It's 11:20 in the morning and I am sitting in Rinaldo's having a caffe "Americano". Italians don't drink large cups of coffee, so if you want a large cup you have to order it "Amercano" style. I feel kind of lame for not just ordering a traditional coffee but hopefully I will after a few weeks here. I also had a bowl of cheerios. I love Italian portions. Not only are the cheerios themselves smaller than American Cheerios, but they come in a very small bowl with little milk and sliced banana. The milk is whole milk I think, certainly not skim as they dont even have that as an option. The whole concept of "light" and "diet" foods is entirely American. So much so that the Italians don't really even have a word for it. For example, if you order a diet coke, the can will say "Coke Light" on it, as there really is no Italian word for it. It's something Americans had to make up because we can't control our eating habits. Last night some friends and I found a little restaurant near the Vatican to eat dinner. Italian menus would be described as ala carte by American standards because you order everything separate, the salad- Insalate, first plate- usually pasta, the second plate- a meat, contorni, or side dishes- usually vegetables. This is because you only order as much as you can eat. Italians don't believe in doggie bags. Then you have America where everything comes with your order and its always more food than most people can finish. Here it's simple- order what you can eat. We also had a bottle of wine, vino rosso, with dinner. We were not offered a choice of which type of wine we'd like other than red or white. We were brought a bottle of Montepulciano that only cost about 10 euro and was absolutely amazing, as was dinner. I am delighted to find that Italian dishes that you see made frequently in the states are prepared entirely different here. I've had lasagna, pesto pasta, and pizza which were all so different than what I'm used to in America. And so much more delicious. I don't think I'll be able to eat Italian food at home. What they serve in our cafeteria is better than the food I've had at nice restaurants in the U.S. I've also been so delighted with the attitude of the Italian people towards us. I think it helps that my friend and I can speak the language decently, and use it as much as possible, but the people here, waiters and other merchants are so friendly and helpful. For the most part I don't feel like a foreigner.
Over the last two days I have seen and done more than I can even wholly comprehend. On Friday we went on a tour of Ostia Antica, and ancient city whose ruins have been preserved. We saw the remains of peoples' houses, churches, amphitheaters and tombs. We walked along the cobble stones which once were the Via Diana, the most important street in the city, and along structures which were store fronts. The Romans were very smart, very practical people. We saw what was once a bar, complete with a sleeping area for the people who were too drunk to get home. I think we should reinstate this concept in America. All the shops had murals on the ground in front of them, which were descriptions of either the shops themselves or of the shopkeepers, most of which were well preserved. We saw the remains of the great Roman baths, training grounds for soldiers and athletes, public toilets...the Romans were so brilliant. They understood things which I can't imagine how they had without modern technology. For example, there were three baths, a hot bath, a warm bath, and a cold bath. This was because they understood that hot water opens up the pores on peoples skin and cold water closes them. I bet most people today don't even know that.
We also saw some original Frescos painted on the walls of old buildings and we learned what the term Fresco actually means. The artists painted on the plaster of the wall when it was still wet so that the paint was absorbed into it and therefore would last longer. Obviously this idea worked. The most interesting part of Ostia was just to walk along the same streets and the same ground that Roman people walked on. It's something you can't really describe, but you can almost feel the presence of History.