Lyon: The Belly of France

Once again, I am playing catch up on here to detail my recent travels. For our first weekend away from Rome, my roommate, Gianna, and I flew to Lyon, France to visit her friend from home. If I wasn't returning back to this beautiful city, I wouldn't have been able to leave!

We've always looked and laughed at the people in Rome pulling suitcases down the cobblestone streets and dog poop covered sidewalks, but then we became them. Of course the tram stop by us was under construction [but now it's fixed!] so we had to hoof it all the way to Trastevere station. [It's really only maybe a ten minute walk so I'm just complaining.] We bought our tickets with a few credit card struggles, almost were late for the train, and once again became those people running to get to our platform. They don't wait for you - when the doors open, you best be ready to hop on!

Thirty minutes later we arrived at Aeroporto di Fiumicino. Navigating our way through security and to our gate in Italian wasn't too bad. The worst part was our packing struggles. easyJet allows one carry on bag for free. I've flown quite a few times now to assume that a purse is allowed on in addition to a carry on. WRONG. Waiting in line, the stewardess informed us that we had to fit our personal bags into our already overstuffed suitcases. I have no idea how I managed it with nothing bursting or breaking, but I eventually got to Lyon packed to the gills.

Gianna's friends, Tanguy and Victoria, kindly picked us up at the airport. Tanguy lives in Lyon and met Gianna when he studied abroad at her school back in Rhode Island, Salve Regina. His English was impeccable and his accent adorable. Victoria is also her friend from school but she is living with a host family and studying French. Her classes are four hours a day, four days a week, completely in French. It makes my semester look like no work at all! It was a lot of fun to speak French with her and to the people there, though, as I've missed it! Learning Italian is great, but the French language came back to me so much more easily.

Tanguy stopped at one of his favorite boulangeries for us to grab a snack before dropping us at Victoria's. The apartment she lives in is gorgeous - really close to "Vieux [Old] Lyon". Her host family apparently has quite a bit of money, but they are so strict. She showed us her list of rules which forbid her to enter and use the kitchen [or most of the house], restrict her laundry to Sundays, don't allow guests, etc. She packed a bag quick to come stay with us at the Hotel Iris. Arriving, I found it quite charming. It was cheap, yes, but the man at the front desk was nice and the neighborhood was full of restaurants, cafes, and shops. Score. He even gave us a wine opener as a free gift ;)

Tanguy invited us to dinner at his friend's apartment to treat us to authentic French cuisine. It was so sweet and fun to meet Flo and Tom, even though we think they hated us a little bit for only speaking English :( The meal was what we described as reverse fondue. You melt cheese in a little metal cup on a hot plate and pour it over an assortment of [mostly raw] meats and potatoes. It was delicious.

We met Diego, her friend from Ecuador, later that night at Boston Bar. It was fun to grab a drink and dance, but we were exhausted and headed home to sleep after our day of travels!

The next day got a bit of a late start since we all wanted to sleep in, but it began with crepes! Mine had an egg and some tomatoes that reminded me of salsa. Dessert was the best part - apples & caramel!

Diego met up with us again and we crossed the river and climbed up the hill in Vieux Lyon. The city began up on the hill and moved down. Vieux Lyon is obviously the oldest part so as you walk away from the hill, Victoria described it as "walking through time".

Notre Dame de Fauvrier was the cathedral at the top of the hill in Vieux Lyon. Inside are a bunch of stations dedicated to Mary, each from a different race or culture. 

Naturally, I loved the oldest part with the old streets, crepe making carts, and cute store fronts. Up by the cathedral was also an amphitheater, but it's got nothing on the Colosseum ;)

For dinner, we met up with Dierdra, Victoria's friend from Ireland. Her school has people from everywhere! Apparently it's hard to make friends, though, since people come to Lyon to get married. Tanguy says that Paris is for single people while Lyon is for families. I can see why - it was quaint and beautiful. All the girls she met were in the French language program to learn to speak so they could make a life there. That's crazy to me - getting married and settling down already?!

Afterwards, Tanguy came over again and we went out to the Irish pub. There seem to be a lot of those over here, but they're a blast! We met a British man who referred to us as his American friends. On the way home, I got street food called "saucisson" which is really just a hot dog, but they guy got mad at me for calling it that.

The next day was sadly our last as the weekend had flown by! We got pastries and cappuccinos at "Paul", a bakery chain that reminded me of Panera back home! I ordered our caffe au laits for outside from the boy inside. The waitress brought them out and I was surprised with a heart in my coffee, sent from the French boy :)

Tanguy met us for lunch and it was AMAZING! We walked down to a street chock full of authentic Lyonnais restaurants. I'm not joking when I say we probably walked up and down the road four times before he decided on which restaurant we should go in for the best food. It was so worth it. I had a Lyonnais salad, which is served everywhere in Lyon and has a fried egg on top of lettuce, croutons, and fried bacon. For my meal, I ordered a quenelle, another Lyonnais delicacy. I honestly don't really know what it was. I'd describe the shape and look of it as a Twinkie. Seriously. The consistency was sort of spongy like a dense cake, as well. I did a little research and found that it's made with flour and pike. How they grind up the fish into this dish is something I'd rather not know since I really enjoyed it. It came with potatoes and rice all covered in a red sauce. It was to die for! Lyon has definitely lived up to to its reputation.

Tanguy wanted to take us on a tour of Lyon and introduce us to his friends. He brought us back into Vieux Lyon and into these little covered passageways. Apparently the city used to be known for making silk and the buildings were constructed this way so the drying fabric was shielded from the rain. There were shops in nooks and crannies everywhere, including one real weird medieval times store with full on costumes and swords.

I found this door that I thought was so pretty. We deciphered the name and I believe it was the entrance to a science institute.

We took the funicular up the hill once again and wound down through the gardens. Once again, his friends didn't really want to speak English to us, but the night ended quite perfectly with a sunset over the old city.

[Tanguy getting creative with my pictures!]

[This time you can see the Ferris wheel down in the city.]

[Looking up at the cathedral as we climbed down.]

Victoria was craving pasta so we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. How ironic!

Victoria sent us directions to get back to the airport the next morning. Somehow we managed to figure out the metro, train, and airport to get us home. Our adventure included me buying a pastry simply for the purpose of getting change. Credit card machines did not  like us. At all. But we made it home to Rome! How funny is it that I can feel like that now? Being in Roma is actually quite familiar and comforting. What a lucky girl I am to have that feeling :)

Next post? My past weekend in Tuscany! Stay tuned for the Leaning Tower of Pisa, climbing the Duomo of Florence, and tasting wine at Fattoria dell Colle.

Terni: A Chocolate Lover's Dream

Wow, I haven't written in forever! I've been so crazy busy - but that's a good thing, right!? I suppose it's time to do a little update on here.

Last Friday was Valentine's Day, obviously. Two of my roommates here both have boyfriends back home so we made a girls' day & night out of it :) We started our day off with cioccolato calde [hot chocolate, which is more like a pudding here. It's seriously like a melted chocolate bar in a cup! And steaming hot.] for them and a cappuccino for me in these adorable mugs. They took me as a surprise since they saw them the day before. How sweet. And the boy making the cappuccino was pretty sweet too.

There's a restaurant we always pass on the way to school that's in the building attached to the train station called "Bisteccheria & Pizzeria Quattro Venti" which translates to "Four Winds" restaurant specializing in meat & pizza. I went for a run with a resident student here and asked for a good restaurant suggestion. She lives close to me and said it's one of her and her roommates' favorites! I looked up reviews online and people raved about it. Naturally we had to go.

Alayna, Alyssa, and I got all dressed up [sort of] and headed up the road starving for dinner. Quattro Venti did not disappoint! We had to wait for a table since the place was packed, not to mention decorated with balloons and flowers and full of adorable couples. That's always a good sign. We were waited on by the owner himself - we're not sure if it's because it was busy or he was the only one who spoke English. Regardless, we loved him! His name was Enzo, he treated us so well, and even gave us a chocolate mousse for free [since he brought it by accident]. We loved him! The sparkling vino della casa was our absolute favorite so far and the bread was perfectly soft and chewy. I had a fried zucchini flower that I did not care for. I think it had an anchovie in it. I decided to branch out from pasta and pizza, however, and try something new! Enzo said I'd like it and I definitely did - I got a dish with prosciutto over baked slices of mozzarella. We finished the night off with some creme brulee, tartufo, and [free] chocolate mousse! For it being a girls' date, it was a pretty lovely Valentine's Day.

The festivities continued into Saturday as we had booked train tickets to Terni, just an hour outside of Roma. I'm really putting my new Trenitalia membership to good use! Terni is the home of Saint Valentine and hosts an epic chocolate festival called "Cioccolentino" every Valentine's Day weekend. We hopped off the train and followed some other girls we ran into speaking English whom we discovered also go to AUR.

[this was the view]

Strolling down the street, we walked into what can be best described as chocolate heaven. Well, first there were stands with meat, cheese, and apple pastries. Those free samples were still good. Then we reached the chocolate! So many stations were incredibly generous so we filled up on tastes of chocolate covered almonds, chocolate bark, pastries, candies, and all sorts of other glorious sweets. My sweet tooth has never been so happy :)

[a chalkboard wine bottle]

[chocolate tools]

[chocolate shoes]

With so much sweet, I needed some pizza! After grabbing a slice, we figured out that bus 7 would take us to the famous waterfall also calling Terni home. How we figured out where to go? A little bit of practice dealing with Italian transportation, a lot of guesswork, and a really nice French man who translated in English to the bus driver who dropped us right off, even though we didn't have tickets. I have no idea how some things end up working out for us, but I'm definitely not complaining.

Cascata delle Marmore was at the top of a big hill we wound up on the bus with breathtaking views of the countryside out the windows. Once at the top, we purchased tickets to climb the wooden stairs to get a better view of the falls. It was such a nice, warm day, but by the falls we were getting soaked! People even had worn raincoats and ponchos. Not everyone was prepared, though. There were a lot of adorable little Italian kids stumbling up the slippery steps with their parents. What a fun way to spend your Saturday - at the largest man-made waterfall in the world! Alayna and I hardly even consider it man-made since it was actually constructed by the ancient Romans.

Heading back down the hill, the chocolate festival was crazy! So many people came out for the night and were walking around. Lots of kids were dressed up and throwing confetti. There was even a fair section with slides, rides, and activities. In a piazza, there was a concert going on.

It was so fun to be in the midst of. Our feet exhausted from the day, we walked to a side street for a cappuccino. We met the owner of the bar [The Italian word for "cafe" is "bar" - you drink coffee there!] and he suggested a restaurant for us. Sadly, we had to grab our second slice of pizza and head back to the station as our train was coming to take us back to Roma.

After a fun filled weekend with two of my lovely roommates and a belly full of sweets, I definitely slept well :)

[lots of love in Terni]

Chickpea & Balsamic Couscous Salad

I've cooked a lot since I've arrived here! There are some great restaurants, but the only choices for "fast food" or a quick lunch stop are "pizza al taglio" ["pizza by cut"] or a panino from a bar. They're delicious but the choices don't vary much. I also don't like spending money on it each day when I could be saving to go out to the delicious restaurants lining the streets of Trastevere :)

I figured the first recipe post I shared should use some of the classic Italian ingredients - balsamic vinegar and tomatoes! Surprising to me, couscous is also a common food here. I picked up a box at our "ethnic store" simply because I wanted something cheap, easy, tasty, relatively healthy, and an alternative to pasta! Since then, however, I've found that it's sold at a lot of restaurants and one of the resident students at AUR suggested to keep it on hand as well. Looks like I was ahead of the game.

I also quite easily found chickpeas at the grocery store. Opening them with a knife since my kitchen lacked a can opener was slightly life threatening, but I've since invested in one. I think it was probably 4 euros well spent.

Cucumbers here can be iffy - we think sometimes they are intended for pickling so the skin is extremely bitter. I've had pretty good luck with the fresh fruit and veggie stand, however, as opposed to the ethnic store's small selection.

I found the base of this recipe here, but I tweaked it a little and it came out great! My roommates approved as well :) It's so easy to stick in my bag for lunch, packed with flavor, and chock full of veggies I can pick up at the stand down the street.

Chickpea & Balsamic Couscous Salad

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup uncooked couscous

1/8 cup olive oil

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 can chickpeas

1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cucumber, sliced and quartered

1 green onion, sliced

salt and pepper, to taste

parsley, for garnish

avocado, for serving

spinach, torn for serving

Boil water in a saucepan. Add couscous, remove from heat, and cover. Let sit for about 5 minutes or until couscous has absorbed water. Fluff with a fork.

Combine olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl. Pour over warm couscous to allow it to absorb the flavor.

In a large bowl, combine chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, green onion, and couscous with dressing. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley. Serve over bed of spinach and top with slices of avocado.

Makes about 3 servings. Tastes great after a day in the fridge!

[The original recipe used white wine vinegar, but I used balsamic to give it more flavor :) ]

Alrighty, that was officially my first recipe post. My roommates laugh at me because I write everything we cook down in my notebook, but hey, there's just not enough room to drag my computer into the kitchen each time! And this way I'll have all my good recipes easy to find in the future.

Hope you try & enjoy it!

Monday Fun-Day

Gianna and I have no class on Mondays. After sitting inside doing some homework and walking down the street to do some grocery shopping, we had to get out and about for an adventure. I can confidently say that yesterday was the BEST day I've had in Rome so far. We stumbled upon amazing architecture, cute cobblestone streets, handmade goods, and perfect memories. 

We walked to the Trastevere tram/bus station on purpose so that we could pass by the patisserie, but it was closed :( Typical Italian time. Continuing on, we hopped on tram line 8 and got off in Piazza Venezia, the center of ancient Rome. 

Our first sight was the Pantheon! We were very curious about what happens on rainy days, such as today, since the occulus is open. Apparently there are 20 holes in the floor to drain the water that enters the building, which resembles a clock and has a great deal of Pagan symbolism. I'm slightly addicted to Angels and Demons. Though rebuilt, it's still one of the oldest standing buildings in this city erected as a symbol of Roman victories.

When we walked up, there was some sort of protest outside! I have no idea what they were shouting or fighting, but we were still able to enter, so we snuck in the other side.

Continuing on, we followed the signs to Piazza Navona. It's such a beautiful place - gorgeous fountain and statue in the center with people ambling around peacefully. 

Just off of Piazza Navona seems to be a great place to eat! All the restaurants are competing for business so they have some great prices on tasty looking food. I may have to return and report back on what I find ;)

We ventured into a church nearby, which was apparently the German ["tedesco"] church in the city of Rome, San Maria dell'Anima [Saint Maria of the Soul]. Part of the wall was being restored and the difference in the vibrance of the painting they were working on compared to the other dusty ones were incredible! 

Continuing on our journey, we stumbled upon "Made" - a cupcake "laboratory"!

The treats inside were picture perfect. My chocolate cookie sandwich with vanilla cream tasted heavenly.

Gianna was feelin' the love with her lip shaped sugar cookie ;)

They were definitely perfecting everything about baking. Maybe I need to work there to learn all the tricks of the trade before I open up my own bakery one day.

The shop was so interesting to me as it was extremely modern in contrast to the other shops nearby. My favorite one we saw had this little old man working on a lamp inside. On the wall were tons of ornately made keyholes. We stood outside the window for a while staring before we realized we'd creep him out if we stood there any longer... Other places we strolled into had Venitian masks, handmade jewelry, and India scarves. 

Not sure where we were, we suddenly turned a corner and in front of us was Castel San Angelo and St. Peter's Basilica. How incredible is it that we got lost and found that!?

So much to take in. I couldn't have asked for better weather, a more intricate city, or a more adventurous companion to spend my time with.  

It was time for a cappuccino. The place we discovered had drinks for 8 euros which came with a free buffet of food! Since we weren't hungry, we just had the coffee, but we'll definitely have to go back! It was worth paying more for the cappuccino to sit down and enjoy the beautiful atmosphere. 

[Thanks to Gianna for capturing this moment :) ]

On the way home we got lost and wandered a little more. We passed by these huge open doors and saw this inside.

The two of us didn't even have to say a word - we both doubled back and walked in. It seemed to be a government building and the courtyard was empty, but hey, they left it open for us to discover, right?

Possibly one of my most exciting finds of the day is actually thanks to Gianna. She saw this boulangerie with delicious looking bread and the cutest interior. It was definitely a FRENCH bakery! [Boulangerie is the French term for it, after all.] I was in heaven. We couldn't resist and picked up a loaf of foccaccia with tomatoes for an appetizer before dinner. 

Stopping in a few more shops, we finally found our way back to Piazza Venezia. I found the cutest black dress at one adorable boutique, but it broke my heart that it was too big :( 

We came home for some wine & the foccaccia bread while making a delicious dinner. French bakers do not disappoint! It was an experiment, but my roasted red pepper and pesto chicken turned out very well!