My Last Day in Roma, Thursdays Always Bring Me Down

Thursday, the last full day spent in Roma. I started off with an exhausting exam from Federica for Conservation and moved onto a nap/review session with Ginny and Hope before sitting for Gianni's exam. Guess what!? The Pantheon was on the exam?! haha I hope he enjoyed my essay also. The Temple to the Diafied Claudius was a low blow though. After my very last exam/academic requirement in Rome I took Pepperoni for a visit to Circus Arts Cafe to say goodbye to my lovely neighborhood restaurant/bar. I was upset to find my favorite barista wasn't working that day :(  We were looking for a  celebratory drink and the owners handed us the food menu thinking we were confused.... NOPE! We tried to order something but they had limited supplies that day, turns out we order "DUE SPRITZ" in true Julie/Sophia fashion. They were delicious! We stopped by IES to use their printers and check into our flights, he's a smart kid and reminded me I needed to do this. He headed home to pack and I aimed for the Despar to get some fruit.

No better drink to discuss religion over

The window at Bijoux stopped me in my tracks. There they were! The earrings I've been waiting for! They are blue and smallish and just gorgeous. I walked in and purchased them right then and there! I always told our Bijoux man I would buy a pair and that was the one I wanted, on our very last day! He hemmed and hawed about giving Julie a pair of earrings she wanted but finally said to just come back later and he would give her a huge discount! (we never did, sorry!). Ok back to my mission for limes! Then I saw Sophia walking up and down our street with teeny little Christmas cards to hand out to our favorite spots on B.V. I accompanied her to deliver to Bibliotea and Bijoux. What a sweet thought. I finally did go and buy my limes at the end of all this, it just took a while.   [Check out Bijoux online here!]

I ended up back at home (to find it sparkling cleaning thanks to Ginny and Gatta) around 4pm when I planned to return closer to 2pm! I whipped up some ricotta spinach tortellini for a late lunch and set hard to work packing. We were heart broken to find that our internet wasn't working in the apartment. This is the one day it would've been crucial for it to work, you know boarding passing and checking in and directions to Vishal's photo show!!! I had to miss it to finish packing and Davide, Julie, and Sophia got terribly lost (ok Sophia found it in the end). We all ended up together again at IES at 6pm for our goodbye dinner. They played the final products from the film class so we got to watch Dr. Tahm at his finest on the silver screen. Ginny and Amanda won two of the three awards handed out every semester. They deserved them above everyone else obviously! What wonderful ladies.

 Finally it was dinner time with all of the IES students, our ISCs, and lots of teachers and host families. We had the biggest table that kept growing with Prati boys, Claudio, Centro/Ponte ladies and Nico, Isotta, Davide, Lauren, etc. I wouldn't have picked anyone else to have my last dinner with. Claudio and Izzy were going to a concert that night so we had to say our goodbyes, so sad! Gianni showed up two hours late in true Italian fashion and we said our goodbyes which were just as heartbreaking. He's an inspirational teacher and person. The final act of the evening was a vocal duet from Rosie and Melania, our front desk women. They were the smiling faces we saw every single day who saved our skins when we were confused about anything Roman, Italian, European, or IES related. They have fantastic voices and sang three or four songs, some Italian, some English, and some were a mix! It was fun and just a little tiny bit tearful.

In the classroom (aka Rome)

and in the field, this man is awesome

I ran home and did the very last of my packing. All that was left was the clothing on my body and my PJs. That meant I was free to spend my evening with my friends. Lauren, Anna, Gabi, Davide, and my roomies all had bottles of wine to finish off so we helped Julie pack her wardrobe (I miss that dress and skirt!) with a glass of wine. Our place was designated as the meeting point once everyone was finished packing and cleaning so friends trickled in with the last remnants of wine and whisky (<-- no "e" in MacDo). Finally we were all together ready to visit our lovely San.C's in Trastevere for the last time. Mattly chose this moment to make a beautiful (cheesy) sweet toast which might or might not have brought tears to the eyes of at least all the girls. Well played sir. We walked along Via Guilia to Ponte Sisto, stopped for a quick photo op. We made it to San'Calisto's to find Roberto, Silvio, Michael DB, Nico, and every single IES student. It truly was our spot. Lots of laughter and a couple tears and everyone departs from the scene in groups of two or three. I got a wonderful goodbye hug from Austin, what a sweetheart. Gatta and Sophia were trying hard to keep it together and when Roberto and Silvio left Julie struggled to fight the sadness. Thankfully before the boys left they taught me my favorite Italian phrases "fare i piedini" to make little feet, or play footsie! Coming up clutch.

Candid from the boys photo shoot

Girls shot

Pepperoni and Ginny make a Lauren sandwich

Davide and Julie with Roberto

The cutest picture on the planet
Gatto and her Prince

Kylie and Sophia

How men show love, Mattly and Aven
with their grandes ovviamente

FRIENDS! Lauren and Ginny

Gatta, Lauren, Mattly, and I
Love you guys

Roberto with Sophia and Nico in the back

Julie and Pepperoni
Dance partners for life!!

Sophie, Gatta, Kylie
Keeping it together (mostly)

This guy!
The Dachtah

Julie and Anna, inseparable 

Mattly, Pepperoni, Anna, Gatta, and Lauren
celebrating Roma as one should, with a grande
(or JWBL)

BAR San Calisto

Roberto and Nico being fabulous

Julie and Roberto, a hate-hate-hate-adore kind of relationship

Doing "The Anna" was popular this night:

The original and her bestie

Silvio tries it... good effort buddy

Roberto and Nico nailing it!

When the Prati boys and Ponte girls (us) were ready to call it quits we headed out together. We all stood together on Ponte Sant'Angelo admiring the city lights, Vatican dome, Castel Sant'Angelo, and our beloved Tiber river beneath us. It was cold so of course we had to hug each other for warmth, it's not because we were super sad or anything!! An hour or so later I walked with Aven, Tom, and Pepperoni to get one final classico, the best one to date. After that... it was goodbye. A wave goodbye and we each went our own way home.

Coming home on Friday was easy, cab to airport, some security and I hopped on a flight chalk full of study abroad students. Nice guy named Matt sat next to me for the long flight from Rome to Philly and we had a lot in common. From Philly I just made it to my Pittsburgh connection and my loving parents were waiting for me at the baggage claim. Home with my dog, brothers, friends, family, and Christmas. This is the end of my blogging journey, thanks for reading friends. I'm wishing you all the best for 2012

ciao ciao, baci