Ultima

Here is a rundown of my final weeks:

On Friday evening the Prati boys held a Christmas gathering which grew and grew until their small apartment was packed with IES students in green and red chatting and laughing. The group rolled out to Testaccio to dance the night away at Coyote but Julie, Ginny, and I walked home instead, too pooped to party. Passing the classico place I realized I was starving so Julie and I whipped up just a little pesto pasta for a midnight snack. I enjoyed our walk back, the three of us conversing about this, that, and the other.

Kylie and Sophia

IU girls

Saturday was supposed the be my hardworking, buckle down and study day... but where's the fun in that? Pepperoni called me saying he was going shopping for his parents and would anyone like to join. It just so happened that the location he was going to shop is where I needed to go buy my gift for our apartments secret santa. I was feeling peckish so I grabbed (what turned out to be my last) slice from Filippo's which was his delicious eggplant parm. I walked around the Christmas festival with Pepperoni and we completed our souvenir shopping and eyed those giant doughnuts with nutella every vendor was selling. Pepperoni pointed out a store to Aven, Julie, and I called Too Much which was an experience. On the way home Pepperoni and I stopped for a cocktail (grande peroni in truth) from the Despar and enjoyed the cool night air. I can home to help prepare a five course meal with my roommates! Gatto shopped for our wine, Ginny made baked brie, Julie whipped up a pasta recipe she learned from Riccardo (shrimp and cucs with Philadelphia), I made saltembocca, and Sophia baked little apple tarts! It was delicious and we felt truly Italian when we got up from the table two and half hours later.

We all headed out to San Calisto's to see friends and Davide told us that Roberto, Silvo, Vishal, e their roommates from Depaw were all at the Bum-Bum club down the street. We joined the large crowd outside the bar and socialized, I ended up leaving before everyone else because I had a date with the Vatican. Pepperoni met me outside St. Peter's for a celebratory cigar to commemorate our time in Rome together. I've seen St. Peter's lit up at night so many times and it's always impressive. I am lucky to be able to say that it was a common sight for me. So much for that productive day of studying right?

On Sunday we were all excited to visit Nico's house in Castel Gandolfo, an hour or so South of Rome. We missed our first train because the 40 was running behind schedule but eventually we found ourselves at the train station and between Nico's car and Izzy's car we all found a ride the rest of the way. We all sat down together for lunch at Bobbo's: Nico, Sophia, Ginny, Julie, Kat, me, Vishal, Roberto, Silvio (Sil Vio), Izzy, Anna, Flora, and Michel DB. We were a huge crew but lively and enjoyed each others company. One end of the table ordered the wild rabbit which I didn't get to try, Julie ordered the amazing carbonara, and I chose the cacio con pepe. The pastas came out steaming hot and piled mile high. It was incredible but my stomach could not handle another bite! Vishal even ate the last three or four bites from my plate. We all went up the hill  to enjoy the view of the beautiful lake before sitting down to an after lunch/before dinner cafe. We were right outside the Pope's summer church since Castel Gandolfo is the Pope's summer residence. We took the longer train ride home and some of us studied while some napped. Once I was home I did manage to be productive since none of us were hungry for dinner that night anyway. For a study break I walked out to Prati to watch the Broncos and Bears with Tom, Pepperoni, and Mikey. It was a one-sided game but had an excited fourth quarter resulting in OT. I didn't stick around to watch Pepperoni's Bears get trounced.

Davide and I

Just winners right here

Julie and Gatta
(Davide and I)

Amanda, Kacie, Julie, Davide

Me Gatta and Amanda looking better

Roberto, Kat, Julie  being NJ

The group

SKINNY ARM

Sil Vio, Sophia, Roberto
(They are normally semi-attractive men)

Castel Gandolfo's Christmas Market

Us being crazy at the end of the table

Cacio con Pepe!!!!

Nico and Isotta just being BFFs

One of the two laghi nearby

Train station going home

Monday was a strange day, an added part of the weekend! Since I didn't have any finals I didn't have any classes!! I woke up early and reviewed Baroque until I was exhausted and took a quick nap before attending a Forma Urbis review with Gianni. We hammered out the specifics of the Pantheon (edicules and all) and settled on a time for our dinner later that night. After the review session Hope and Pepperoni came over to our apartment to study Baroque with Julie and I. I was not particularly productive and thus when it came time to leave for Gianni's dinner I made Pepperoni walk by himself. Sorry bud. I needed to study much more than I needed dinner with Gianni (and that's saying something).  Gatto was struck by the kitchen god's inspiration yet again and wanted to make chicken parmesan for dinner. Julie toasted some bruschetta and put toppings out on the table and the four of us (Gatta, Julie, Sophia, ed io) had an entirely Italian cena insieme and covered every possible aspect of our lives. We discussed everything from Italian politics to discotecas. Despite this extra long study break I did get plenty of work done before Ginny and Pepperoni returned. By the time Pepperoni had returned Julie and I were ready to sit down and study as a group for Baroque. This didn't work out so well, apparently he couldn't handle our awesome dramatic hand motions and stuffy voices. Julie and I studied well and Pepperoni surfaced from his music whenever we needed his help. My roommates traipsed off to the Trevi fountain to see it lit up at night and I called it a day to rest up for my first final.

Can't get enough Pantheon

Tuesday I popped out of bed early to shower and do some last minute review of Baroque before sitting for my exam (and rocking it). I was home in time for lunch of some left over chicken parm! I threw together the rest of my review for Renaissance and studied my little buns off for most of the afternoon. The entire time dreading the identification paper I had to hand in the next morning after my exam. I was really frustrated that I couldn't ID my piece! To get my mind off of Renaissance Pepperoni and I did our farewell visit to Le Fate. The last student menu, the last lemoncello, and the last time I ever have to see that boy hop a fence ever again. Ciao Gabrielle, Fabrizio, e tutti nella cucina! She sent me home with tanti baci per "Katie" or Gatto. Pepperoni and I came back to our apartment to find everyone out! Kat was studying but Ginny, Sophia, and Julie were saying goodbye to their own favorite dining places. As everyone filtered in Kat took a giant study break (enjoying some MacDo or JWBL) and we all chatted together avoiding studying like the plague! Pepperoni and I ducked out for a quick trip to Filippo's to run an errand and returned to see everyone just as distracted as before. More conversations were carried out as Pepperoni's eyes slowly closed for longer and longer periods of time. I don't think he ever snored but our comfy couch got the best of him temporarily. When he left to snuggle up in his own bed I finally set to work on my paper for Pier Paolo and wouldn't you know it only took thirty minutes to write and I managed to ID the piece. Wish I could've focused like that earlier in the day!!

Doesn't he just look like an Isaiah?

Wednesday morning bright and early I faced the warm cozy dark room of my Renaissance final. He was just asking for us to fall asleep in there!! I knocked that one out of the park as well. When I handed in my exam I said my goodbyes to Pier Paolo and he was such a sweetheart! I will never forget that man and how excited he could get over Giotto and Raphael! I arrived home and started the dreaded task of packing. Anyone who knows me understands that I am incredible at procrastinating and horrible at organization yet a hoarding pack rat. Packing is my nemesis. I got started a little while listening to music when I was home alone but once my roomies filed in I supposed I should start studying for my two hardest finals on Thursday. I read a little of this and a little of that. Bounced thoughts off of Ginny's poor tired brain and went over and over and over Federica's slideshows and the Pantheon. Gatta lived up our study session with plates and plates of fried food: pumpkin and zucchini! I love that little chef so much!! Pepperoni came over to study for a bit and I finally used my pancake mix. I was saving it for dinner with Isotta and Nico but they never could figure out their schedules. Pepperoni even found a new use for the syrup (besides covering up the weird yellow color the eggs made the pancakes)!! Nico came home that night with Silvio and Roberto in tow for our roommate dinner. Davide, Pepperoni, Roberto, and Silvio being our honorary roommates of course. Her mother made us lasagna and we had some cous cous and apple tort thing to contribute. After a raucous dinner just us six made a circle by the tree for our secret santa exchange. We are so smooth and ended up sitting next to the person we had and the person who had us! Ginny gifted to Julie, Julie to me, me to Nico, Nico to Sophia, Sophia to Kat, and Kat to Ginny. Everyone hit the nail on the head with their presents! I got Nico a macchinata to replace the second one we destroyed!! This one is cute and purple and will hopefully last a while. Julie found a paper store by Piazza Navona and bought a frame made from Florentine paper in which she placed three pictures of us girls and the group. I love it and it is currently on my nightstand. Thanks to Aven for the "dregens" paper. After the fun quieted down and poor broken Silvio and Roberto hobbled out Pepperoni, Ginny, and I did one last run down of Forma Urbis. Somehow Pepperoni could not resist that couch again and he took a catnap, slowly spilling onto our floor.... thankfully he's ticklish (you hear that world?!) and I am a mean spirited person when it comes to wake-up calls.

I leave Thursday, our last day, to a new blog post. It deserves that much

Home is Where the Heart is... So Why Am I Not in Rome?

Safely traversed the Atlantic ocean once more. I am nestled in bed in Pittsburgh and turning out the light to dream about Roma and the people who made it so incredible for me.

Updates later. Buonanotte

Quick Hello

Ciao Tutti,

I'm alive and well. Studying and taking finals all this week with breaks for friends, food, cleaning, and packing. I'm not planning another big update until I get home (or get bored in some airport). I'll be sure to share all the fun stories from this past weekend later though.

Berry

Sneak Peek Pictures:

Our puffi tree

Ice Bar

Christmas/Holiday parties

San Calisto

A beautiful lake

And troppo mangiare

7 Day Countdown

Isn't that just the most depressing news?? In seven days I'll be on my transatlantic flight to Philly. With seven days left in the Eternal City I simultaneously would love to sit back and soak it up while rushing from place to place stuffing my last week with touristy adventures. No matter what I do I'll be with friends, my time will end, and I'll be home for Christmas. (well Virginia, but that's close enough)

Wednesday I had my last field study with Pier Paolo. We were both bleary eyed from sleep and just because it was too early for him to think in English he challenged me to converse with him in Italian as we waited for the class or started walking. We saw San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) which is an old Christian basilica (redone in the Baroque like everywhere else) that houses the chains of Peter from both Jerusalem and Rome. This is also the home of Michelangelo's mausoleum for Julius II. The original design couldn't be completed before Julius II died so this was the second idea his family had M.A. finish up quickly. The captive slaves in the Louvre were part of the first design and on the list of things I would love to see in person. After San Pietro in Vincoli we had a little bit of time left so Pier Paolo took us to the mueso exhibit that has been advertised all over the city: Il Rinascimento a Roma Nel Segno di Michelangelo e Raffaello. As he predicted there were three or four awesome works but the rest were poorly chosen or copies. All the same I enjoyed the museum (for free! thank you IES) and watching Pier Paolo get excited over original sketches etc.

San Pietro in Vincoli

Moses and his horns

After class I came straight home for a nap. My sleep schedule is very wonky right now. A little structure will be good. I spent the rest of my afternoon studying for my Italian final which I took early with the 102 class to get it over with. The listening was rather difficult but I hope it all works out. Wednesday was Gatto's last day of work at Le Fate, thus Pepperoni and I had to go and visit to say our goodbyes. The restaurant was entirely empty when we arrived, they were all sitting around bored! Gabriella had gone home early because she wasn't feeling well, so we have to go back to see her! Any excuse. Gatto let us try her carrot-ginger soup which was incredible and Fabrizio made the student menu dessert Tsu!! By the time we were finishing up a group of 15 American girls arrived to everyone's displeasure and another table of six students showed up expecting special treatment. Apparently they have a friend like Kat who interns at Le Fate and she sneaks them extra wine with dinner which is not ok!! So they threw a hissyfit that they had to pay for the two extra liters of wine they ordered. Poor Fabrizio was at his wits end and Gatto was a blur running around the restaurant. The rest of my apartment and Davide had planned to join us for dessert and a drink and I was tempted to call them and tell them to turn around but it was too late. At least Kat was happy we were there to support her and she could ignore our table without us taking offense. We had a wonderful hour or so sitting there together chatting about everything under the sun and munching on Tsu or chocolate salami.

The perfect end to my night was a wonderful conversation interrupted only by my three lovely roomies in the happiest moods I've ever seen! Julie plopped down next to me on the couch and recounted the night snuggled up.

Thursday was a holiday!! Thanks for the Immaculate Conception God/Mary! No classes so we all slept in and spent the day studying, researching, or writing papers. I stopped by Bijoux and chatted with our friend and his daughter for a while trying to decide on a pair of earrings but I can't narrow it down from all the wonderful choices!! After dinner Aven, Pepperoni, Kat, Sophia, Julie, and I went to the Ice Bar again because I still had my drink ticket plus a coupon for more free drinks, so we were getting a bargain deal when we walked in. The place was EMPTY so we had to make our own fun which is easy enough to do. It was a silly night but now we've all experienced the Ice Bar and we enjoyed each others company. On the walk home someone suggested a stop at the Roman Forum so we climbed up to see the ruins lit at night. It was beautiful. It was a nice moment with friends in Rome. Then we all trooped home waking Nico up, oops!, and the boys got classicos while we made pesto pasta for a midnight snack.

Friday, it feels so strange because the weekend has already begun! Working today and shopping for the intense five course meal my apartment is making for ourselves. Julie, Gatto, and I made chicken noodle soup again!! We over did it with the pasta but that's not the worst thing in the world, we just keep adding more water. It's a great warmer upper kind of snack. I walked out to Prati briefly and will be returning this evening for the boys' small little Christmas event. Perhaps movie night tonight and early bed so I can stop this weird oversleeping cycle.

A picture of me and Syria Libra to make you smile!

Where's Hallie??

You know it's the end of the semester when I start neglecting my blog. I am so busy running around trying to spend time with my friends and squeezing school work into the cracks of time when I'm not sleeping. Dearest Mom and Dad I will be sleeping for the first 48 hours when I get home. Sorry.

I had a very boring weekend, sorry to keep you guys waiting for such a dull post, but here we go.

Friday I did research and started my Conservation paper about Ponte Sant'Angelo's angels by Bernini. That evening when Sophia, Gatto, and Ginny returned from their field study we had our own little field study. Anna, my Italian teacher, assigned each person in our class a location in Ostiense to research and present on for our oral exam. I had to research La Citta delle Altra Economia and Julie was assigned Caffe Letterario. Gatto e Sophia joined us to visit our locations that evening. First we got very lost trying to find my place, even backtracking to the club area of Testaccio where my pubcrawl was. Eventually we thought we found it but turns out we found il MACRO, the contemporary art museum which was having an opening night for a Steve McCurry exhibit. We walked in like we knew what we were doing and nobody asked questions so even though it wasn't my location we saw a fantastic photography show and possibly Steve McCurry was there? Somebody was signing books. Caffe Letterario is a book bar on Via Ostiense and our next stop. A book bar has nooks and reading corners and during the day serves as a cafe but at night is a bar like Americans like of and yes you can still sit there with a glass of wine and do your homework. I know because she did. While I never found La Citta delle Altra Economia the research I did online makes it sound really cool. It's an old mattatoio converted into a bar, restaurant, shop, and large open market for organic goods. The shop sells recycled goods like the purses made from candy wrappers. Right now they have a Christmas market so I'd love to go back but it's rather far from Ponte.

A coffee maker turned lamp

La Citta delle Altra Economia

Photo exibit

Sophia checking out the photos

Props to whoever designed this!!

La Gatta

Saturday morning I woke up planning to be so productive! Nico told me about a library that was actually open on the weekends! Something nearly unheard of in Italy. I looked it up and checked the bus routes, packed my bag and was out the door. Sadly I became horrible terribly lost somewhere in Trastevere. Not where I had planned to end up. I was going to come back home and work since my roomies were all off on academic field trips or internships. This is the point I realized Julie took my keys in the morning, leaving me with no keys and nobody to let me in the house. Sooooo I wondered around, thankfully it hadn't started raining yet, and eventually found myself at the doors of Circus Arts Cafe! I went in and found two other IES girls working on projects with the free wifi. I chatted with my favorite barista who is only half British by the way, he's also half French and is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Italian. He served up some risotto for lunch and I was surprisingly productive! The only other highlight of Saturday was the delicious stirfry I made myself for dinner. mmmmm!

Circus Art Cafe!

Sunday I wrote my Conservation paper.... all day. It was not terribly fun. For one of my study breaks I walked the three minutes to Ponte Sant'Angelo to take photos of my subjects during the five minutes of sunshine that weekend. While fiddling with zooms and checking the quality of my pictures someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked in accented English "Excuse me, can I help you?" my instantaneous response was "Non grazie" but when I looked up it was my PT friend! He was on his way to work at Fillippo's and caught me standing like a fool in the middle of the bridge. We chatted for a moment but he was late to work. Having friendly Italians around can improve one's day dramatically!

Monday Monday, back to school. I came home after classes and did homework for most of the afternoon or chatted with my roommates about the wonderful teachers we have or have had in our lives and why we chose our majors. The usual avoiding homework kind of conversations. Since Aven's 21st birthday is Tuesday (TODAY!!) we started the celebrations with a dinner at Dar Poeta a pizzeria I've wanted to go to for a while now. The whole gang, Prati, Ponte, Kylie, Chris, and Kristen were all in attendance. We sang loudly and out of tune when they presented him with a ricotta nutella calzone for dessert. After dinner the plans were to continue celebrating until midnight, his actual birthday. I could not join, instead I went home and wrapped up my bibliography for my Conservation paper. At home Ginny and I were studiously at work at the table when Isotta, Silvio, and Roberto come clambering up the stairs for a movie night with Nico! What fun! We goofed around as they made tea from Bibliotea. Roberto put on a fashion show in Julie's shoes, Izzy's scarf, and my sunglasses while Silvio decorated our tree with pingpong balls and told me about La Citta delle Altra Economia. He's such a good teacher I hope he works for IES in the spring like he plans! This is also the night I was proven right! You can eat cereal too loudly! Take that Gatto e Julie! I'm just being a good roommate.

We all stayed up far too late that night because most everyone came back to our house after Trastevere. We're young. What else are we going to do but stay up way too late and laugh too loud?

This morning seemed early as a result of last night. I had soup for breakfast finally! A delicious idea I stole from Meg's Food Blog. It was warming and filling before Julie and I hit up St. Ivo with our Baroque class. What a fascinating design! Julie gave an incredible presentation on Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. I've seen this fountain before (like the first night?) but her presentation caused me to really examine it and appreciate it's skill and beauty. What a genius! Even better we went inside St. Agnes, the Pamphilj chapel directly behind it which is another breathtaking Borromini. After that we saw St. Maria delle Pace directly outside the Steeler's bar so I've seen it before. It was my last field study with Federica sadly, what a wonderful woman she is. I hope I make her proud on my exams.

St. Ivo

St. Ivo

The Nile is all covered up!

Four Rivers

Fountain

St. Agnes in Agony

St. Agnes

Pope Innocent X

Santa Maria della Pace

I presented on La Citta delle Altra Economia this evening in Italian after a quick pizza snack from Fillippo's. My PT friend was working again, they all have such weird hours/ schedules. Hopefully we'll get to see Aven tonight for his real birthday or maybe we'll go to Buccoco and visit Nico at work!

Wonderful Wednesday, Meraviglioso Mercoledi

WEDNESDAY WAS SO COOL!!!! I finally got to go to the Vatican Museums! Pier Paolo flew through the museum with my Renaissance class in three hours (I was on overload already anyway by that point but missed so much!) Despite missing so much we crunch a good amount of art into that time frame. If I can convince someone to splurge with me I'll go back to look at the ancient art hallways more carefully, I missed Augustus of Primaporta! I gave a presentation in one of the Raphael rooms on La Disputa (The Disputation over the Holy Sacrament) which is in the same room as The School of Athens. I think I did fairly well but there were other works I wish I could've presented on instead.

Raphael's Transfiguration

Giotto's Stefaneschi altarpiece from St. Peter's

La Disputa

The School of Athens

Laocoon

Belvedere torso

Monolithic porphyry basin in the rotunda

The hall of maps

Lybica sybil

Christ Delivering the Keys

Sistine Chapel looking towards new entrance

My favorite part of the Vatican was walking on
the most beautiful floors
Don't forget to look down!

Francis Bacon, some American art in the
Vatican collection!

After my field study I power walked back home to finish and submit my paper, hooray! It's done! That made my day. I didn't even mind that our apartment was so chilly that Julie and I ran to IES to do homework because they had the heat on! haha a productive day. For dinner Pepperoni and I had our usual Le Fate date to see Gatta and Gabriella. Julie tagged along this time and the three (four cause Gatto's job is amazing) of us sat stuffing our faces with bruschetta, pasta, and nutella. The wine and water glasses were constantly refilled as the conversation bopped around between Rome, home, memories, stories, and jokes which were all being interrupted by fits of laughter. We were all in good moods and loving each others company. A little lemoncello to help with the digestion and we were ready to walk home. While our street might have been the first to put Christmas lights up it seems the trend is catching. On our walk home I took a good number of pictures of Pepperoni and Julie posing in front of roads with colored twinkling lights. It was a delightful walk home. After that Johnnie Walker and Quantum of Solace were used as a celebration of the completion of our papers!

This is love

Our street

Nico came home rather late that night and I had the first of two realizations. Wednesday night talking with Nico at 1am and then again the next morning at 8:30am I walked away from the conversations feelings so proud and happy because I was not focusing particularly well-- rushing around going to school or trying to talk and watch a movie-- but both times I managed to carry on a conversation in Italian with ease. My language skills have certainly improved and it's moments like that which remind me.

Thursday was another great day, man I love this place. I started my morning with a wake up by Ginny because I was late! eeks! Thankful I am a pro at getting up and at 'em. I made it to school to meet my Conservation class a minute early! Boom. Federica was very sad that she couldn't get us into the Vatican Conservation Labs :( but it's not her fault, Italian bureaucracy. Instead she took us to visit her two friends who were restoring a fresco cycle in a church close to IES. Actually it was on Via Giulia, right down the street from me! It's San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, a church I've wanted to go into before just because I walk by it all the time but the one time I was really going in I realized I was wearing a tank top which doesn't fly in a church. Back when it was warm haha. Anyway we had our usual amazing class sitting on top of scaffolding talking about preservation techniques and damages etc. The second half of class we returned to IES for lecture.

Forma Urbis was my second field study and we were going to a museum to examine a miniature scale model of the city of Rome from Archaic times and the 5th century AD. This is our last field study with Gianni and was a form of review for our class and final. We were told to all go to the Chinese store and buy lasers because the model is on a level below where the visitors stand. So we all had little red laser pointer dots zooming around these maps. My classmate, Christina, gave her presentation on the 5th century map and had us all play a game with it. She deserves an A Gianni! Outside of the museum we all gathered round and took a picture in front of the colonnade with ROMA across the top. It's my biggest class but my favorite class. I came home and started my last blog before heading out into the dark (boo) to Italian class.

Archaic Rome with the defined hills

5th Century Rome, as built as it gets!

Anna hasn't been feeling well so it was nice to have a small class (5 people) and we played a Christmas trivia game with the other 301 section. Oh and we ate cake. Pannettone I think is the name of the fruit bread but there was also a yellow cake with powdered sugar on top. It was a fun and easy class, good way to end the week. Walking home of course Julie and stopped by Fillippo's for bread. We were having a birthday party that night for Davide!! He's 22! What an old man. Our big bash turned out to be really small but it was exactly what I wanted.

Most of our friends are out of town, hence the small Italian class, or had visitors or host family obligations. Nobody was free to come to the potluck, then Davide said he invited a bunch of people so we just set to work like usual. Julie made an extremely delicious carbonara, Gatta made eggplant parm (she didn't even know it was my favorite!), Sophia made mulled wine and a surprise for later, while I threw some beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, and pasta together with lemon juice for a simple dish.When the festigato himself showed up he informed us that his friends are all out of town also except for Roberto, an ISC, and Roberto was going to bring a friend. Everyone showed up just as the food was finishing up and we all fit around our dining room table with wine, pasta, and jokes! It was "pocco ma buono" in Roberto's words, few but good. Especially Sophia's carrot cake for Davide (D2) while we sang Tanti Auguri. We tried stumbling into Italian a few times and I think I finally nailed down the use of "ti serve". After dinner everyone rolled out to San C's while I hung back to do dishes and snuggle in bed.

They all surprised me when they came back an hour later with a bottle of champagne! So I came back out and socialized with my roomies, Davide, Silvio and Roberto. These guys can speak English perfectly fluently, it's outstanding!! But they pointed out we live in a language pledge and thus we spoke Italian with them. We are all so sad we didn't become best friends two months ago! But we are set to make up for lost time and have movie nights and dinners with them next week. I am so happy with last night and can't wait for everyone to be back and piled onto our couch for Italian movie night!