So Long to Zagarolo!

After suffering through the last few months in Zagarolo without heat we're finally outta here! Ok, so the freezing conditions within our house were self-imposed, but torturous, nonetheless.

Tonight we get to move into our new apartment (it has central heating included in the rent), and tomorrow morning we'll go to our neighborhood produce market instead of our staple Zag market. We have high expectations for this market, but we know that some things just won't be the same.

For example, no more fresh farm milk from the fattoria. No more rosemary focaccia bread from our favorite little bread shop. No more free wine from Dante's stash. We will definitely miss these things.

This said, keep in mind that there are tons of positives about our new place that undoubtedly outweigh these little negatives. For example, tonight we are going to have dinner with our dear friend Juliana and show off the new pad. That's right people, we are doing something social, and we get to do it on our terms, because we can just go home when we're tired! No more worrying about making the train, or being forced to stay out until our hosts are ready to retire for the night. This may seem small, but trust us, it's huge.

Anyway, we're so happy about this move, and once you come to visit us and see how well-connected and central our place is, you'll understand why.

El Nino?

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I might not have believed it. Last week we had 5 gorgeous days full of sun and warmth. The birds were singing, the bugs were flying around in a freshly-hatched mania, and we sat out in the yard on chairs and soaked in the golden sunshine on our skin.

Fast-forward to this week. Monday was a cloudy and dreary day, with some rain at night. Tuesday was even stranger. There was rain in the morning, and then in the afternoon Rome was hit with a thunder and lightning storm, accompanied by hail the size of peas! What in the world? We were lucky enough to make it home without being pelted by these hateful little ice-chunks, but the strangest was yet to come.

Wednesday morning I (Allie) got up extra early to accomodate a student's request for an 8:30 lesson. As I walked to the train station I cursed myself for not bringing my gloves, and I thanked myself for the foresight to bring my scarf ou of the closet again. All the way to the station the air was filled with a mist of stinging little raindrops, but nothing heavy. Then, as I stood on the platform waiting for the train, the unthinkable happened. It began to snow! Big, fat, wet snowflakes that melted instantly upon hitting the ground, but snow nonetheless. I was utterly confused.

The rest of the day was somewhat mild, but naturally the temperature is a far cry from what we saw last week, and we are faced with the realization that as much as we'd like it to be, spring is not here yet!

Summer Prospects

If you all remember our first few hellish months in Italy, you will recall the complete and utter shut-down of Rome. You probably recall our anxiety in not even being able to apply for jobs until September because most business are at a standstill in August as everyone leaves the city for vacation. Well this year, we are determined to be prepared!

About two weeks ago we sent off applications to an English summer camp for kids in Austria, and today we received notice that we are being granted interviews!! We are extremely excited, because if we can land these jobs (which we have great confidence that we will) it will ensure that we are working through the month of August while our school is closed for holiday. Not only that, but we'll be spending the month is gorgeous Austria, travelling with the kids, playing tennis and having a great time. What better way to escape the dreadful heat of Rome and make money at the same time?

So, the interviews are next week, and hopefully we will know shortly after that if we will be given the jobs. Thank you to all of you out there (you know who you are) who helped us get together all of the little bits and peices we needed for our application. We could not have done it without you! And wish us luck in our interviews next week!

It's Been Eight Months!

It's kind of unbelievable that we've been here for so long! We've learned so much but really, it's just the tip of the iceberg. We've made vast improvements in nearly every aspect of our lives here in Rome. I'm starting to become a pretty good teacher, Allie already was. After the initial terror of the bus 'system', we've become able to navigate Rome with a fair amount of confidence. We're picking up the language slowly but we are making improvements and everyday it gets a little easier. Words that we heard, but didn't understand 7 months ago are now automatics. It feels great. We've got our living situation figured out for the next year which is a major relief and if only we could solve a few other problems we'd be nearly stress-free. As the Italians say "Piano, piano." or step-by-step.

A Brief Rant

Lately, I've had this feeling that we've kind of missed the boat in terms of Italy, and particularly Rome. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still full of beautiful and awe-inspiring sights, it's just that something seems slightly off. Growing up with my father always speaking so highly of Italy, needless to say, I arrived with lofty expectations. Last Friday, as we strolled through the beautiful Campo di Fiori, I couldn't help but notice the store fronts that were probably charming little fry-shops or traditional working-class trattorie that Molto Mario was always going on about were empty or worse filled with tourist souvenirs. Or even worse yet, had become bar/nightclubs for the young, drunken American crowd that dominates the square after about 7pm. I don't blame the bar owners, the shop owners, the restaurant owners, after all, if they didn't adjust to the consumers demand, they probably wouldn't been making any money or they would be out of business.

It just pains me that I have to miss out on the real Rome because hordes of young American sots have taken over a beautiful square and have actually turned it into "Little America" as I've heard it called. I suppose there is nothing we can do except search out other beautiful squares to stroll through, find the traditional restaurants and fry-shops and patronize them so when you all come visit there will still be a little Rome left and not just souvenir shops selling the same old crap or restaurants that have identical menus all with alfredo sauce, lasagna and meatball dishes. Sorry for the rant, just had to get that out.

Along the Appia Antica and The Abbey Theatre

Charles and Alessandra on Via Appia Antica

After our weekly Saturday morning trip to the Zagarolo Market we set off to Rome to meet with Charles' student, Alessandra. She's a history buff but none of her friends ever want to go to the historical sights, they'd rather see the latest flick at the theatre. So, being the history nerd that he is, Charles volunteered us to go the Catacombs and spend a day out doing a little exploring.

The Appia Antica

The Catacombs are an elaborate underground Christian cemetery that was built starting in the first half of the second century. There are over sixty catacombs in Rome, originally they were outside of the city walls as Roman law dictated, and four that are open to the public. We went to the largest one, Saint Callixtus.

http://www.catacombe.roma.it/en/storia.html (copy and paste)

After our tour of the Catacombs, we went for a stroll along the Appia Antica, the first Roman road. This was the road that connected Roma to Napoli and even today you can see the ruts left in the boulders from all of the use. In fact, it was used until very recently. It was a little bit chilly at this point so Alessandra took us to a chocolate factory for some real hot chocolate. Real hot chocolate is a far cry from the Swiss Miss powder that we all grew up with and drink today (I still love it). It's slightly bitter like all good chocolate should be and nearly has the thickness of pudding. We'll be taking all of our visitors from now on.

http://www.said.it/ (copy and paste)

Once we parted ways with Alessandra we had plans to meet up with a few friends. Our friend Jules and our Scottish friend, Ally, whom we met a few months back and was in Rome visiting his family. Of course, the plan was to meet for "a pint" but that quickly fell by the wayside and we ended up hanging out all nights and getting into all kinds of trouble. We had a great time, as the pictures show proof of.

Charles and Alastair

Jules, Charles, Ally

We had a long but great day in Rome and we're looking forward to quite a few more of these in the near future (with less pints of beer)!

Charles, Ally and Allie

Ally, Allie, Chuck, Allison, Jules (that's a lot of the same name there...)

The New News

Ok, so we've found a place in the center of Rome, we think. The lady is slightly kookaburra and there are a few other complications but she told us yesterday that we have the apartment. We are so happy and relieved to be moving out of Zagarolo, though we're positive this area may have some drawbacks as well. The positives really outweigh any of the negatives that we considered. This apartment is truly in the heart of Rome. We're two metro stops (ie ten minutes) from the central station with access to a bus stop outside of our door. We also live on a street that is closed to car traffic, this means it will be fairly quiet, though not compared to the tranquility of Zagarolo. Apparently there are quite a number of good open-air markets in the area but we could always go to the bigger markets since we're so well-connected. The rent is higher but all of the utilities are included (except electricity) which means that it's not much higher when you consider our last gas and electric bill totalled nearly 1000 euro. It is an older building so our landlord has advised us of a few little pecadillos, the best of which is don't run more than a single electrical device at a time or else we'll blow the circuit. This means an inconvenient trip to the depths of the basement. We're not exactly sure if that means we can't charge our cell phones at the same time or what. We'll soon find out as we plan to begin moving in at the beginning of April.