ROMEing Around: Vanilla Wafes

I went and got my first Italian cappuccino the other day! It was delicious! I got a cappuccino and a corenetto (croissant) with cream for 1.50 Euro! thats less then 3 american dollars...you can't even get a coffee in the states for 3 dollars. And I usually dont like non-flavored coffee but this was really refreshing. I didn't even miss the sugars they put in it at places like caribou or starbucks. You could also tell that the corenetto was fresh and not just heated up.

On sunday 1/17 we walked down the street from our apartment and we found a market! It was supposedly the biggest one in Rome, and boy was it big! It is only on Sundays so there were alot of people everywhere. There were so many stands of clothes, shoes, scarves, jewelry, antiques, soccer jerseys, etc. We were amazed at how many people were there and actually buying some of the stuff. Some stands reminded me of a goodwill store with used clothing and shoes. I don't know what it was but buying used shoes kind of freaked me out so I steered clear of these stands. I got a cool Roma sweatshirt for 10 Euro! I had seen some of the same around Rome but not for that cheap and it is good quality. We are definitely going back!

On Monday, Katie and I found a little food market with fresh veggies and fruits! Everyone was so helpful and knew that we were American and that we didn't know what we were doing. I got an artichoke, 2 zucchini, cucumber, red pepper, and 2 apples for under 5 Euro! it was great! We also found 40 Euro cent Vanilla wafers that now all of us are addicted to. They melt in your mouth and taste so good (probably because they are so cheap). Today we pretty much ran home so we could have one after our long day of classes.

We started our second week of classes and all of us are not liking the idea of going to class while we are in Rome. It definitely makes it harder to get up and go to class in the morning when you can walk around and see so many cool things. It is nice though that our class gets in to see some of the places for "free" because we are a group. Monday we went to Castel sant' Angelo and drew for 3 hours. It is funny to be out in the public drawing because all of the people walk around look at your drawing and comment. It is cool how fascinated they are in what we are doing, especially since we are not Italian.

Today (Tuesday 1/19) we went to Mercati de Triani, which is part of the Roman Forum. It was really neat drawing the crumbling rock and seeing how the daylight was a major part of their designs. The pictures below are from our class period. After we were allowed to draw for a fair amount of time we would all set up our drawings and talk about what we need to work on. I can't complain about being outside drawing and seeing some of the oldest buildings ever built.