An American Academy Thanksgiving

Growing up, I never particularly loved Thanksgiving.  This seems crazy to me in retrospect, but perhaps it makes a bit more sense when you consider that:

1) As a child I wasn't very fond of turkey or orange vegetables (sweet potatoes, pumpkin, squash...);
2) I didn't discover my love of football until my early 20s;
3) There is no "Thanksgiving Turkey" who hides candy filled pumpkins around the house or flies
     down the chimney and leaves presents in stockings; and
4) My family always made a much bigger deal out of Christmas than Thanksgiving.

Chalkboard Art by our Sous Chef 

Of course, now that I am older and wiser, I absolutely adore every single thing about Thanksgiving.  I love that it's a distinctly American holiday, and that most families have very similar traditions and ways of celebrating.  I love the focus on eating and the fact that so many of the foods are special items that I generally only eat once a year (like stuffing and pumpkin pie). Most importantly, though, I love that Thanksgiving is still one of the few holidays that's not completely commercialized, and that the focus is about reflecting on all of the good in our lives and spending time with loved ones.  If we celebrated Thanksgiving at least once a month (instead of only once a year), I think we'd all be much happier people (well, maybe everyone except the person who normally gets stuck with the dishes...).

Thanksgiving obviously isn't an Italian holiday (although the Italians I know say they are familiar with the concept of Thanksgiving from watching American movies), but since this is the "American Academy," it's still a very well-celebrated holiday in our part of town.

Academy Dining Room

Things got underway around 12:30 with cocktails in the salon.  We were also treated to an amazing musical performances by a couple of the fellows. Then, at 1:30, everyone proceeded into the dining room for the Thanksgiving Feast.  At any given meal the dining room is usually only about half full, but on Thanksgiving it was jam-packed. There wasn't an open seat in the house!  The room and tables were beautifully decorated with leaves and gourds from the Academy gardens.  As always, the food was to die for.  We had all the Thanksgiving staples: turkey (pumpkin souffle for vegetarians like me), stuffing, mashed potatoes, root vegetables, rolls, cranberry sauce, and two pieces of pie each for dessert (apple and pumpkin with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream)!  When the cooks and kitchen interns came out to the dining room, they received an incredibly well-deserved standing ovation.  We had a wonderful time chatting and stuffing ourselves silly with the other fellows, and when we left we all swore we would never eat again....

Full Dining Room

Decorations

My (half-eaten) Vegetarian Plate

Dessert!!

Tom Batting

During the afternoon, most people stuck around and spent some time together. Apparently, one of the Academy traditions is to have a whiffle ball game out in the courtyard.  The Academy Director is quite the pitcher (he must have played some serious baseball earlier in life), and most of the adults and kids took turns batting. Sadly, I learned long ago that my lack of depth perception makes it nearly impossible for me to hit a moving ball, but I still enjoyed spectating.  It was especially fun to watch how excited the kids got when they got a hit (there are some incredibly awesome 4 year old athletes here this year).

Evening Potluck

Then, around 7 (which was a bit too soon if you ask me), we all managed to eat yet again at our second potluck dinner.  This time, any fellow who wanted to could contribute a dish (I made my famous apple/cranberry stuffing), and we all hung out together in the community kitchen.  This informal meal felt a lot more like the fun low-key Thanksgivings I celebrated out in Berkeley during law school (or with Tom's grad school friends), and we had a really good time.  I invited a St. Olaf classmate to this potluck (who I randomly ran into on the streets of Rome) and it was a lot of fun catching up with her as well.

Finally, we capped off the night with the traditional Thanksgiving hatchet throw... or, at least, it's a tradition in our friend Alex's family!  Basically, you set up a few pumpkins in the yard and then take turns (very carefully) throwing a hatchet at them from about 20-30 (or so) feet away.  In the end, our friend Liam was the big winner, and he celebrated his victory by holding the slaughtered pumpkin over his head and drinking its juice.  Maybe you had to be there, but you'll have to trust me that it was hilarious.  Perhaps we'll have to take this tradition back home with us next year....

In our Thanksgiving Finest (note Tom's new outfit!)

At the end of the day we were overly-tired and overly-full, but very, very thankful and happy. Although we were sad to spend the holiday away from our families, Tom and I really couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving celebration.  Not only did we get to enjoy two separate amazing meals, but we enjoyed a fun-filled day with our new Academy family!  Of course, we'd never be where we are today without the love and support of our friends and family back home, and we miss you all dearly! We hope you all had equally wonderful Thanksgivings, and we look forward to hopefully seeing you all again soon.

Alla Prossima,
Erin  

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Sat. Nov. 24:  I have officially stopped trusting any sort of weather forecast here.  They always call for rain, and it hardly ever happens!  It was supposed to have been rainy this week, but instead it's been sunny/party cloudy with highs in the low 60s and lows in the mid 40s (perfect running weather!)

Amalfi Adventures (Part 2): Exploring the Amalfi Coast

Tonight is the last night of our trip down south.  We're very sad to go (it was very nice just spending our evenings cooking together in our rental apartment and catching up on American TV), but we're looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving celebration with our friends and colleagues at the American Academy.

Of course, in addition to cooking and watching TV, we had some fun adventures exploring the area.  One of the highlights of our trip was just visiting and hanging out in some of the various towns along the Amalfi Coast. Even in the cloudy fall weather, the natural beauty of the area is simply stunning.  One could spend hours exploring the windy town streets, doing some serious people watching (of both tourists and locals), and, of course, soaking in all of the amazing views.  

View of Positano

We elected not to rent a car (not only would it be fairly intimidating to drive in Italy, but gas prices are something like $9/gallon), so we instead took a very long but scenic bus ride along the hilly and windy peninsula.  As someone who tends to get car-sick on windy roads and/or in buses (even on straight roads), this was not a great combination for me, but I managed to tough it out.

Fortunately, my efforts were hugely rewarded as soon as we got off the bus at our first stop, Positano.  We grabbed some delicious pastries for a second breakfast (our morning cereal had already worn off) and then walked down (and back up) the various stairways that connected the top of town to the beach. This town was built completely into the hill, and so it almost felt as if there were dozens of layers to explore. I'm sure we could have spent all day just here, but since the sun now sets quite early (around 4:40 PM), we stayed an hour or two and then moved on.  You can see some of the awesome views we had below:  

Positano Beach (from the hill)

Taking in the Views

More Positano

Amalfi

We then boarded another bus and headed to the town of Amalfi (which shares its name with the region).  Although this town was also built into a hill to some extent, it's much more level overall.  The bus dropped us off right at the coastline, and there were several boardwalks/piers that we were able to walk out on and enjoy.  There were a lot of seagulls around, and when I just looked out into the water I could almost imagine that we were at Lake Superior rather than Italy!

We had some delicious pizza for lunch, browsed in some shops selling (the town specialty was lemon products- lemon soaps, lemon flavored alcohol, lemon candies...), and then we took a short walk to the next town, Atrani (which was literally five minutes down the road).  Amalfi was already all decorated for Christmas, but we decided that was allowable, since Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here in Italy.

Amalfi Town Square

I was expecting the Amalfi Coast to be very similar to Cinque Terre, but they are actually quite a bit different.  For starters, the Amalfi Coast is much, much bigger. The towns are more spread out and most are larger than any of the five towns in Cinque Terre.  For example, in Amalfi many towns have their own large cathedral and central town square, while towns in Cinque Terre might only have a small church and lack any centralized meeting place.

Visually, the towns in each region have some similarities, since they are all built into the coastal hills, but they have very different looks to them.  While the buildings in Cinque Terre are generally small and very brightly colored (in hues of red, yellow, and pink), there are some much larger buildings/resorts in the Amalfi Coast, and the color scheme is much more subdued.  Of course, this is Italy, so there is still plenty of color, but many of the buildings are white washed, more like you'd see in Greece.

View  of Town From One of the Boardwalks

If this still doesn't paint a full picture, perhaps my broad stereotypical generalizations will.  Basically, young (possibly smelly) hippies take the train to Cinque Terre to fill up their backpacks with foccacia, hike between the five towns, and stay in cheap rooms they rent from locals along the way.  On the other hand, middle aged professionals, who booked their five star resorts months in advance, drive along the Amalif Coast and stop in various towns to shop for designer goods and dine on high end sea food.

Any guesses which area I like better?

It's actually a pretty hard choice.  Both areas are quite charming in their own way, but I think I'd give the edge to Cinque Terre (although, clearly, you really can't go wrong visiting either one).  Take a look at these Amalfi pictures below and let us know which area appeals to you more (if you want, you can compare to the Cinque Terre photos here):  

Lake Superior-like View (in Amalfi)

Amalfi Cathedral

Tom Enjoying Some Pizza (yes, we ate it all!)

Atrani

View of Atrani 

View from Amalfi

Christmas Decorations!

Shop Selling Lemon Soaps (and wine, and pasta, and.....)

Another 10 second timer success!  

Enjoying the Brief Appearance of the Sun!

If we had had more time (if it were summer and the sun set later), I would have loved to also hike up to Ravello, a town just north of Amalfi way up in the hills, but we still had a fantastic time in the towns that we did visit.  And now, I just have an excuse to come back sometime in the future!

Alright, sadly, it's time for me to start packing (or at least to start to think about starting to pack...)

Alla Prossima,
Erin

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Mon. Nov. 19:  We lucked out and had much less rain than expected, but still lots of clouds.   Temps were, as always, in the mid 60s.

Amalfi Adventures (Part 1): Caserta Palace Gardens

Greetings from the beautiful (but rainy) Amalfi Coast!  

View From Our Rental Apt (before the rain came in!)

As I write this, I'm sitting at the kitchen table in our rental apartment and sipping on some vanilla tea (which I successfully asked for in my broken Italian at the market!) while taking in the views across the Bay of Naples to Mount Vesuvius. Seriously, if I were a superhero, my (lame but very useful) super power would be my ability to find awesome accommodations at ridiculously reasonable prices.  The way I pulled this one off was by planning our trip for the most off of off seasons (November is generally the rainiest month in Italy), but the views from  our apartment are so great that I would seriously be content just to hole up here for the next four days if necessary.  Fortunately, though, we've already seen some pretty cool stuff, and with any luck, we'll still get to do some more exploring.  

Rome (A) to Caserta (B) to the Amalfi Coast (C)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the area, the Amalfi Coast is a peninsular region in southern Italy, a bit south of Naples (and about 180 miles south of Rome).  Actually, neither of us had even ever heard of the Amalfi Coast until after we started telling friends and acquaintances about our upcoming move to Italy.  Once we did, though, we were told on several occasions that we absolutely had to come here, and, after plugging "Amalfi" into Google Images, we couldn't have agreed more.  Tom also had a couple museums and sites in the general area that he needed to see, and so that gave us extra justification to come down here and spend a few days.  

Our "To-Do" list for this trip includes a visit to the Palace of Caserta gardens (which we did yesterday), trips to Pompei and/or Herculaneum (hopefully to be featured in a future blog post), and exploring various towns along the Amali Coast (rain or shine).  Also, as I write this, Tom is at the Naples National Archaeological Museum checking out some Latin inscriptions (but since this is a rather technical subject, I elected to hang out here instead).  

View of Palace of Caserta From the Gardens

In any case, I wanted to use this post to share with you a bit about our visit to the Palace of Caserta gardens yesterday, which has to be one of the coolest places I've ever been.  Okay, I realize I've been using that term a bit loosely lately, but they were at least the coolest gardens I've ever seen! Once again, we had never heard of Caserta before seeing pictures on Facebook that one of Tom's friends had posted of the Palace.  Once we realized it was so close to Amalfi, we made plans to fit it into our trip!   

So, I suppose you're wondering what exactly this Palace is, right?  Basically, Italy didn't become a country until 1861, and so before that time various regions were ruled by different dictators.  The Palace in Caserta was built in the mid 1700s, and served as home of the King of Naples.  (After visiting the Gardens, Tom now very much pines for this job.)  Today you can tour both the outside gardens and various indoor apartments, although we elected to just visit the gardens. 

Looking Down the Length of the Gardens (the strip that looks like
mowed grass in the hill is the fairly dry waterfall!)

To say that the gardens are big is quite the understatement.  However, they're designed in such a visually interesting way, that you're really able to take it all in with one glance.  In total, the length is something like 1.5 miles, but when we arrived Tom was sure we'd be down and back in about 20 minutes.  (Despite my lack of depth perception, I was skeptical of his assessment.)  Part of what makes the distance misleading, though, is the fact that from a distance the various structures in the gardens fit together to create the illusion that they are all part of one monument instead of various fountains, pools, and green space.  If you can believe it, there had once been plans to stretch the gardens out another 20+ miles in the other direction all the way to Naples, but this goal was never realized.   

Fountain at End of First Section

Basically, the gardens span from the Palace on one end to a waterfall on the other, and are divided into three main parts.  First, there's a large grassy square area that probably consists of several city blocks.  At the end of that area, there is a cute little fountain surrounded by lush foliage.

After that point, the gardens narrow dramatically- perhaps to just one city block.  The second section contains various little pools, which are full of fish and often adorned with sculpture.  This section ends with a large fountain containing many sculptures.

The final section of the gardens contains a series of small waterfalls/pools leading up to the large waterfall running down the hill (which, unfortunately was fairly dry this late into the fall), and lots of small water falls. The pool at the bottom of the last fall also has elaborate sculptures representing the myth of the goddess Diana turning Actaeon into a deer.  (As Tom tells it, Actaeon, a hunter, was out in the woods with his hunting dogs when he accidentally stumbled upon Diana bathing naked.  Diana then changed him into a deer, and so he was then killed by his own dogs- rather rough punishment for an accident if you ask me, but perhaps there's more to the story).  

I'm sure the gardens would have been even more spectacular with more water running down the falls, but I think you'll agree that, even without it, it's pretty darn cool looking!

Tom Enjoying the Gardens (looking back toward the Palace)

In the Second Section  (looking toward the waterfall

Fountain at End of Second Section

Third Section (there was a little bit of water running down those falls)

At the End (looking back toward the Palace)

Waterfall with Diana and Actaeon Sculptures

Successful 10 Second Timer Shot

One of the Inner-Courtyards of the Palace

During this time of year, there weren't many tourists in Caserta, but there were a surprising number of local runners taking advantage of the long stretch of green space.  As you might imagine, I was pretty jealous of their running route, and am even more jealous after attempting (and failing miserably) to go for a long run today near our apartment (not only were there no paths, but I was constantly gawked at.  I might as well have been walking down the street wearing a giant chicken costume-- clearly no one runs down here!!).

Well, I'm off to work on dinner (our kitchen has an immersion blender so I couldn't resist the idea of making some creamy soup), but I look forward to sharing more of our trip with you all very soon.

Alla Prossima,
Erin

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Fri. Nov. 16:  Highs in the mid 60s and cloudy/rainy (although it was nice and sunny when we were in Caserta!

The Olive Harvest

People complain a lot about the weather in Minnesota. The winter is bone-crunching cold, the summer is like a sauna with mosquitoes, and spring and fall each last about a week. Say what you will, at least Minnesota has seasons. When I moved to California (the “I” here being Tom; it’s time again for another guest-blog), I thought that there were no seasons. I was wrong on that. The San Francisco summer is windy and chilly, the winter is rainy and chillier, and the spring and fall are both sunny and warm. The seasons in Rome are kind of a mix of both. We arrived at the tail end of the extreme heat of summer, which has since been fading gradually. The temperature most days seems to be in the 50s or 60s (but sure to drop further), and the winter rains have just begun. It’s kind of like going from a Minnesota summer to a San Francisco winter.

Olives in burlap sack

So far, the change in our diet is almost more marked than the change in the weather. The Academy is fed by something called the Rome Sustainable Food Project (RSFP), and one of their principles is serving seasonal food. Late summer tomatoes gave way to beets (not my favorite), which are too slowly giving way to broccoli (which I like). Desserts have gone from summer fruits to various cakes. (“Cakes,” as Erin likes to say, “are always in season.”) The RSFP also likes to get us involved in getting the food from the ground to our plates, and in that spirit the head chef invited us to take part in harvesting the olives from the dozen or so olive trees in the garden.

This is the whole operation at a distance

The operation works roughly like this: You put some fine-mesh netting on the ground, knock off all the olives, then gather them up and pour them into a burlap sack. You can see the whole thing from a distance at right. There are little claw things that you use to rake the olives off the branch. Some people work on the ground, others from ladders, others climb the tree. If you’re standing on the ground, the olives literally rain down on you. Like any kind of working outdoors, it’s fun while the novelty lasts and the fresh air is a change of pace. Then your hands hurt, and your back hurts, and you’re bored. I was lucky to be out there with good people and have good conversation (although Erin, unfortunately, missed the harvest because she had her Italian class). Even more luckily, the chef came out mid-morning to bring us espresso and grappa, along with some toasted bread and olive oil that had been pressed just a few days ago. So I suppose we didn’t have the worst working conditions that any agricultural workers have ever faced (although one might speculate that the combination of tree-climbing and grappa, a strong liquor, made for working conditions of questionable safety). The oil, by the way, really was the best I’ve ever tasted.
 

Tom, after eating a raw olive (dramatization)

You may be able to tell from the pictures that the olives were dark and perfectly ripe. How could we keep from eating just a few? Well, the olives have their own means of protection. Raw olives are really, really, REALLY gross. At left is a picture of me trying one. Don’t try one. (The picture is a re-enactment, but believe me when I say that it was really bad.)

After the harvest, the olives go to get pressed. I didn’t go along for this part, but it also sounds very cool. Apparently there are places where anyone can come and bring their olives and get them pressed. The pressing machines separate out the pits, which are dried and burned to fuel the operation, and they also separate out the water, which goes to irrigate other olive trees nearby. All that’s left is the delicious delicious oil, which I hope to see plenty of on my plate in the near future. A few more pictures are included below.

Till next time, dear readers,

Tom

Tom, hard at work in the chill Roman fall

A little something to keep us going

Let's see if we can't get some of the sticks and leaves out of there

Burlap sack and olive tree, in their natural setting

Erin and Kahla's Trip to Pisa and Cinque Terre

I am happy to report that we've now had our first visitor in Italy!  My friend Kahla (who went to law school with me in Berkeley and subsequently made the very good decision to move to Minneapolis) was lucky enough to get a standby ticket to Rome and made it out of JFK just hours before everything was shut down due to the hurricane.

Kahla and I (in Cinque Terre)

Tom and I spent a couple of days showing Kahla around Rome and the Academy, and then Kahla and I decided to head north for a few days (unfortunately, poor Tom had to stay behind and work).  Kahla and I knew that we'd make good travel buddies since we previously traveled around South America together for about a month in 2007 after taking the Bar Exam.  This trip was obviously much shorter, but we had a ton of fun and saw some really amazing sights.  

Our main plan was to spend time in Cinque Terre (an area along the coast about 250 miles north of Rome), but we ended up detouring to Pisa (which is about 50 miles southeast of Cinque Terre) for a night due to our difficulty in finding a direct train at a reasonable price.  Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend a trip just to see Pisa, I'm actually really glad we made the stop.  It was a cute little river town that was really easy to get around (since you can walk across the whole thing in just about 20 minutes).  

Hostel or Prison?

I will admit, though, that our trip got off to a pretty rough start.  It was pouring rain the night that we got into town, and our hostel actually felt a bit like a prison cell. Our bunk beds were covered with orange blankets and, although they claimed that the heat was on, we certainly couldn't tell. To stay warm that night I literally wore the following to bed: two pairs of pants (spandex and yoga pants), two pairs of socks (including one knee-high pair), a tank top, a t-shirt, a sweater, a hooded sweatshirt, a hat, and gloves.  

When it was dinner time, we wandered aimlessly for what seemed like hours just to find any sit-down restaurant.  It was the strangest thing- there were a million stores selling things like high end watches and clothing, but not any food to be found.  Still, these are the types of adventures that make for good memories, and we did finally manage to find an adorable little trattoria that served some of the best soup (chick pea and truffles) we've ever had.  

The Obligatory "Holding up the Tower" Shot

Fortunately, it had stopped raining by the next morning, and we were able to explore town a bit before heading off to Cinque Terre.  We spent some time walking along the river (which was lined with cute red and yellow buildings), and, of course, made it out to see the Leaning Tower.  

The Tower, which has been leaning due to unstable soil ever since it's construction in the 12th Century, was, as expected, incredibly touristy.  Still, it was actually pretty fun to see such an iconic image in person.  I have to say that it's one landmark I never expected to see in my life, and now I have!  It was funny, too, to watch everyone try to get the camera angle right for the every popular "holding up the tower" shot.  At any given moment, you could literally see dozens of people working on their shots up and down the street.  But, we certainly can't judge, because we took a few of those shots too!  I guess "when in Pisa..." Right?  

I had way too many pictures to share from this trip than would fit in with the text, so I decided to just post a few of them below.  Be sure to keep scrolling down to read about (and see some amazing pictures from) our Cinque Terre part of the trip, too!   

Walking Along the River in Pisa

View From a Bridge

Leaning Tower!

Another Tower Shot (it looks less leany from this angle)

After our morning exploring Pisa, Kahla and I hopped a train to the Cinque Terre region.  The trains were actually very nice and fast, but not nearly as affordable as I was expecting.  I imagine that they are cheaper when you have your trip planned out far in advance, but when you just purchase tickets on the day of, it's really quite pricey.  I actually spent over twice as much on the trains on this trip than I did to fly on RyanAir round trip all the way to Sweden!  Crazy, right?  

Map of the Cinque Terre Region and its Placement Within Italy

But, in any case, it was totally worth it because Cinque Terre has to be one of the most amazing places I've ever been. Cinque Terre (meaning "Five Lands") is a small coastal strip (about 6 miles long) containing- you guessed it- five small villages.  There is a coastal trail that connects these villages so that visitors can actually hike from one end to the other, spending time in the various towns along the way.  Unfortunately, though, a year ago terrible landslides devastated the area, and that trail has been closed ever since (although most of the area has since greatly recovered).  We were a bit bummed that we weren't able to hike the trail, but we were still able to get to know the area well.  There was a train that ran between each of the villages (there's also a ferry in the summer months), and there are still some trails open for hiking up in the hills.  

View From our Balcony in Riomaggiore

During our two-night stay (after our bad hostel experience we splurged on a nicer place!), we made it to each of the five towns.  In some ways, each town has its own distinct characteristics:  Riomaggiore (where our room was) is perhaps slightly less touristy, has less beachfront, but has beautiful views from the hills; Manarola is small but charming with killer views of the coastline; Corniglia is a tiny town way up on the hill with adorable windy streets; Vernazza is busier and boasts a beautiful harbor and a small stone "castle" you can climb up; and Monterosso is tourist central with tons of hotels but also real swimming beaches.  

In other ways, though, after a while the towns start to feel really similar.  They all have the same style of multi-colored buildings built into the hillside, have plenty of gelaterias and foccacia shops (a specialty of the region), and, of course, all have gorgeous views.  It's my understanding that the area didn't become very touristy until the 1970s, and I often found myself wondering how the locals feel about it.  On the one hand, all of the tourists have certainly brought economic stability to the region, but, on the other hand, it must be strange- if not disheartening- to have your once quite peaceful seaside village be now completely overrun by backpackers.

Kahla Climbing Stairs on our Hike

Although exploring each of the villages was a lot of fun, the highlight of our trip was definitely the three hour hike we did one day up on the hills.  We started in Manorola, hiked way up, and made our way over and down to Corniglia.   The hike was fairly challenging, but we hardly noticed how hard we were working since we were distracted by such amazing scenery.  (Plus, we couldn't exactly complain too much since we saw several hikers in the 50s and 60s not to mention families with kids as young as 7 or 8 doing the same hike!).    

The terrain was quite varied, and we saw everything from olive groves to vineyards to pine trees, and, of course, ocean views!  We had absolutely perfect hiking weather (sunny and in the low 60s), and although I tripped a few times, both of us managed to avoid any injuries.  It was definitely a day I will never forget!  

I took over 100 photos on this trip, so you'll have to believe me that I'm exercising restraint by only posting the dozen or so below.  Get ready for photo overload!  

Riomaggiore (Town #1) from the Hills

Another View of Riomaggiorre (we had one of the balconies above the kayaks on the left)

Manarola (Town #2)

View of Tiny Corniglia (Town #3) From our Hike

Harbor in Vernazza (Town #4)

View of Vernazza from the Castle

Sunset in Vernazza

Beach and Boardwalk in Montorosso (Town #5)

Hiking (yes, I do fully realize that my socks look ridiculous)

Kahla Hiking Through Vineyards

Heaven on Earth

We would have loved to stay another day or two in the area, but the weather turned cold and rainy, so it made sense to head back to Rome after three nights on the road. We had a wonderful time, though, and my (limited) Italian abilities certainly got a good workout since most of our interactions in hotels, shops, and restaurants were in Italian (in contrast to Rome where most people switch to English as soon as it's clear that you're not a native speaker).

Just in case these photos somehow haven't convinced you, I highly recommend a trip to Cinque Terre if you ever have the opportunity (and, if you have an extra few hours, stop by Pisa and take a look at the Tower). Although I've loved living in Rome, I've never felt luckier to live in Italy than while standing on these village hillsides looking out at the ocean.  As Kahla aptly said while walking along the coast, you'll feel "infinite in the moment."  

Alla Prossima,

Erin 

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Sun. Nov. 4:  It's gloomy in Rome but not too cold- in the mid-60s.  Fortunately we had at least one warm sunny day for our hike in Cinque Terre!