shout out to mi novio since I don't know the next time I'll blog and his birthday is this weekend and I won't get to be there for it. Feliz cumpleaños! Te quiero mi mejor amigo :)

Tres semanas más...no puedo creerlo. Gracias por leer, como siempre!
-Molly (that's what my coffee cup says this time...CLOSEST ONE YET!)