Italian lentils might not live up to Palouse lentils.

Another bright day dawned in Trastevere today. We really should learn to close the shutters before we go to sleep so we’re not awoken at 5:30 in the morning. (Side note—did anyone else notice how I just used the word “awoken” and that it’s actually a legit word???)

But, nonetheless, it began as an exciting day. We met at the Rome Center after getting our usual cappuccino, although our usual café was closed and we had to go to Magnolia which I don’t quite like as much. So it was a little depressing. But we got over that small tragedy and made it to class on time to head to the bus stop and go to the market in the immigrant community. The bus was super crowded and it was a very small space for me to be in but I survived! Good thing, too, because the market was AMAZING. We went for our migration class and were supposed to be observing who was selling, who was buying, who was wandering around, and so on and so forth. But the market was so incredible and had so much food that we just ended up buying all of our groceries! And it was so cheap—we got literally like 12 pounds of vegetables for like 3 euros.

We got more than just vegetables, though! They had stalls with everything imaginable! We got rice and, Pullman’s pride and joy, LENTILS. They’re not from the rolling hills of the Palouse but still, hometown pride. (Another side note—I think I’m going to miss the Lentil Festival this year! It’s tragic! It’ll be the first year I’ve missed it in basically my entire life! So I’ll just have to enjoy these mysterious Italian lentils instead, I suppose.)

Also, they had a huge, revolting fish section. With squid. And eel. And enough eyes to be completely disgusting. It went along with the giant meat section where they just had whole pigs they were hacking up. You could get any cut of meat you wanted, I suppose. It was kind of bloody but was still not nearly as gross as the fish section. Seafood and I just aren’t really friends. I mean, who was the first person to catch an eel and think, “Oh, I should eat this”???? That would definitely NOT be my thought process.

Overall, the market was really fun though. We got a lot of produce and enough food for quite a few dinners to come and we got a taste of Italy’s immigrant community so I guess we did learn something. It was a relevant excursion even though there were eel staring at me.

After another crowded bus ride home with our bags of food, we headed straight to the travel agent! We wanted some concrete plans for our Florence trip this weekend. Since I’ve already been, I didn’t really want to pay the extra money to stay the night when all I really want to do is shop and I can do that in just one day, hopefully. So, quite a few of us are taking the train down bright and early Saturday morning and returning late that night. It only takes an hour and a half to get there by train, leaving us at least twelve hours to spend money there! I’m very excited. It was a bit hectic in the travel agency because there were like 20 of us trying to get tickets from people whose English was quite limited but it all worked out in the end.

Since our next class wasn’t until 3:00, we had some time to kill after the travel agency. Shurui wanted Birkenstocks and there was conveniently a Birkenstock store right by our apartment so he and I wandered over there. I went in with full intentions NOT to buy anything but, one hour and 53 euros later, I have my own pair of Birkenstocks! They’re actually quite fantastic with great arch support. A perfectly valid purchase in my opinion.

After my FIRST shopping excursion in Rome, we went back to our apartment for a quick lunch before our class and to drop off the groceries I’d been carrying around all day. I made a sandwich and we were off again to the Rome Center to meet up with Lisa for art history. Today, we learned about the Farnese family who basically rose to power by having lots of money and marrying off their children strategically. Their crest had a six fleur-de-lis on it and their palace, completely decked out with the crest, is now conveniently occupied by the French Embassy. Smart planning. But, after talking about Giordano Bruno, this guy who was burned because he believed in science being fantastic, we headed over to the Capitoline Hill for some more Farnese talk and to explore the museums. The museums there were actually really cool with a lot of great statues and some creepy baby busts. You saw the standard old man busts but then there were some giant marble baby heads which were just a little creepy. Anyways, they’ve also opened up the Ancient Roman tabularium (where they did all the record keeping and financial stuff—ancient accounting for you, mom!) which the museums were built on and you get to go down there and it’s like, BAM, Roman Forum. You just look out over the entire thing! It was fantastic.

So, after seeing all the marble heads you could possibly want to see, we left the Capitoline for the Castel Sant’Angelo, Hadrian’s mausoleum. On the way there, we made a small detour so Lisa could take us to her favorite gelato place where she bought us all gelato using the money she had saved at the Capitoline. Whenever we get to museums that you have to pay to get inside of, Lisa always argues with the people and tries to convince them that we shouldn’t have to pay because we’re students learning the fantastic subject of art history. So, she got us in to the museums for 2 euros instead of 11! Way to go, Lisa.

But, back to the Castel Sant’Angelo, or Hadrian’s mausoleum. Hadrian was just a legit emperor, apparently, and wanted his super cool mausoleum to be giant and he purposely made it bigger than Augustus’s because he thought he was way cooler than Augustus. We crossed the Ponte di’Angeli (the bridge of angels) with these gorgeous statues and walked up to Castel Sant’Angelo, only to be told that it was closed. So that was a little depressing but it meant that we got home at 7:30 instead of like 8:30 or 9! Which was a good thing. It was a long day, starting at 9:30 and not ending until 7:30.

So, my roommates and I are home and are just about to make dinner. I don’t know what we’ll make yet but we have copious amounts of produce so it should be good, whatever it is. Today was an exciting day! I hope you find this post much more epic than the last ones.