Walk down any street in Rome, and you will see pizza places advertising “Forno a legna.” Forno is stove, legna is wood, so “forno a legna,” is a special wood fire stove that is used to cook the delicious flat pizza in this part of Italy. I never thought to stop and wonder where all […]
Author Archives: Natalie
09
Dec
Dec
There are plenty of things that I don’t understand about Italy. A lot of the times, my incomprehension stems from a language barrier. But some of the time, it’s a religious barrier that leaves me completely in the dark. I don’t come from a Catholic background, so there are a ton of “new” holidays that […]
06
Dec
Dec
I make no secret of my hate-hate relationship with the Italian post office. With Christmas coming up, I’ve been getting requests from my friends and family for my new Italian address. I always give it to them with a little note- “Don’t worry about mailing me anything! It is incredibly difficult to send and receive […]
06
Dec
Dec
Favorite thing about December in Italy so far? Clementines. They are EVERYWHERE. In every store, at every fruit stand and even growing on trees lining the streets of Rome. My main man at the Vittorio Emanuele market has these babies on sale for 0.80 Euro a kilo. I’ve been eating them like candy. Sorry they […]
03
Dec
Dec
“The President is coming!” “Oh. How interesting.” To be fair, I was clearly told that the President was coming to the conference. I assumed this meant the president of the university, or the president of some large company. I finally understood that my colleagues were trying to tell me the President of Italy was coming […]
27
Nov
Nov
Today, I managed an all-Italian purchase. No English. No gesturing. Just straight up cake-ordering at the local pasticceria. Feeling emboldened with my mastery of simple vocabulary, I decided to venture into a funny wine shop I noticed open up across the street from the bakery. I was buying the cake to bring to Thanksgiving dinner, […]
26
Nov
Nov
Thanksgiving in Rome is just another Thursday. Having just gotten back from a trip to Marrakech, I did not have plans to celebrate. But on Thanksgiving morning, I opened my mail to find this card from one of my favorite people in the entire universe: Awww! Feeling all nostalgic, it was time to do something […]
25
Nov
Nov
One of the best things about living in Rome isn’t just being able to experience Rome itself, it’s the ability to get great deals on flights all over the world. This weekend, our destination of choice was Morocco. The cheap flights come with one condition: only a single piece of carryon baggage (under 10kg) allowed. […]