Only in Italy: Birthdays Galore, Ancient Ruins, and Chocolate All in One Week!!!

After my trip to Prague, I was ready for some relaxation, but first I had a week of birthdays and celebrations to attend! On Monday night after my classes, I met Shelby and her brother, Brandon, at Scholar's, an Irish pub in Rome. Scholar's has a pub quiz every other Monday night and we decided to participate. There were 10 rounds in the pub quiz and we were the first team to score a perfect 10 on one of the rounds, so our team won a free bottle of brandy. We ended up about 5th or 6th out of 15 teams, so I think we did pretty good. It was something different to try, and Shelby and I want our roommates and other friends to form a team for the next quiz.

Tuesday was my roommate Robin's birthday. Her boyfriend and his mom were also visiting Rome, so we all went out to dinner first to celebrate. After a little fiasco with the chicken parmesan I ordered, we were ready to go out to celebrate Robin's 21st birthday. We decided to first go to a chocolate bar. This fancy chocolate bar only serves shot glasses made out of chocolate!! I had a shot of mint Bailey's with whipped cream and sprinkles on top- it was the perfect dessert to my dinner. Then, we decided to go to the ice bar in Rome. It was near the Colosseum, and EVERYTHING in the bar was made out of ice! The bar, the seats, even the glasses! They gave us parkas, which were really just shawls with some insolation, and gloves, for a 15 euro cover charge. Luckily, it was open bar, so we could order whatever drink we wanted for free- normally, the drinks are up to 10 euro! We could only stay in there for about 1 hour though, before we started to freeze!!

My other roommate Liz's birthday was on Thursday, but she wanted to go out on Wednesday to celebrate. We started again at the chocolate bar and this time I tried a shot of coffee liquer. It was surprisingly good with the chocolate shot! On the day of her actual birthday, a small group of us went out dinner and it was another great birthday celebration. I'm still anticipating my 21st birthday and it's a month away!!

On Friday, I was finally able to get the relaxation I needed from my trip to Prague and busy week in Rome. I don't have classes on Friday, and so I slept in, left the apartment once to go grocery shopping and cooked dinner. I stayed in with my roommate Liz while Shelby and her brother went out to watch the Phillies game, since it was his last night in Rome.

I was excited for Saturday, even though it meant waking up early. We went to the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Pompeii is a city about three hours south of Rome traveling by bus. It is located near Mount Vesuvius, which is still an active volcano. The ancient city was originally built on volcanic ash, and so when the city suffered an earthquake, many buildings were destroyed. Soon after the earthquake, Mount Vesuvius became very active, and the volcanic ash and debri (not the volcanic lava) began "raining" down on the city. The people of Pompeii fled the city, but they thought the volcano was done being active and they wanted to return to get their belongings. Obviously, they all were buried in the volcanic ash and it wasn't until around 1750 when it was first excavated. The day trip was really interesting, and I learned a lot about the ancient history of the people who lived in Pompeii.

The trip to the chocolate festival was on Sunday, which meant getting up early again, but this time, it was waking up early for chocolate!!! I was even more excited to go to Perugia, another three hour train ride north of Rome, for the 2009 European Chocolate Festival. I was going with Lizz, Robin, her boyfriend, and his mom. At the festival, they were having chocolate sculptors, meaning that the chunks of chocolate that the scupltors scrape off the huge chocolate block would be given out to the audience watching. People were pushing and grabbing for the free bags of chocolate, but it was worth the wait! It was sooooo good. And then I tried some hot chocolate- it was just as delicious- it was really thick and chocolatey and of course hot, since the weather in Perugia was a little bit colder than Rome. In the sunshine, it was beautiful weather and I was almost afraid my chocolate was going to melt. To take a break from the crowded festival, my roommate, Lizz, and I snuck off to catch a glimpse of the city and countryside of Perugia. It was beautiful because we were in the Tuscany region, with the rolling hills and amazing landscape. We participated in some fun activities for a milk chocolate candy company called Milka, such as limbo, playing memory and getting our picture taken with a purple cow. I felt like a little kid in a candy store because each time we did one of the activities, they gave us a free mini-bar of chocolate. I was kind of disappointed they didn't have fountains flowing with chocolate like I imagined, but the free chocolate definitely made up for it. Now it was time to go back down the hill to the train station in Perugia to catch our train back to Rome. We arrived back in Rome at 8:30 PM and back to our apartment at around 9:30, just in time to start studying for midterms. :(

During midterm week, the ResGrads at AUR decided to have a workshop on massage therapy. Of course I was in, I love massages! Alex, one of the ResGrads, is actually a certified massage therapist, so he was able to show us the proper technique to focus on our shoulders, neck, head, arms and hands to relax the muscles and tension that builds up in these parts of the body. They provided us with some tea to start the night off right, and then we had almost 2 1/2 hours of giving and receiving massages. It felt great and was the best way to relax from the stress of midterm week! After our massages, we indulged in some delicious pizza. It was a great night to just de-stress and learn a thing or two about massages and relaxation techniques. Well, I need to get studying for my Italian midterm, but soon I will be leaving for Greece for my fall break. I cannot wait and am so excited to see some of the Greek islands and go to a toga party!! :) Until next time, ciao!