petrarch's house!

so yesterday i went to arqua petrarca, a little town where petrarch had lived for the last 14 years of his life. we went to his actual house, which was beautiful! the inside walls were painted with frescoes of scenes from his poetry, and the laurel wreath he received was preserved in a case on the wall. there was also a dead cat preserved in a case in the wall...i'm not really sure what that was about. the inscription was in latin. the house was located in some really stunning hills that were covered in vinyards, flowers, and lovely fields. outside the house were two trees with bright pink and white flowers that reached up into the second floor windows and a small hedge maze. the town itself had lots of steep hills and little shops, but most things were closed when we were there. we got a three course meal at a restaurant afterwards, and i ate prosciutto and melon, potato cakes and tortellini with PEAR in it, and a little cream and berry torte. the melon (cantaloupe) was amazing; if you don't like cantaloupe it's because you haven't had it fresh. the pear in the tortellini made it have a little sweet kick, which was pretty ingenious.

speaking of food, every once and a while i eat at the university cafeteria (called 'mensa'), and i can get a two course meal, bread, unlimited drinks, and dessert for 3.50 euro. it almost makes up for all the other restaurants costing an arm and a leg. today i had spaghetti al pesto and lamb. not your typical cafeteria food!

well...since i'm talking about food already...a couple nights ago i had carpaccio di manzo (extremely thinly sliced beef) served cold over rucola. now THAT was delicious. also, turns out the english translation of rucola is rocket salad? i have NEVER heard of rocket salad before.

i'm working on uploading the rest of the rome pictures, but it isn't working well. the internet is just so slow everywhere here that the connection is constantly resetting during uploads. :(

this weekend i'm staying in padova, and i'll just be doing homework, taking walks, and reading harry potter in italian. oh, and eating a lot.

a domani!