Moving.....

In some of the very first posts of this blog I expressed my loathing when it comes to moving. So I'm very happy to say that WE ARE NOT MOVING. However, this past week we worked our very last SPCA shifts at their current location. Now they are making the shift to a new facility that once upon a time was a hospital (for people). Their current building, let's just say, was never meant to be an animal facility. A couple weeks ago Tim and I visited the new place and we are over the moon because, even though the building was erected in 1919, it will make a fantastic home for animals in the care of the SPCA. More than anything we will have more space in a facility that was made for taking care of wards. It recently struck me that the perfect place for any SPCA is a human hospital that is no longer in use. Specifically, they have proper surgical suites where the vets have real scrub sinks, enough space to prep animals and a place to perform sterile surgery when it is needed. I can't tell you how incredible this will be - and I'm not even an vet! :) To be fair the SPCA has done incredible work with very little resources and so this move is a huge shot in the arm and will allow the group to continue their campaign to advocate for animals of every shape and size. It's such an wonderful cause and we are thrilled to be a part of it!

Anticipation....

Over the last few months I've been skating on the weekends, taking a beginner's skating course mid week and attending "Freshmeat Clinics" hosted by the Richter City Rollerderby league. But now my class has ended and there will be no more clinics before they begin the "Freshmeat Course" in January. At the last clinic they told us that they would be sending individual invites to the "freshies" who would be participating in the upcoming course. Truth is, I've improved my skating more than I ever imagined possible, however, I still have so much to learn with regards to skating in addition to everything derby. So now I wait in anxious anticipation, hoping they will decide that I've progressed enough to be inducted. Herein lies the issue; I'm torn between worrying that they won't take me and agonizing over how unskilled I am if they do. Bah!

Electric....

When we arrived in Wellington almost two years ago we secured a little apartment and soon realized that the electric bill would be taking a considerable chunk out of our take home pay each month. Or at least it seemed like more than what it should cost to run a teeny, tiny studio. We did look into the matter and had our bill adjusted a couple times. Admittedly, we wondered if they were trying to pull something over on us - like adding some of a previous tenants unpaid bill. In short, we weren't sure what was happening and had bills fluctuating wildly over the months we lived there. 

Then, a little over a year ago we moved to a slightly larger studio in the same complex. And what do you know? Our electric bill skyrocketed and we contacted the power company. Sure enough they said an error had been made and our bill was adjusted. We even requested that an electrician come out and turn out hot water heater down. Not even halfway up the dial you'd get scalded if you weren't paying attention when you jumped in the shower. However, even after these adjustments we continued to have a power bill that just seemed too high. This all came to a head when we left for our month long Europe trip this past September. Before we left we turned off all the outlet switches and even emptied and unplugged the fridge. We also switched everything off at the breaker and you would guess that this would take the subsequent bill down to almost nothing. Wrong again! After returning home I remember seeing the bill come through in an email and opening it anxiously to see a tiny sum due. Yeah. I kid you not, the bill was higher than any bill we had received since we moved in. What?! We then went on to send several incredulous email inquires to figure out what was happening. It was several weeks later that we received a response to the effect that they had not received earlier messages because they had changed their esoteric "contact us" section of the website. Sigh. We were less than thrilled. Then our account was put on hold so they could look into the matter. But not that week because, you know, they were in the middle of a billing period and it would have to wait. 

A couple weeks later I was sitting in the office when I received an email to say that when the electrician went to visit our apartment and check the meter wires had been crossed and our unit had been hooked up to S107 (we are S107A, the studio next door)!!! In the end we had been getting their bill and they had been getting ours. And since their unit is a significantly larger one bedroom it's no wonder that our bill had been so high.

I am happy to say that a few days later we received our next bill with the corrected rates for the entire 16 months we have lived in S107A. We weren't sure how it would all shake out but I was ecstatic to see that we had a $700+ credit which is no surprise as we had overpaid for over a year. So here's to not having to pay a power bill for a few months. :)

Book love.....

Heads in Beds.

New Zealand Holiday Preparations

We'll get to it later...

Ham.....

Admittedly, I know little about preparing ham. However, I can't say that I've encountered a special bag in which to smoke and then store your ham. We ran across this gem at the grocery store, it stopped me in my tracks, and I had to document such an interesting contraption. Who knows, maybe they exist everywhere but this is the first time I've ever seen one. :) 

Home....

Since December is almost upon us I've started listening to Christmas music during the random moments when I'm not running nonstop through the lab, practicing rollerskating or sleeping. The other night I sat down to cruise the web and first opened my Pandora Christmas station. Immediately, somehow miraculously, I felt the insanity of the day pull away from me. Granted nothing had really changed but I suddenly felt better. Felt better about work, wait a minute, I was no longer thinking about work and therein I realized I had found a place to rest. These days rest is coming to us less and less. We are carrying out intensive research projects that do not follow the traditional work week as well as volunteer commitments and recreational activities like skating. So amongst all of that I'm happy to say that, regardless how silly it may sound, there's something about the Christmas holiday that makes me feel at home. With that said I can see now why I've so staunchly clung to my snowy, Northern hemisphere Christmas traditions since moving to NZ. They have always been and will forever be a comfort to me. So regardless the incongruity I will set up an evergreen Christmas tree, celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6th, work jigsaw puzzles and watch Christmas movies. I can't help it; wherever I go it will be a joyful part of me that I must embrace! :)

LEDs.....

It's the end of November and I've been so busily distracted with work that I realized a few days ago that it's the end of November! And that means shifting into Christmas mode: setting up the tree, writing Christmas cards, and watching Christmas movies while working on jigsaw puzzles. Since the season is suddenly upon us we decided to venture out and see if we could find some twinkle lights to put up in our living room area. Alas we found some sweet colored LEDs and after a quick stop at Starbucks headed home to put them up.

With some much appreciated 3M Command strips sent from home (here they would be exponentially more expensive) we measured the space and put them up at the appropriate intervals.

They stretched around the room and we had a few left over. I was happy with the end result and ready to plop down on the couch and admire our handywork but Timmy was counting the extra lights on the end of the cord and calculating how 'if we could add just five more to each section then it would be perfect'. I left this task up to him because I wasn't fussed either way so he went around, step ladder in tow, and adjusted each section of the strand until it evened out exactly where the two ends met in one of the corners.

He even tucked the excess cord away on the top of our bed module so we can't see the extra cord that would hang down to the ground. :) Attention to detail does pay off and I have to say it's looks so incredibly cozy. The only weird thing was that our neighbors across the courtyard watched the entire process undoubtedly wondering, "What are they doing over there? They have some sort of lights on a string....". Again, things are different in New Zealand. Without a doubt we will be the only unit that has any Christmas decorations up for the season. I'm not surprised that people don't seem that into Christmas here; it is summer. But nevertheless it breaks my heart as I've always enjoyed the traditions of the season and miss them terribly when we are so far away from home. With that said we are determined not to hate and have decided to embrace the 'Kiwi Christmas' activity of choice this year: beaching it on Christmas Day. :) Bizarro but we'll give it a try! Our next tasks include setting up the tree and writing out Christmas cards so we can get them into the mail with enough time to make it to all of our North American family and friends. Our deadline in December 4th so we need to get cracking on them this week!

Breakfast....

Under a drizzling sky last Friday we set off for school and decided to treat ourselves and take the bus. We arrived with a few minutes to spare and I was telling Timmy about what was sure to be a crazy day. These days I run experiments in the lab from 9am-5pm. But on Friday I was running additional experiments on top of the normal ones and therefore had to be in before 8am to complete the copious amounts of prep work to start by 9am with the intention of being out of the shared experimental room by noon so the next student could use it.

That morning I realized there was no milk for our cereal (damn. damn!) so being the faithful breakfaster that I am I dutifully put some Cheerios into a tupperware container and decided I'd scarf it down when I had a spare moment sometime that morning.

So we're waiting for the bus and Tim turns to me and asks, "Are you doing surgeries today?". As soon as the "no" was out of my mouth he was darting across the street to the gas station. I smiled to myself knowing that he was buying me a blueberry Red Bull, my favorite, to kick start my crazy day. :) That moment right there made my day.

The bus whisked us up to campus where I hurried to the lab and began setting up my regular experiment and as well as the extra one I had slated for 8am-12pm that morning. It was continual running around the lab to ensure that everything was set to go. A colleague of mine was nice enough to start my first experiment so I could focus on the other simultaneously running experiment! I was happy that my one off experiment only ran until 11:30 so I had time to move all my stuff out of the room. This happened just in time for me to swap over my ongoing experiment to the next group. Run, run, run! Once everything was squared away I took a breath and looked at the clock. Almost 12:30pm. Time for breakfast. In all the chaos I hadn't had two spare moments to eat my cereal and remember I'd just been running on one blueberry Red Bull. So I went downstairs fetched my Cheerios. My colleagues, who were just sitting down to lunch, chuckled when they saw my cereal but soon quieted down when I said, "This was my first chance to eat breakfast". I scarfed the lot down and rushed back into the lab. The afternoon wasn't quite as crazy but the next time I had a chance to sit down it was nearly 4pm. I collapsed into my desk chair and started eating lunch when Tim messaged me to say that some of the folks from his lab were meeting for beers at 4pm. I told him that I still had an hour of experiments to go and would meet up with them afterwards. Sigh. Big sigh. Don't get me wrong I enjoy my work but breakfast at 12:30pm - that's just wrong! :)

Ta.....

Ta. Upon arriving in New Zealand I soon noticed that some of my lab colleagues would say "ta" instead of  "thank you". I'm not sure why but I really like the way it sounds and am trying to incorporate into my everyday speech. Thus far I've had limited success and usually just default to "thank you", "thank you so much", "thank you very much", "thanks", or the occasion throwback to my time in Mexico, "gracias". Nevertheless I'm determined to get "ta" into my vocabulary. Looking up the etymology I learned that it comes from the Danish word "tak" to say "thanks" but people have shortened it to "ta" and use it very informally. Since it caught my ear I've paid attention to when people use it. You'll hear someone say "ta" if you do some very small kindness like holding the door for him/her or passing something across the table. And once in awhile I'll greet a colleague in the morning and ask "how are you?" and he/she might respond, "good, ta". There's just something about that little word that makes me smile. Ta! :)

Book love.....

Tully. This one was a mistake. I picked it up at the local book fair thinking that the author was someone else I had been meaning to read. Yeah. This book was not well written and seemed to have no direction. Oh well - when you pick randomly (even when you think you're not) this is bound to happen from time to time.

Wire what???

Recently I was working on adding a temperature control unit to a warming oven in our lab.  The job was relatively simply, I was basically wiring in a really expensive thermostat.  Once everything was in place and assembled, I had two sets of wires that needed to be tied together.  So what do I look for?  A couple wire nuts of course.

You know, these things:

When I couldn't find any in our lab, I went to ask our department's electronics technician.  At first I thought Rod (our tech) was pulling my leg when he said he had no idea what I was talking about, but then I figured there must be another name in New Zealand for these little devices.  Once I described what you us them for, he exclaimed, "oh, a terminal block!"

But wait, a terminal block is this:

I worked hard to explain again what I was looking for and described their usage in construction, but I was assured that I was looking for a terminal block.  Or as I learned a "candy bar" in Kiwi speak.  To be safe I had Rod check out what I was doing and he assured me I was looking for a terminal block.  Well in the end I got the job done, but I am still not convinced how New Zealand functions without wire nuts.  

Pain....

So remember how excited I was after the my first "freshmeat" training session? Yes, I was truly encouraged. But then I got up the next morning. More like struggled to contort body into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. Standing at this point seemed like a way-in-the-future type of goal. I expected to be sore. Sure, I had just done lots of exercise after not having done exercise for awhile. Right. This was beyond sore. I don't think I've ever ached so completely  throughout my entire body. Pulling myself up from laying down in bed sent shooting pain all through my abs, sides of my torso and back. I also noticed that my arms weren't much good for helping as they were tender to the touch and smarted with every movement I made. So there I am sitting on the edge of the bed knowing it was only going to get worse. Taking a deep breath I pushed off the bed, an mind you ours is lower than your standard nest, and was somehow able to hold myself upright while my brain was overloaded with signals from every nocioreceptor (pain) in my body. In addition, I couldn't fully stand up because my legs were so stiff and I must've looked insane standing there, wincing with my knees bent to accommodate my significantly shorter leg muscles. After that I hobbled around the house, managed to dress myself and walked to school. So this is fun when you have all kinds of stairs to go up and down along the way. I don't remember everything I learned in Human Anatomy class but I have to say that whatever I pulled screamed just as much going up stairs as going down. In the past I've experienced one or the other. No. Not this time.

After arriving at school I gingerly lowered myself onto my desk chair and started to ignore the pain in my legs, only because they weren't currently moving under the desk. But every reach across the piles of papers had my back, arms and abs complaining. Busy with other tasks I put the pain out of my mind until, you guessed it, I had to go the bathroom. That meant extracting myself from the chair and walking, shudder, down the hall. With all those muscles you don't ever think about until their howling in agony I braced and pushed myself out of the chair. Embarrassingly, I had a genuine limp as my left leg tends to be less limber in general. This was exaggerated now and I could not compensate. So I limped my way down the hall. Then I faced a problem. Since my arms, chest and back were on fire I couldn't just put out my arms to push the door open. No, I had to, with T-Rex-like arms, use my body weight to push the door open. I've never had to do this before in my life. It made me marvel at how many coordinated muscle movements we make to achieve fluid actions. All without noticing. Until now.

The following morning, Tuesday, was worse. Much worse. I'm not sure why the second day after is a killer but it is. It took more time to get ready and make it up to school with all the wincing, whimpering and small gutteral cries you might imagine. Especially when I had to push doors open. Every time I needed to visit the restroom I sighed and cringed because, you know, I knew what was coming and the sighing hurt too.

On Wednesday I was getting really worried because I was still hobbling around. That night I had my weekly Rollerfit course and wasn't sure what to expect with my decrepit feeling body. But I attended and made it through the class. At this point I think the extra moving around was helping stretch my muscles back to their regular length.

So I'm not sure what to expect, probably more of the same, with the next training sessions. I'm wondering if there is some method to their madness in scheduling them every other week. Maybe so we can have enough time to recover before the next session. :) Despite all the pain I'm planning to go back but at this point I cannot imagine moving beyond this beginner/pain stage. It'll be a great day when I just feel tired the day after. :)

Truth.....

So it's time to come clean. As you know Tim and I have been following the Richter City Rollerderby league since arriving in Wellington. We went to and thoroughly enjoyed the games last year. This year we decided to buy season tickets. More than once while watching the games I had thought, "I wish I had the balls to try this". And more than once Tim had turned to me and said, "Why don't you try it?". Don't get too worried - I haven't officially joined. Yet. :)

We attended a game before we went to Europe and by the end of the bout I was pumped up and sought out some of the players to get some more information about joining the league. I knew that interest and enthusiasm is great but I had a serious problem. With the exception of a few children's birthday parties, over twenty years ago, I have not rollerskated. I mentioned this to one of the girls and she surprised me by saying, "Oh, don't worry about that, we teach you how to skate". I was stunned. I figured you needed to know how to skate to be taken on by the league. Since then I've learned that they are gearing up to do an induction of "freshmeat" at the end of this year. Then those who are taken on start training with the league, must go on to pass a skills course and then, and only then are they placed on a Richter City team. So when it comes to this part of rollerderby, the movie, Whip It, has it all wrong. :) A tremendous amount of work goes into training before they will take you.

With that said, since we don't have our own skates or protective gear, we've started going out to a recreation center in one of the suburbs where you can rent skates/gear. They have open skate sessions where we spend our time practicing striding, turning and stopping, but mostly just trying to dodge the multitudes of little kids flying by on scooters. :)

The first time we decided to do this we both fell. Bad. I mean that we fell in such a way that you're on the ground before you even know what has happened, with your head spinning, your tailbone smarting and your pride a little bruised. :) After that neither of us could sit down without whimpering or visibly wincing for several days. Even so we decided to go back for more.

You have to understand that Tim has spent significantly more time than me on skates, albeit they were hockey skates or rollerblades, but his skills most definitely transferred to "quads". Like I said earlier my experience has been decidedly less extensive so I consider myself to be starting from the beginning.

From some contact with Richter City we learned that there is a small, up and coming, men's rollerderby league and Tim has started practicing with them. I've attended a couple of the practices as they are at the same place where we practice. Let me just say these guys are amazing skaters and the sessions are intense. But I'm proud to say that Timmy can keep up with them and give them a run for their money. :)

So might be wondering about me. How am I going to get up to speed? We've continued to spend time practicing on the weekends and I've joined a weekly Rollerfit course that covers the basics of skating (no derby). So far I've attended two classes and am loving it. I didn't know what to expect but I was shocked to find out that some of the people in the class had never ever ever skated before in their lives. While I have a million miles to go and countless skills to learn it's nice to know that I'm not really starting from square one. Maybe square four. :)

In addition, last weekend I attended my first "freshmeat" training session. The idea is that Richter City wants to get interested chicas training and improving so they're on their way when they do the induction at the end of the year. Going into that practice I was terrified because like I already said, my skating needs so much work. But they insisted that they take skaters at any level and work with them at these training sessions. So I psyched myself up, took some deep breaths and got on the bus. With butterflies in my stomach I walked to the rec center from the bus stop, rented my skates and paid my $10 to attend the class. As I put on my skates, knee/elbow/wrist pads, and helmet I was wondering, "Is this a mistake? Am I crazy for doing this? I can barely skate!". On a brighter note, even though I was filled with self-doubt everyone was incredibly nice and I felt welcomed straight away.

Then we were off. They marked off a "track" on the floor and we started with some, not too difficult, warm ups. Round and round we went practicing "derby position", that is knees deeply bent but you keep your torso upright so you can see what's coming. At this point I was starting to relax a tiny bit because our random practicing had given me enough skill to do these first few exercises without too many problems.

We moved on to stretching. Let me just say this is interesting when you have heavy skates on your feet but we got through and I made a point to stretch really well to ensure that I wouldn't be sore the following day. Remember that for later, I'll come back to it. We followed this with core strength exercises: sit ups, push ups, and planks. Embarrassingly difficult.

The remainder of the class we spent time practicing the skills necessary to achieve "crossovers". That is when your skating around the end of the track you step one skate over the other to make the turn and pick up speed. I've been working up to these on my own but haven't been able to do them properly just yet. Needless to say I was pleased to get feedback and additional drills to practice because I really want to be able to do crossovers!!!

Lastly, we spent some time practicing falls. I struggled with all of them. One of them requires you to lower yourself down to one knee to catch yourself and then pop back up. It was while we were doing these that I decided that my body must not have a "core" because I wasn't really able to brace myself and pop up after I went down to one knee. This was followed by "baseball slides" where you skate along and basically bend one leg and tuck it under you so you can lower yourself to the ground and slide on your butt. This should be followed by you popping up to your feet without issue. Right. There were issues. It was hard. So much harder than you might think. :)

After everything we did some skating to warm down and another round of stretching. Then as people were drifting out the door the coaches insisted that I ride with them when they found out I didn't have a car. :) So arriving home, sweaty and completely disheveled I excitedly reiterated everything that had happened to Timmy. He and I were both relieved that it had been such a positive experience. I can't tell you how pleased I was that I could do some of the skills and really look forward to learning more.

Colosseo.....

Each and every day we walked around the outside of the Colosseum. But it wasn't until the last day of our trip that we made it inside. That day we checked out of the hotel and I went with Timmy to the last sessions of the conference. I tried to do some blogging before the laptop battery gave out and then after lunch I was able to pry him away so we could see the inside of the Colosseum together! It was quite a trek but we finally made it and thankfully didn't have to wait too long to get inside. Then after collecting our tickets we emerged through an archway and my first thought was, "There's no arena floor". For some reason I had expected the interior to feature the main arena where the "entertainment" happened. Instead the arena floor had been removed so you could see the underground labyrinths that housed the animals, criminals and gladiators before they were put on display above. I will let the pictures do the describing because I cannot begin to convey the imposing nature of the place.

Exterior:

Interior:

Conference tour....

Soon after I had scribbled down notes about the food tour Tim arrived back at the hotel and we booked it across the city to attend at tour organized by the conference. We were to see the Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) and the City of Water underground ruins.

We met up with our tour group and guide who escorted around the corner from the fountain so we could see the City of Water ruins first. Venturing into the building at street level we descended a stairway to see preserved ruins under the existing building. Apparently, in 1999, when the Sala Cinema Alberto Sordi was being construction began they found ruins of a 4th century Roman mansion.

The Fontana di Trevi was swarming with people but lovely to see in the evening light. It marks the spot where three roads (tres vie) meet.

Touring.....

No trip to Rome would be complete without a tour or two. They really cater to out-of-towners and want to make sure that anything you want to see has a tour you can take if you so desire. :)

We had forgone several possible tours and instead took ourselves through the Vatican and the rest of the city. But then I found a tour that I just had to take. For anyone who knows me you won't be surprised to learn that this was an Italian food tour. Soon after finding it online I booked and clapped my hands together with a big smile on my face. Admittedly, I had a small bout of guilt when I considered that I would be wandering the city trying what was sure to be amazing food while Tim was working hard at the conference. I really did feel bad. But not for too long. Soon the guilt passed and I was planning my route across the city to where the tour would begin in the Testaccio neighborhood. As luck would have it Testaccio was right near our first hotel but since we had to move part way through I was now about an hour away if I were to walk. Instead of slogging over there I decided to take the metro and I arrived at my intended stop in a fraction of the time. Then with minor course corrections via Google maps I was able to find the rendezvous point where the tour would begin. Upon arrival I met our tour guide Jean-Luc who was very kind and welcoming as the rest of the group trickled in over the next few minutes. After everyone had arrived we went around and did introductions. And what do you know? About half the group (12 total) were from Wellington! What are the odds?! The rest of the group comprised Aussies, Americans and me, the strange hybrid US/short term Kiwi. :)

In preparation for this mash up of gustatory goodness I had skipped breakfast and so I had to smile when we began with the breakfast of champions: cornetti and tiramisu. We learned that cornetti is a pastry that closely resembles the famous French croissant but is made with less butter. Even so I can tell you that the little pastry was melt-in-your-mouth good. Apparently, this little shop, Barberini, is known for making their own cornetti fresh throughout the day. So whenever you just have to have a cornetti you know you can get it fresh at this place. :)

Since cornetti isn't enough for breakfast we then sampled what translates to "pick me up": tiramisu. I've only ever encountered this as a dessert but I was soon on board with this delectable concoction for breakfast. :) The classic, espresso-drenched lady fingers were topped with heavenly mascarpone cheese and served in an edible chocolate cup. Jean-Luc told us that Italians eat these in one bite so I figured I'd go for it. I was partially successful but thoroughly enjoyed my 1.3 bites of Italian tiramisu!!

Next we embarked on our first "marathon" of the day which landed us just a few steps down the block at our second destination: Volpetti.

Before having a browse inside the shop we sampled two meat selections and two types of cheese. First came the most incredible prosciutto di San Daniele (prosciutto) I've ever tasted. Now we really like prosciutto and get it once in while for a treat but this was beyond melt-in-your-mouth. I couldn't believe how good it was. This was followed by salame al Barolo (salami) that had wonderful flavor (but, honestly, couldn't compete with the prosciutto). :)

We moved on to the cheeses, first trying a pecorino al tartufo that had been aged four months and was beautifully creamy and light with interesting truffle flavor notes. Lastly, we sampled the major staple of parmigiano reggiano: what we know as "parmesan" this hard cheese had amazing, powerful flavor. Even so you couldn't help but love the rough texture and imagine yourself shaving some of this cheese on virtually any savory dish you might make at home. :)

Then we entered the shop and it was a veritable assault, in a very good way, on the senses. The shop itself was quite small and packed wall to wall with meats, cheeses, chocolates, oils and vinegars. I tried an aged balsamic vinegar so sweet and delicious you could serve it on desserts. Like so many things on this tour it was something I had never encountered before. I was dying to buy a bottle but worried about safely transporting it home (as we were leaving the next day). In retrospect I'm kicking myself for not buying it because I'm sure we could've figured out how to get it through security or have packed it away in our checked bags. Alas, I'll have to wait until we go back and then I won't hesitate! :)

Next we moved just around the corner to Volpetti Piu where we sampled the ultra famous "margherita" pizza. This pizzeria is owned by same folks that owned the shop we had just visited. Here we found places to sit down and listened to a mini "lecture" on various pizza related factoids. Pizza was originally developed as a way to use left over ingredients so you took whatever you had, threw it on a crust and baked it up. The first pizzeria was established in Naples, Italy, and then Jean Luc asked us to guess where the first pizzeria, outside of Italy, was located. One of the gentlemen on the tour guessed right when he said New York City. :)

Pizza Margherita was developed when a pizza maker, Raffaele Esposito, was commissioned to make three pizzas in honor of the Italian Queen Margherita. I know, you can see where this is going. One of the pizzas was made with red, white and green ingredients to represent the Italian flag: tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil leaves. Apparently, this was the queen's favorite and thereafter was named "pizza margherita". It has remained popular and is still served in every  pizza place you might walk into in Rome. The ingredients are elegantly simple and incredibly delicious!

We also learned that you can prepare pizzas in a gas powered or wood fire oven. True, Italian pizza always comes in the shape of a pie (hence, pizza pie) and is prepared in a wood fire oven. According to modern day Italian law restaurants are not permitted to turn on their wood fire ovens before 6pm. And therefore if someone is advertising "authentic, Italian pizza" before 6pm you know they must've prepared it in a gas powered oven. For the life of me I can't seem to find out why this is! :)

The other type of pizza that you encounter everywhere in Rome is pizza "al taglio" or slabs of pizza where you go in, pick your flavor and they'll cut you as big a piece as you like. Then they throw it in the oven for a few minutes and serve it in pieces that you can actually pick up. :) We ate this kind of pizza most everyday when in Rome and even though I learned it wasn't the real deal it was nothing short of scrumptious!!

This is going to sound so strange but the next stop on the tour was a cemetery: Rome's only non-Catholic one (Il Cimitero Acattolico di Roma). We learned that the famed English romantic poets, John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, have graves in this particular cemetery. I have to say it was a truly beautiful and tranquil place with lovely maintained grounds and every shape and size headstone you could imagine.  The largest headstone, I kid you not, was a pyramid to enshroud the remains of Gaius Cestius, a Roman magistrate. Apparently, in 1660 when the pyramid of was rediscovered there was nothing inside and since then it's been sealed shut.

In Rome every neighborhood has it's own market and so next we visited the Testaccio Market for some more goodies. Upon arrival you could stop at any number of family-run stalls to pick up cheeses, bread, fruits, vegetables and meats.

 

First we gathered some fresh tomatoes and together with basil, olive oil, and salt and pepper we had what would top our traditional Italian bruschetta. The crusty bread had just come out of the oven and we each took a piece and rubbed a partial garlic clove across the surface to capture the flavor. Then putting it all together the tomato/basil mixture was heaped on the bread and let's just say we devoured this mouth watering concoction in record time. Again even though the ingredients are so simple the flavors are amazing together!!

Next up we moved to a stall where we got to try what I had been excited about the whole tour: buffalo mozzarella! Most places will serve regular mozzarella, from cow's milk, but sometimes you can find mozzarella made from water buffalo milk and it is SO delicious! With some of the tomatoes and basil we still had from our last stop we tried the mozzarella di bufala and I was in love. :) Two thumbs way up!

Our last stop at the market had us learning how to spot real Italian cannoli. So there are two things to know when searching out the real deal. First, the mix that fills the cannoli shell must be made from sweetened ricotta cheese. Second, the shell must only be filled after you order it to ensure the maximum freshness. Within a minute or two our cannolis were filled with sweetened ricotta topped with crushed pistachios and we set to munching. And what can I say? You cannot go wrong with ricotta cheese - they were simply delightful and had me smiling like an idiot. :)

After we had finished Jean Luc, with a chuckle, asked us if we were ready for lunch. Everyone laughed but I suspected that he was serious. Indeed, our next stop was Flavio al Velveveodetto to sample wine and pasta selections. Oh yeah. :)

We settled down around a long table and starting pouring wine as the pasta selections were presented. First, there was a hand made pasta, cacio e pepe, that was simply linguine pasta flavored with cheese and black pepper. I know, it sounds boring but nothing could be further from the truth. The flavors were surprising and just downright incredible! I could've eaten just that one and been perfectly happy. :) Second, we had a amatriciana that was served in a tomato sauce mixed with cured pork cheek and pecorino cheese (one we tried earlier in the day). I have to say that I've never tried any kind of cheek, that I know, but decided to go for it. It was unbelievably tender and added a nice salty/savory aspect to the dish. Third, we had pasta with carbonara sauce mixed with egg, bacon, cheese and black pepper. While I enjoyed all three selections the handmade pasta was my favorite - I only wish I could more accurately described to you how it tasted. The best pasta I've had to date. :)

I wasn't feeling too "full" until we left the restaurant but I told myself that I would still try anything else they put in front of us! I was determined to finish the course! With the whole group moving noticeably slower we made our way to 00100 Pizza where we tried suppli alla genovese. These were cubes of slow cooked beef, wrapped in rice and deep fried. I know, how could it not be good?! Earlier in the trip Tim and I had tried these not knowing what they were. I scarfed one down and enjoyed the savory flavor.

Our last stop was Giolitti, a gelato shop that's been open for 99 years! After stepping inside and looking around I thought, "yeah, this is going to be good". Before trying any of the good stuff we sat down to take in our last lesson on Italian food. First, we had to discuss the differences between gelato and ice cream. While many say that they're the same thing, in fact they are very different. Ice cream is made with more cream than milk, is mixed fast and is stored at a lower temperature. Compared to ice cream, gelato has a higher percentage of milk than cream, is mixed at a slower speed and is stored at a higher temperature. For this last reason you should never have to pry gelato from its container as you have to do sometimes with ice cream. :)

Next, we discussed how to spot real gelato because supposedly a large percentage of the stuff you find around Rome isn't the genuine product. Jean Luc said that you can tell the gelato is what he calls "fluffy puffy" or the fake stuff by keeping a two things in mind. First, real gelato is never piled up high above the lip of the container in the case. If it is then it's been made from a powder mix and has had more air whipped into it than the real stuff (hence the name "fluffy puffy"). Second, the colors of certain flavors will tell you if it's real or not. Pistachio gelato should be light green but if it's more like "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle green" then it's the fake stuff. He actually made that reference to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. :) If there isn't any pistachio to check out you can next look at the banana flavor. He asked us if we had ever eaten a banana and everyone responded, "Well, yes, of course". Then he asked us, what is the color of the part of the banana that you eat? Cream/light yellow and that's the color of real banana gelato. Lastly, if nothing else look for the mint gelato and note its color. Real mint gelato will be completely white because it's made with mint essence.

Okay, finally to the good part where we bellied up to the counter to inspect the flavors and pick any two to try. Everyone was being noncommittal so I decided to go first and ordered a specialty flavor: zabaione (egg nog). To go with that I also ordered the crema flavor (cream, eggs and cinnamon) and had them topped with fresh cream. Again, go big or go home, right?! Both flavors were wonderful and then, almost abruptly, our tour had come to an end. :( I'm so happy that I decided to go for it - it was a wonderful experience and I'd do it again in a heartbeat, hopefully with Timmy next time.

After saying our goodbyes, I walked back into the city center near the Colosseum with a few of the folks from the tour. From there I we parted ways and I waddled back to our hotel where, in a flash of genius, I sat down and wrote myself some notes about the tour and each place we visited. Good thing I did as it's taken me a ridiculously long to time to write this post!