An Italian Grandmother and the Elixir of Love

I am very sorry for not posting in a while, but on the plus side I have LOTS to write about!

I have always wanted to go to an Opera, and what better time to go to one while IN Italy where the Opera was invented?! So my friend Jessica and I (who also is an opera lover) did a little bit of researching and found where THE Opera House was and set out to buy our tickets. Since we bought the tickets the day before the show we had to purchase box seats since that was the only seats still available, but thankfully we got a 25% off student discount. yay for being a student.
That night we went out to eat with Jessica's friend Jacob who was in town for the weekend. Now Jacob studies in Florence but was born and raised in Sweden and he told me his family lives "close to the Arctic Circle"  (and I thought living in MI and going to school in the UP was cold).  Also his name isn't Jacob, its pronounced 'Ya-kub', but since I don't have a clue how to correctly spell his name i'm going to make it easy for us all and spell it like 'Jacob'. Jacob is fluent in Swedish, English, and semi-fluent in Italian and Jessica is also semi-fluent in Italian, so I was in pretty good company to learn where a great restaurant might be. We decided upon a small family-run place where nobody spoke English and the only American in the whole place was Jess and I. The food was AMAZING. They had it set up where the meal is already planned out for you, so you just sit down and they bring an Appetizer (bread and olive oil, salami, olives, and bruschetta) , 1st course (bowl of pasta), 2nd course (veal with some kind of sauce), a dessert (lemon cake and a shot of limoncello), and of course all the wine you can drink. It was definitely one of the best meals I have ever had.
Now when I said that it was a family-run place I mean it would be equivalent to Grandma Kelly setting up a restaurant and all her kids/grandkids being the waiters. When we first walked in we accidently entered into the kitchen where this short, plump grandmother was cooking away looking as content as possible, and one of her sons sat us at the only open table in the place which was in the outside tent. There must have been a futbol team dinner going on because everybody else sitting in the outside tent was between the ages of 15-18 and male, with a few girls sitting on the guy's laps. It reminded me of Mitchells wrestling team dinner, except these boys were Italian and EXTREMELY loud. They were throwing food across tables at each other and shouting at each other that one would think a fight is about to break out.  Halfway through our dinner the Italian grandmother came out and (-the following I did not make up, this really did happen-) she grabbed one of the boys by the ear, walked him over to the door and started screaming at him in Italian, she then went and grabbed another boy, drug him to the door, and continued yelling at both of them. Jessica translated some of it for me and apparently the grandmother was telling the boys "you are shit! you come from shit! and you will never be anything but shit!"  She then pushed them out the door and literally slammed the door in their face, walked over and told all the other boys to leave.  Then walked over to my table gave Jessica and I a hug and kiss on the forehead, told us how beautiful we were, and asked us if we needed more wine.
When I am old I want to be exactly like this. :)

The next day was Opera day! The Opera was called L'elisir d'amore  or The Elixir of Love. I wasn't quite sure what was going on since the Opera was in Italian but the gist of it was: handsome farm boy falls in love with the most beautiful girl in town, she loves him as well but decides to marry the ugly General instead since he has lots of money and that's what her family wants her to do. Farmer boy gets depressed and wants to kill himself until a gypsy comes along with a magic elixir that will make her fall back in love with him. They either both end up taking it or both don't take it, I was a little confused. But long story short she leaves the General and marries the Farmer and all is fair in love and war.
The songs were amazing and we even had an audience stand up after one song and yell 'BRAVO! BRAVISSIMO!'
Even though I didn't quite understand the story I loved every minute of it and am now obsessed with the Opera. I now want to go see Carmen since Jessica told me that that's suppose to be the best Opera ever.

The Opera House!

Took a really quick picture during the last song. The costumes were so cute!

Have to go to class now but Birthday weekend in Florence and weekend trip to London posts are soon to come!  

When In Rome...Do As the Romans Do?

The topic of this post is the differences I have realized thus far between Rome and Conklin (well besides the obvious):

1. Italy has NO ice. I didn't think this would be such a big deal, but I have, on many different occasions, missed ice more than I miss Sarah. So if anyone wants to mail me an ice cube tray I would love you forever.

2: There is dog poop on every sidewalk. Owners do not pick up after their precious fido once he is done doing his business. Something I learned after stepping in a pile the first night.

3:  You have to pay for water when you go to a restaurant. You also have to clarify that you want still water.

4: If you have a dog on a leash, you can't get in trouble for sleeping outside. Therefore, every homeless person in Rome has a dog.

5: Open containers are allowed in public places (i.e. the subway, walking down the street, etc.) but my Italian teacher told the class that the only people who actually take advantage of this rule are Americans and the homeless.

6: Bars in Italy are not the same as bars in America, bars have cappuccinos and sandwiches, a PUB has alcohol. life lesson.

7: Do not smile at people you don't know. They will either A: look at you weird, or B: be creepy men who then make kissy noises at you as you walk by.

8: Pedestrians do not have the right-of-way. ever.

9: Being a single American girl is not a bad thing. When going out to eat the waiter will give you free champagne, a bowl of strawberries, and then ask for your number. 

10: They have horse meat at the grocery store, right next to the beef stakes. There are no words to describe how grossed out I was. 

This is just the beginning. I am sure there will be more culture-shock stories to come :)

Santa Maria and the Pope!

After orientation on Friday, Maddie and I decided to explore Trastevere a bit. Thankfully to the Rome book Mom got me, we have lots of different sites pointed out for us. We decided to go see the Santa Maria church, built in the 12th century and is the oldest church in Rome. It is famously known for its beautiful mosaic artwork and it definitely does not disappoint.

Altar in Santa Maria

beautiful mosaic artwork

After seeing a church like this one begins to feel cheated, I think churches like this should exist in Michigan as well.


My ultimate goal thus far is to see the Sistine Chapel, and after learning that on the last Sunday of the month admission is free into the Vatican (usually the Vatican is closed on Sundays), my roommates and I had big plans to see it. But after having too much fun on Saturday night we didn't quite wake up at 8am as originally planned. So at 10:30 Sunday morning Maddie, Leah and I were finally up and dressed and ready to tackle the crowds. However after getting a little lost and taking the wrong bus we didn't get there till a little after noon and didn't make it past security till 12:30, which is also the same time the Sistine Chapel and all the museums close. Long story short we only got to see St. Peters Basilica, which is absolutely amazing but personally I think it looks bigger on t.v. then it does in real life.

St. Peter's Basilica 

inside view of St. Peters dome

Leah, Maddie and I overlooking the plaza

When we first got the the Vatican plaza there was a woman's voice on the intercom speaking in the Italian language, naturally I had no idea what she was saying and just thought she was telling the crowd how to enter into St. Peters and where to stand in line. It wasn't until a mans voice came on that I thought "hey that sounds like the Pope!" and low and behold I looked way up and saw Benedict himself saying a prayer (or maybe a reading? wasn't quite sure because he was also speaking in Italian) over the crowd. I was so excited!

Vatican plaza...St. Peter's basilica is the building to the left and you can just see the open window to the very right where the Pope was. 

Benedict! (thank God for a 50x zoom)