Todi and Titignano

Today was our day long excursion to Todi (in Umbria) and Titignano (also in Umbria). It rained, making it less than ideal for picture taking that could adequately depict the beauty of the day, but still beautiful. It's something else to go from Roma to Umbria, and drive through the rolling hills. We just don't have places like this in the United States anymore, I don't think. Todi is a little hill town, and all around, for miles, you can see hills just sweeping off into the distance. It was beautiful, despite the rain.



It was kind of an adorable little town, set up the way I kind of expected Rome to be, with narrow alley-ways and the roofing that is made of those semi-circle clay pieces (I'm sure they have a name). As we were leaving to get back on the bus, we passed by a major cathedral in Todi, and there was a marching band waiting for mass to get out. Once they got out, the band started playing, but it was traditional marching band music, like Souza stuff, not anything terribly church-y. I still don't know why they were there, but it was pretty nifty.



After Todi we got back on the bus to go to Titignano, which is sort of it's own entity. It isn't a town, like Todi, but it's a "castle," which doesn't really look like a castle. But we had a full Italian lunch (because that's what their big meal is, it's lunch, not dinner). I swear, it had about 10 courses. And so, I took some pictures...

The first course consisted of little things, I don't even know what they were exactly. There was something really delicious made out of phyllo dough and melted cheese. There were also meats, and some things on a hard Italian bread that looked like spreads. The bright yellow one, we decided, had egg in it. That was all we could figure out. Then, little pizza squares were also served later in this course, and a piece of bread with sausage on it.



Then, we were served risotto with asparagus, which was, admittedly yummy, despite my initial aversion to asparagus. I guess smaller bits are good with me. Maybe I'm just not an asparagus tips person...



The next course was a wide egg noodle with (get this!) wild boar! It was very delicious. Had a bit of a kick to it. Something to note, everything we ate here today was said to have been either grown on the site or (in the case of wild boar) hunted specifically for this purpose. I guess I'll have to take their word.



As if this wasn't enough food, we then got some spinach. Fresh! Yumm. Kind of uninteresting to photograph, sure, but the color was such a rich green! Unlike that dark green spinach we have back home.




We then had either chicken or lamb (our choice) but she was offering in Italian, and I kind of just said "Si," when she pointed to something, which was recognizable as chicken. And potatoes came with this course. And the potatoes were excellent! Then we got dessert! There was tiramisu, which was delicious, with fresh made lady fingers and espresso dustings. We also got almond biscotti to dip in dessert wine, but I think I would have preferred coffee. The dessert wine was waaaay too sweet. But, do as the Romans. And then! We got espresso. Which I adore, because I enjoy my caffeine. Carolyn tried it and was rather unimpressed, so I had two espresso! Which was probably a bad idea. Delicious. Carolyn had poured her entire sugar pack into her espresso, so it was a bit sweet, but still. Yumm.



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Last night Carolyn and I went out near Piazza Navona (which is a bit touristy, I hear) and went to an Irish Pub to watch a football game. Got to use the bus system, which took a while, and it was pouring, and the game was Seattle v. Green Bay, which I wasn't totally invested in anyway, and it turned out to be kinda a win from the half onward. But it was still fun. I got a Magners 560, which is an Irish Cider, and incredibly huge. It lasted me the entire game, though. Well, until the end of the 3rd, which is when we left, and then proceeded to find the 99 night bus. We definitely learned the art of busing in Roma, though. If you see the number bus you know you want, just flag it down. It'll stop. Hopefully. It was a fun adventure, and I'm glad we went out and did it.

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Classes start tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll be updating at some point. I also get my syllabi tomorrow, so I can finally start planning all my weekend trips. Some things to watch out for: Madrid or Barcelona the end of this month, Tunisia the first weekend in February, Paris-Belgium (not sure which city yet)-Amsterdam for Spring break the last week of February, Budapest in March, Dublin in April (for my birthday!!) And some other stuff in between... I'd love to go to: Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, Germany (anywhere), Copenhagen, London.

A girl can dream <3