So this weekend a whole bunch of people we planning on jetting off to other Italian locales, but I looked at my calendar and saw that this weekend was essentially our last free weekend in Rome and I thought to myself, “Rachel, you’re study abroad in Rome, don’t you think you should spend some time IN ROME?” Why yes self, I should. So this weekend I stay pretty near the city and checked some stuff odd my Rick Steves list of must sees.
On Friday, a couple of people piggybacked on another trip through school to a vineyard about an hour outside Rome. We got there and hike through the field and then stopped at a row of vines and the owner handed us some sheers and said we could snip away.
Here’s the professional grape harvesting technique: You have to hold on to the bottom of the bunch and then snip the stem. This ensures that the grapes don’t fall on the ground and get lost or gross.
A professional grape-picker will harvest about 24 extra big milk crates in an 8 hour shift. The 25 of us got about 20 done in an hour. I thought that was impressive, but we we’re still working under speed.
After the harvesting bit, we learned about how wine was made and saw all the equipment. I learned that the production difference between red and white wine was that red wine grapes are crushed with the skins on and the white wine grapes aren’t. That’ll earn you $200 on Jeopardy.
After that, we headed down to the restaurant that this guy sells his wine to for lunch. It was sooooo fancy! We’re talking 50euros a head fancy. And here were 25 sweaty, stinky, dirty, and underdressed Americans walking in. Needless to say, they stuck us in the basement. Some may say that it was because there were so many of us, but I know the truth.
They served us lots of really good bread. I ate 6 pieces. Our appetizer was this modified Caprese salad with the best pesto I have ever tasted and this spicy cheese spread and seasoned tomatoes. It was delish. Then they served us Veal with this pureed vegetable cake that tasted like squash, bust was completely green, so I was very confused. And since we had spent the entire morning harvesting wine, they served us some of that too. And not just a taste that you’re supposed to spit out, but 4 big glasses. By the end of that meal, everyone was feeling a little tipsy. Side note: this meal began at 1:30 and we finished at 4. That’s Italian time for ya!
We we’re all so stuffed that we went to this little medieval village about 20 minutes away and walked the meal off. Then we piled back into the bus and headed home. Now, I was sitting next to my director’s 11 year old daughter. I’m feeling a little loopy from the wine and we’re driving over uneven cobblestone so I’m getting car-sick. I spent the majority of the ride back focusing on maintaining my composure until my stomach settled and the wine wore off all the while trying to keep up on our conversation about Glee and classic rock.
The next day, my roommate Molly, Michele and I decided to go to the Catacombs of St. Sebastino and have a tour. Since our usual Mama Duck was in Venice this weekend, I took the charge and found directions (all of which worked!) and we hopped a bus to get to the very outer limits of the city where the catacombs are. It took us a good hour and a half to get there. Our history professor Jan (pronounced “Yawn”, he’s a very tall, angry Belgian who walks faster than the Flash) would have been so proud that we knew that the burial grounds had to be located outside of the city walls (Paestum if we’re getting fancy) for sanitation reasons as well as that there wasn’t enough space within the city.
We bought our tickets for the English tour and scoped out the museum, gift shop, and chapel before our guide rounded us up.
I was geeking out. Hard core geeking out. Combine my love of historic things with my love of spooky things and you get a giddy out of control Rachel that was half way between a 4-year old after an espresso and my roommates when watching The Orphan. Plus our guide looked a little like a vampire and spoke with a accent that I convinced myself was Transylvanian.
But actually the catacombs are holy ground. They were respected even when Christianity was illegal in Rome. Apparently the 40-somehtings in our group missed that memo. Us 3 20-somethings were the most respectful people there. The other (all couples) were getting way too handsy for a holy space. And really lady, a mini dress? A grey leopard-print mini dress? Not to go all Stacy London on you, but come on.
After we left the catacombs, we had to ride around on the bus for another hour and a half (the story of my life) and then Molly and I wanted to find the sculpture St. Theresa in Ecstasy, so we went in search of that.
I brought Angels and Demons on the trip because it’s set in Rome and I thought it would be fun to read in Rome. It was. Dan Brown sucked me in and I finished that book in less than a week. Then Molly stole it and finished in under 10 days. So now we are on a quest to find all of the markers on the path of Illumination. We checked off the 4 Rivers fountain during our first week here and the West Wind plate and the Vatican on Monday, so all we had left were the markers for Fire and Earth.
It was pretty darn sweet. I can totally see why it was a little to risqué for the church (they had it moved to Santa Maria della Vitoria because they were so uncomfortable with it). But it was cool to see none the less.
After that we wandered home, but stopped at a little bakery that had a whole bunch of cookies. Apparently I’ve been getting a little homesick because I started crying in the bakery because it smelt like Christmas cookies. So Mom, you’ll be getting an email about the cookies I just want to eat and the one I want to help make.
Even though I didn’t do anything particularly exhausting, I fell asleep at 9pm, while reading, with all the lights on. And I missed my roommates going on a late night gelato run. I must be half lemur.
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