Sorry I suck so much, but I shall try to make you love me again in 2 short weeks.

“Zwarte Piet (meaning Black Pete) is a companion of Saint Nicholas (Dutch: Sinterklaas) whose yearly feast in the Netherlands is usually on the evening of 5 December […] when they distribute presents to all good children.” (Wiki)

doesn’t seem too bad so far…

BUT, Zwarte Piet is depicted in basically like this

But guys, the Netherlands is not racist. Zwarte Piet is simply the devil chained in servitude to Sinterklaas, or possibly just his helper that he brought with him from Spain. nbd. Oh, also, he is only that black because he has to slide down sooty chimneys.

A little aside: Santa Claus does not get so dirty beacuse, as we all know, he had Dockers stain proof his suit. And, in the Netherlands, not even soot would dare fuck with Santa.

If you read all that stupid history shit, congrats! Now on to the fun stuff, pictures I collected of Zwarte in Ammy:

Piet department store decor

Piet just hanging out with his broom @ Madame Tussaud’s (yes that is waxObama in the background)

I forgot to mention, Piet has evolved into Pieten (many piets) a gaggle of Sinterklaas’ chimney friends.

These creepy Pieten are in a cosmetic shop window, and dressed as Princess Jasmine (it is a little known fact that Piet loves Disney, also Sinterklaas is like Northern Europe’s Halloween).

AND FINALLY…….

I stalked a group of 5 young Pieten…

AND GOT A PICTURE WITH THEM!!!!!

including, but not limited to:

-KLM Airplane Sandwiches

-Thai Food (Spicy Rice with shrimp, chicken, beef and vegetables)

-Chocolate Covered Waffle with Rainbow Sprinkles (pictured here)

- Part of a Cinnamon Bun

-Heineken Xtra Cold

- Cheese Pastry (2nd row, all the way to the left)

- -

-Starbucks Coffee 

- Indian Food Thanksgiving (chickpeas!)

- Mini Airplane Wine

- An Apple

- Omelette with Bacon (@ a pancake house)

- Bagel Chips

- Another Apple

- A Mini Roast Beef Sandwich (bottom right)

- More Coffee

- Burger and Beer

- More KLM Sandwiches

So people have been talking to me recently about this club. It is called La Maison. NO FUCKING JOKE! There is a ritzy club in Roma called Club La Maison. Some how I think it has a different vibe than Wayne, PA’s very own Club La Maison

For “Museum History and Theory in Rome” class 2 weeks ago we went to Palazzo Massimo alle Terme and the Baths of Diocletian. 

Palazzo Massimo alle Terme is one of Rome’s National Museums.  It had a lot of marble sculpture and mosaics. We went because the collections housed there are things that were acquired by Italy after unification and was supposed to teach us about cultural patrimony. 

Patrimony-Shmatrimony, check out this “Herm“ 

No joke, this sculptural type is called a herm, defined by the extended pedestal base. As you can see with this sculpture, the nose was broken off and re-attached later further down the shaft of the pedestal. 

There was also a room of frescoes from Villa Livia, the dining room of the summer home of Augustus’s wife. 

Also, mosaics of shrek characters! 

Then we went to the Baths of Diocletian, which were public baths in ye anciente times, but now consists of a museum of inscriptions (epigraphy), a sculpture garden, and big rooms where baths used to be. Oh and a basilica designed (maybe redesigned?) by Michelangelo. Most of the original bath complex doesn’t exist and the Basilica is where the tepiderium (tepid-water-bath-ium) used to be.

Some sculpture fragments outside the baths

They even have men dressed up as beardy naturalists. It is phenomenal how still they stand. 

This is for you RM. Elephant sculpture in sculpture garden. 

This is for my Jewish fam. In the inscription musuem, a Jewish grave marker. Yes, the identifying factor is the menorah. 

This is the Basilica Santa Maria de gli Angeli. The facade still maintains the same look as the original baths.

The back of the baths, when you exit the Basilica. 

Coming Soon…

Bone Church

23.9.09

Dinner Wednesday: Curry chicken, zucchini, onions, and red peppers on basmati rice. Made by  Aliza

25.9.09

Friday Dinner: Manicotti stuffed with ricotta and ground beef, topped with home made pasta sauce and parmesan. Made by Me and Julia

I have a ton of stuff to post, but instead of doing one MEGApost which would probably bore you, I shall do a few smaller ones.  Also, this way, I am tricking you into reading everything!

and in the words of coolio: Awwwww here it goes

Friday September 11th, I went with my Rome Sketchbook class to Tuscania. 

Tuscania, despite what I had imagined, is not in Tuscany, but lies North West of Rome in the same region of Lazio.  It took about 2 hours by bus to get there, and there were views of the coast there and back, I heard.  Because we left at 8 am, I of course chose to sleep on the bus.  

Our first stop was la Chiesa di San Pietro.  This is the hill we drove up in a GIANT bus, slightly horrifying.  

La Chiesa di San Pietro (St. Peter’s Church) 

The moon was still out when we arrived (see top middle portion of this photo for proof) and though I thought my eyeballs were going to fall out, I had to admit it was a beautiful location. 

Reasons It Was Beautiful:

1. Hill towns in the country are significantly cooler than Rome, therefor I can enjoy my day much easier without having to wring out my clothes. 

2. Old Shit.  TU loves taking us to places with old shit because Italy has a lot of impressive old things.

• Colosseum: 1st century CE
• The Egyptian obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo stolen from Ramesses II: 13th century BC
• Pope Benedict XVI: 1348 CE

3. Tuscania has many Etruscan artifacts including an Etruscan museum (didn’t get to go), but Chiesa di San Pietro had a few Etruscan sarcophagi (there is one at the bottom of the tower on the left side of the picture)

A Creepy Crypt 

I sketched in this creepy crypt, where Franco Zeffirelli filmed the final scene in his adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.  Gross thing about the crypt: there were severed hands and bones gnats everywhere.

After sketching at San Pietro, we leisurely walked down to the other main church of Tuscania, Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore. 

DANGER: Grape Eating Dog Inside
We walked by a house that had grapes growing all over the outside wall.

I picked some and ate them. They were concord grapes, very sweet, a little squishy, tons of seeds, and tasted like Manischewitz.

Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore
Another church! At this point, I was tired and hungry, and sketching was not so entertaining.  There is a pretty cool fresco inside this church that depicts Satan pooping out sinners.

Inside
If you look the left of the big cross and then down a little you will see Satan standing over a wolfy looking hell dog mouth that is full of people.

Let’s lighten things up a bit…

Check out this creepy animated potato! And yes, there is potato pizza here. It is a combination of delicious and very weird. This was in the town proper of Tuscania

We wandered around, found some food, I annoyed some dogs.


We went and sketched on a hill that faced the churches where we had been earlier. The church on the right is San Pietro, and on the left is something old.


Then I did a photoshoot for the upcoming “Foreigners on Walls” calendar. Then we left.

CIAO!! I hope I didn’t bore you to death!

p.s. there are more pictures if you are interested on my Flickr

I have a bunch of pictures to add and write about my trip to the town of Tuscania and some pictures from a class trip.  I have been a combination of lazy and busy though, so they will have to wait.  For now, I leave you with more edibles.

red pepper, onion and cheese risotto
peperoni, cipolla e formaggio risotto  
 

fusilli with ground beef, carrots, and red sauce
fusilli con carne macinata, carote, e salsa pomodoro.

- both made by Julia (roommate)

Last Sunday was Kat’s birthday, so in honor of her 21st we had a potluck on Saturday.

Preparing the food: 

Final Set Up:

First Course (Antipasti/Insalata Mista):

Salads! I made a Caprese salad: tomato (pomodoro), basil (basilica), and mozzarella with a olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixture drizzled on top.  Julia made a delicious salad with lettuce, gala apples, goat cheese, whole grain mustard, and balsamic vinegar. 

Second Course (Primer Piatto):

Two pastas! Aliza made spaghetti with zucchini and red sauce, and Nick made farfalle with pesto.

Third Course (Secundi Piatto):

Christina made an unbelievably delicious and crispy eggplant parmesan (melanzane alla Parmigiana), and Julia made a delicious 5:5:10 steak (cooked in a pan for five minutes on each side and then ten in the oven) accompanied by scarpetta (bread for cleaning the plate). 

We also got cake a birthday cake from GS the grocery store. It was supposed to be chocolate with apricot filling, but it just tasted like moist chocolate cake. 

Apparently the only thing I can blog about is food, mainly because I always have my camera when we are cooking, but I will try to take some photos about the city to show you what else is going on here in Roma!

Today we took a day trip to Todi, a hill town located in Umbria. Umbria is a landlocked region in the center of Italy.  It took about 2 hours by bus to get there. 

generic internet picture of Todi

After milling around the small cobbly streets of Todi for 2 hours, we got back on the bus

random Italian tour bus 
note: how silly are the rearview mirrors on Italian buses? Like bunny ears!

From there we went to Frattoria Titignano, which is a 12th century castle with 4,000 acres of land. It is currently used for Agriturismo, “ a style of vacation that normally takes place on a farm or ranch. This may include the chance to help with farming and ranching tasks during the visit. Agritourism is considered to be a niche or uniquely adapted form of tourism and is often practiced in wine growing regions”. 


Ooohh an old castle

what a vista! 

Despite agriturismo involving farming, we did no such thing. Instead, we ate a lot of food. 

When we arrived, after driving there on many windy narrow roads, past many fields of dead sunflowers and vineyards, we were greeted with food outside

like so. 

Outside we had antipasti. There were 3 types of pizza: 1. sweet white onion with cheese 2. margherita pizza 3. pizza dough with rosemary. All of these were delicious, particularly the rosemary bread. There were also two types of crostini with spreads, liver and one that looked like mixed corn (it was lumpy and yellow_ and things.  I tried the liver, yuck, and then avoided the weird corn combo thing. 

Then we moved inside to eat the rest of our “meal” more like feast. TURome took over the space with our about 200 people and of course in the main banquet hall our loud American group was seated next to a table reserved for an Italian wedding party.  I would not have been pleased with our loud selves at my wedding, but meh. 

Here is what we ate:

Course 1: a pastry with layers of thin crispy dough with soft cheese between and cured meats (little salamis, a big weird round meat and prosciutto)

Course 2: risotto with asparagus and thick noodles with stewed boar meat sauce

Course 3: Venison, which was super gross, very fatty and rich and a weird texture kind of like brisket but tougher

Course 4: Lamb or Chicken, I had lamb and again it was just too rich so a little gross 
with buttery roasted potatoes and a salad with oil and vinegar

Course 5: tiramisu, biscotti, dessert wine (that you dip the biscotti in), espresso, and fruit 

I liked the two pasta dishes the best, and boar meat was significantly less creepy than it sounds, particularly because it wasn’t very solid, but instead part of a sauce.   

Also, none of these photos are mine because I brought my film camera on this excursion.