Roman Apartment

Tags

apartment, italy, rome

My apartment here in Rome is like Rome in a lot of ways. Mostly in that it is barely functional, yet it is still quite expensive.

But, it’s not all bad. Sure– the apartment is tiny, the bed is uncomfortable, the broken glass on my bedroom door is thinly concealed with duct tape, the toilet seat is barely attached to the toilet, and turning the shower head on and opening the blinds require a strength that I just cannot muster. I do have a bidet, though.

Joking aside, it’s not so terrible. I do have two super sweet Italian roommates (both from Basilicata), and the neighborhood is decent enough. It’s not a pretty area (outside of the center, very little of this city is), but it’s near a university, so there are a lot of shops and traffic.

Also cool…

Yep. That weapon is the key to my apartment. It did take me a few days to master the seemingly simple feat of opening my door, though. (Something about jiggling and pulling and then pushing.)

Also nice…

Orange trees in my neighborhood!

It’s a bit of a funny story as to how I found this place. On my second day here, I had a job interview. During this interview, the school’s director asked where I was staying, to which I responded that I was looking for an apartment. Apparently, one of the instructors at the school was looking to move out of her current apartment so that she could live with her boyfriend. Two days later, I was moved in to said apartment.

In Italy, it’s never about what you know, but who you know.

Alla prossima!

First Week Down

Tags

ancient, italy, photography, rome, sites, update

I’ve promised an update, so here goes…finalmente.

It’s been a very chaotic week. I hit the ground running, and managed to find an apartment in just two days. It’s near Piazza Bologna, off of the Metro B, and is mostly a student area, as it’s very close to Sapienza.

It’s been a difficult week– finding an apartment, lining up job interviews, not to mention acclimating myself to the language and culture again. (I went to the supermarket this afternoon. Big mistake. I forgot questa è Italia. Things aren’t open when you need them to be.) There’s also the difficulty of being in a new place and not knowing anyone here. But piano piano.

Anyway, here are some photos from the first few days. My dad and I had some time to do a bit of sightseeing. More photos to come.

1. The monument to Vittorio Emanuele. | 2. The Roman Forum. | 3. The Arch of Septimius Severus, I believe. | 4. A painting of the Madonna. | 5. The field where my dad used to play soccer in Castel Fusano, a suburb of Rome.

Sunday Brunch at Fiorino

Tags

East Falls, family, Fiorino, food, Italian cuisine, philadelphia, photography

Greetings from Roma!

I’ll have an update soon as to how things are going over here. As for now, I’ve got some pictures that I’d like to post from about a week ago.

Just before I left, my family, some friends, and I had brunch at Fiorino in Philadelphia, PA. This is the restaurant that my father owns and operates, and it’s a fantastic little place. (Though, perhaps I’m biased?)

We had a lovely meal of prosciutto and melon, salad with gorgonzola, pasta, seafood, and eggs benedict (with pancetta no less!). For dessert, we had panna cotta, cannoli, cassata siciliana, and gelato. If you happen to be in the Philadelphia area, I hope that you make a visit to Fiorino. It’s certainly well worth it.

1. Fiorino in Philadelphia, PA. | 2. Panna cotta for dessert. | 3. My parents enjoying themselves.

Scenes from Christmas Break

Tags

christmas, family, flowers, holiday, jack russell terrier, philadelphia, photography, west highland white terrier

1. At the florist’s in Peddler’s Village, Bucks County, PA. | 2. Gingerbread house competition and display at Peddler’s Village. | 3. Our Christmas tree. | 4. Molly, the formidable Jack Russell Terrier. | 5. Francesca and 2-month-old Maisie.

New Year, New Beginnings

Sadly, I’ve been an irresponsible blogger. It’s been almost a year now since I’ve last posted. A few reasons for this:

1. I’ve been focusing on work. In Chicago, I was working for a few non-profit organizations as an English as a Second Language instructor. Between teaching, lesson planning, traveling between three centers, attending meetings and professional development workshops, developing a teaching portfolio, and making sure that I had a sufficient amount of positive and creative energy for my classes, I’ve been exhausted.

2. Now, I surely could have found some free time in the past ten months to provide the sporadic update. But, the fact is, I’ve been wrapped up in other creative pursuits. You’ll be happy to hear that I’m still eating (too much) and cooking too, but I’ve also been playing my fiddle, experimenting with photography, and working on some short stories– not to mention catching up on my reading and movie watching.

3. Changes. I’m currently in the process of relocating from Chicago to Rome. In fact, by this time next week, I’ll be in Italy.

Because of this move, I’d like to get this blog up and running again. This time, though, the focus will be much more general. As my little corner of the internet, I’d like to use this space for: musings regarding my new home city, a space to promote my writing and publications, my experiments as a novice photographer, the occasional recording of my fiddling, and, of course, a few recipes and food-related posts. This will be a haphazard pastiche of things that I find interesting, inspiring, amusing, and beautiful.

Cheers to a fantastic 2012!

Irish Soda Bread

Tags

bread, Ireland, Irish, March, raisins, St. Patrick's Day, sweet

In honor of another St. Paddy’s day that has come and gone, I’d like to share a recipe for Irish Soda Bread. I had only ever had Irish Soda Bread once in my life. During one of my years at a Catholic grammar school, an Irish-American friend of mine brought the stuff into class one St. Patrick’s Day, and I’ve remembered the dense, slightly sweet bread ever since. Feeling bold, I decided to try a recipe for it that I found on Saveur. I made a few slight alterations, though the recipe is quite good.

Irish Soda Bread (adapted from Saveur)

• 4 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 425. Mix together flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda in a mixing bowl. Work room-temperature butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, then add in raisins.

Making a well in the mixture, add egg and buttermilk. Mix liquids into dry mixture with a wooden spoon until it is too stiff to stir (if mixture is a bit sticky, add a little more flour). Knead dough gently in bowl, form a ball. Move dough to floured surface and shape into a round loaf.

Transfer dough to lightly greased baking sheet. With a knife, score dough in an X shape. Bake in oven until crust is golden brown, about 40 minutes.

Serve warm.

My best advice is to eat this within a day (invite your friends over!). Though the bread is superb fresh, it left a little to be desired the following day.

Try for yourself though. Enjoy (with a cup of tea)!

 

A Little Song for You

Apropos to nothing, I thought I’d share this with you.

It’s a little Italian song that I learned on the fiddle. I learned it just yesterday, so there’s a number of mistakes, but I quite like the song overall. It’s called “Che ridere.”

Anyway, here it is! (Just follow the link.)

Che ridere