Italian Living

While in Italy, I am living in an apartment in Piazza Bologna with eight other girls.  Here are some things that we quickly learned about our apartment (I will start with the cons so that we end on a highpoint):

Cons:
-The refrigerator didn't work
-The oven didn't work
-No wifi
-Our kitchen is the size of a closet
-Very little common space for nine people

Pros:
-We were given a brand new refrigerator
-And wifi!
-There is a bathroom for every room, so I am only sharing mine with one other girl
-I have a lovely and easygoing roommate
-Fun decor
-A cupboard stocked with Nutella
-Our neighborhood is awesome!
-Nine girls in one apartment=so much fun!
*For example: today, my roommates took a pasta-making class through CEA, our study abroad coordinator, so we had a "family dinner" with the pasta.  Our dinner consisted of: homemade pasta, homemade puttanesca, freshly grated parmesan, roasted zucchini, homemade garlic bread, homemade sangria with blood oranges, plums, and grapes.  Oh, and some gelato (because we clearly didn't have enough to eat).  All of the fresh fruits and vegetables (not to mention the fresh bread and pasta) mean that we have cooked some extremely delicious and inexpensive meals for ourselves.  We are learning how to shop around, and go to the local market, bakery, and grocery stores.

Below, I have posted some pictures of my apartment!

My bedroom (and my lovely roommate) 

More of my bedroom

Common room (dining room and living room) 

Common room (from the other side)

Kitchen 

Kitchen

Hallway

As I mentioned above, we are coming to love our neighborhood--Piazza Bologna.  From what I can tell, we are living in a middle class, residential neighborhood.  What this means is that we are living alongside real Italians.  Living in a real neighborhood means that we have two grocery stores, a market, at least four bakeries, three pharmacies, multiple beauty and clothing stores, and numerous restaurants, bars, and coffee shops.  Our walk to "school" (we have classes in the CEA villa--yes, it is actually a villa with an Italian family still living on the upper floor) each day is only about five minutes.  We are also about a seven-minute walk from two beautiful parks, one of which is Villa Torlonia, the park where we went on our very first day for lunch (and where Mussolini had his summer villa, now a museum).  On Sunday, it was beautiful out, so a couple of us headed to Villa Torlonia with our books to study.  We found ourselves a nice sunny spot on the grass and settled in.  It turns out that all Italians go to the park on Sundays with their dogs and/or their children.  This made the park more conducive for people-watching than studying.  I saw dogs of all shapes and sizes, kids of various ages tossing a ball and picking daisies, and young people playing volleyball.  It was wonderful to experience local life on such a beautiful day, and I was glad to see a gorgeous city park put to good use.

  

Villa Torlonia

Villa Torlonia

Another brief note: After spotting a kosher restaurant about three blocks from my apartment, I became curious about Jewish life in our neighborhood.  After a quick Google search, I found that there are two kosher restaurants, a kosher bakery, a kosher store, several kosher hotels, and two synagogues all within walking distance of me.  I have yet to go explore these different places, and see if they are all still around, but that is on my to-do list for this week.


Tomorrow I get to try my hand at pasta-making.  I will let you know how that goes!