Family Dinners

So to catch you up before I drop the Rome blog, last week was a nice catch up week after my exhausting Interlaken trip… well after Valentine’s Day that is.

Our group of 11+ had dinner at Il Gattos family style.  For only 15 euros each, we had mozzarella and tomatoes, a cold cut platter, bruschetta and bread with a mushroom mixture on top, a vegetable platter, delicious bread, and that was just the appetizer.  We also had ravioli, spaghetti, and another type of pasta, not to mention the half of liter of chianti per person.  Needless to say, it was delicious.  After dinner, we made our way to the bar for the famous gatto bombs before heading to the Lion’s fountain.

The rest of the week I spent resting and going to class.  We had our first quiz in Italian which was easier than my high school Spanish 1 quizzes, but I’m not complaining.  I can tell you my name, where I’m from, how old I am, articles of clothing, and how to conjugate the verbs to be and to have.  Andddd that’s about it.  I wish I could have come with a little more Italian background.  In wine tasting Tuesday night, we only tasted SEVEN wines.  I don’t know how Donato expects us to take notes after round 4.  And my favorite story from my history of Florence class is Cosimo the Elder would walk past the Pucci Palace to go pray and one day one of the Pucci family members wanted to get revenge to Cosimo so he sat perched in one of his windows with his gun.  He was caught just in time, and Cosimo had the Medici family emblem put on the corner of the Pucci palace and defaced leaving only one of the six balls in place.  He also had the window where the shooter had been permanently shut to symbolize conspiracy and broken friendship.  I love these stories and the history and symbolism behind things that I walk past every day. 

Thursday night, our group got together again for a family dinner in our apartment this time.  We ended up having way too good of a time and stayed up wayyy to late considering our 7 am departure for Roma the next day.  Regardless, it was a great night.

Roma post very soon!