Day 1: July 11
We arrived in Rome at about 9 or 10 in the morning after our long train ride from Paris. My family and I checked into the hotel we've been coming to for years and met up with my dad's co-professor, Don. He's accompanying us for the rest of the trip. After arriving at the hotel, we went with Don to the train station to make our rounds. We had to buy our metro passes for our time here in Rome, and we bought our train tickets for the day we will be departing Rome and going to Castiglion Fiorentino. Buying train tickets is so stressful, not because it's hard, but because of the gypsies. While buying our train tickets at the machine, my dad was harassed by this man who kept trying to "help" him get his train tickets. He was really wanting money for "helping" him and/or pick pocketing us. He didn't get anything, but caused stress in getting the tickets.
After this, we got lunch at our favorite pizza place in Rome, known as "Giuseppe's", where my sister and I shared the most amazing Pizza Margherita. I love the pizza in Italy, because it's so thin, but at the same time, it's really chewy. You can finish an entire pizza by yourself. After lunch, we took our full bellies back to the hotel and relaxed until dinner time.
Once it was time for dinner, we took the bus up to Piazza Navona and ate dinner up there. We went to one of our favorite restaurants known as Trattoria Pallaro, where there's this little old lady who will pinch your cheeks until they're the color of a Roma tomato. She's like everyone's grandma. What I love about this restaurant is that there's no ordering. You pay 25 euro and they just give you food. We got an assortment of appetizers, two pasta dishes, a meat dish, homemade potato chips, and a dessert.
After dinner, we walked around Rome for a while. Rome is the coolest at night. The atmosphere is just amazing. There's music playing, Indian guys throwing light up sling shots in the air, and indie artists on the streets. We stumbled across my favorite gelateria in Rome, which I believe is called "Gelateria". I got "Frutti di Bosco" (which is basically mixed berries) and "Caramel".
Alas, this gelato stop basically concluded our day.
Day 2: July 12
In the morning, my dad, sister, Don, and I set out on the subway to go to Ostio Antica, a historical place similar to the Pompeii ruins. It used to be a thriving Roman city, until it was abandoned, and its remains remained. It was pretty darn cool. We toured this site a bit, walked around, enjoyed the ruins, and left.
After visiting Ostia Antica, we all went back to Giuseppe's (afore mentioned as having the best pizza), where I got my very own Margherita pizza. It was delicious. Guys, if you ever get the chance, try homemade pizza. It will change your life.
Afterwards, we met up with our students at the train station to go to the cooking class we had booked in Trastevere. If you guys don't know, my dad is a professor and he's leading a study abroad group in Italy. He's taking abuot 27 college students over here to learn about the culture and international business. Anyways! We met up with the students at the train station, because they signed up to do "Cooking Classes in Rome" with us.
My family had taken cooking classes with this business before. Traditionally, what happens is that you go to the location in Trastevere where these cooking classes occur, along with 12 other people that signed up to take the class, as well. The owner of the business, Chef Andrea Consoli, has a planned menu for the class to make, which includes an appetizer, pasta dish, meat dish, a side dish, and a dessert. He buys all the fresh ingredients for the meals locally, gives everyone an assignment on making the meal come together, and we cook it under his guidance. Afterwards, we eat all the food together at a big table for lunch. It's a great way to meet new people, learn new cooking techniques, and enjoy some delicious Roman food. Also, Chef Andrea is a great guy and makes the class oodles and oodles of fun. I highly recommend taking this class if you ever find yourself in Rome. I'll leave the link to his website here! Definitely check it out!
Anyways! Some of our students signed up for this class (18), so we all went together for a "group version" cooking class. This menu was a bit shortened, because we are dealing with a crap ton more people, here. We made homemade calvatelli noodles in Norma sauce, scalopinni with mushrooms (veal), zuchinni with blossom sauce, and for dessert TIRAMISU. MY FAVORITE. All of our students got to work on preparing this amazing meal, and Chef Andrea put me in charge of the Tiramisu. He gets me. The meal was fantastic, and we got to bond with the students and make new friends. 
I hope you enjoyed this post!
-Love Ling
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