As I leave Rome for sixth time now I have to take a moment think, what separated this visit from the rest? Well, to be honest not to much, Rome always seems to impress me no matter how many times I’ve experienced it. The Piazza Navona is still my favourite square, I love watching the artist sell what they claim to be their own work, I love gazing at the fountain of Rivers as it always make me try to remember the four major rivers and laugh at the fact that I have been through the mind game 5 times before. I love watching all the other wandering people and create their stories in my head. Then once I have soaked up the contemporary square I imagine what is was like filled with Chariots and people wearing togas. Once my mind is satisfied, I must satisfy my stomach. I move through the little streets just off the Piazza with hopes to find a restaurant that I ate at last year. Rarely do I find it, but I always find a new gem that appears like platfrom 9 3/4 in Harry Potter. When dinner is complete, which is either some version of pizza or pasta, I move on to dessert…Gelato. As most of you know I have a soft spot for this Italian dessert and no matter how many gelatos’ I try at home, they taste nothing like they do in Rome. Unlike the restaurants I know exactly where I want to go. My favourite Gelatorie is not some fancy place, nor does it have a lot of flavors, instead it is a small place that is cluttered with fruit and pictures of famous and not so famous people enjoying their home made gelato. This year however I did change up the flavours a bit. I commonly have one scope of yogurt flavour and 1 scope of melon (yummy), but this year the students encouraged me to be more adventurous and try new flavours…and the new list is long to present. From this experiment developed “The Gelato Challenge”, which consist of eating 12 different flavours, at 12 different Gelato places, in 12 hours. (Each flavour must be on a separate cone and the cone must be eaten completely). I have not yet completed this challenge and since we are on our way to Greece I probably never will. Oh, wait I could do it this summer….
I would be lying if I said this visit was like all the others, because each group brings their own character and this group is wonderfully kind and adventurous. For example one night I asked one students what they were planning on doing for the evening. As awaited the typical response, which is “going to a restaurant near Piazza Navona” or “getting take out near the hotel”, but instead I heard “a few of us were thinking about having a picnic on the Spanish Steps.” Wow, I thought to myself and what was even more impressive was that I was invited. (Commonly students don’t like to hangout with their teacher on their free night and vice versa, but this was an experience I did not want to pass up). After grocery shopping for this picnic we found ourselves with the following items for 6 people.
4 packages of meat, Brie, Swiss cheese, Buns, mayo, juice, wine, apples, Winnie the pooh kinder eggs, cookies, whip cream, nutella, and what we call a 2 pound pound cake. (It was defiantly one of the funniest shopping experiences I have ever had.)
Though the food was fairly silly (for a lack of a better word) we decided to dress up. So there we were, all 6 of us at the park by the Spanish Steps sitting in what could almost be the middle of a road. People, children, police and tourist walk by and around our silly feast and stared at us, but we knew that deep down they were jealous. They were jealous because we were watching the sunset on Rome as we communally performed a memorable picnic.
We sipped wine or ACE (an Italian fruit drink) or a combo of both from plastic glasses, we were stuffed the air holes of our buns with lettuce because our bun looked as if asteroids had hit them. Once the holes were filled with lettuce and mayo we gazed patiently at John as he carefully sliced the cheese with our only knife. Then we pilled on the meat, four different kinds of meat were tossed on the bun layer after layer, not one slice could go to waste. (one sandwich in particular had over an inch of meat on it.) Once the crumbs of the sandwiches settled it was time for dessert. First came the Winnie the Pooh Kinder’s, each egg was picked out, almost like getting a fortune cookie after eating Chinese food, but instead of hoping for a fortune we were hoping for our favourite pooh character “Eyore, Eyore!” chanted one of my picnic companion, “Yes, Tigger!” another shouted. Then once all the eggs were open we all took turns sharing what we found inside. (I got a Pooh.) That wasn’t the end to our dessert the cookie bag was opened, the seal of the Nutella was broken, and the whip can was shaken. Being sure not to break the delicate half chocolate, half vanilla cookie, one person carefully dipped each cookie into the Nutella. Then the next step required topping the cookie off with whip cream, which appeared not to be the easiest task. It seemed that the European whip creams cans require a strong hand, in order for it to spray efficiently on to the Nutella covered cookie. The process was worth it! I honestly do not know how to go about describing it, as side from the fact that it was very tasty. I feel that this original dessert deserves a name…. perhaps The Spanish Step Cookie. Hmm. No that doesn’t give it justice, anyhow. We wrapped up our picnic leaving marks of wine, ACE, chocolate, lettuce, and crumbs on the pavement of our spot that over looked the night glow of Rome.
