LAUREN WALDSTEIN

First let me catch everyone up on the crazy ending to my Amsterdam adventure. When I got back to Rome I felt relieved and relaxed, happy to be back in a place that I know pretty well. I was without a source of money, except for the lovely Ms. Borden, but the package that my mom sent was "guaranteed to be in Rome on April 10th." Okay, just a few days without my precious belongings: no iPod - big deal!; no camera - I've seen everything already; no make-up - I'm a natural beauty. So waiting three days was no biggie. Okay, but then Thursday rolls around and there's no package. I call FedEx and they say it's going through customs but it's "guaranteed to be there by Friday." Guess what? No package Friday, no package Monday, not Tuesday, not Wednesday, and here I am a week after it was "guaranteed" to be here and it's not here.  Because I live in Italy, where guarantees don't exist.

Nevertheless, I had a fabulous birthday. Thursday night I went out to a quiet dinner with Stephie and her roommate Ari at a place called La Carbonara in Campo di Fiori. I ordered the antipasto vegetale which is like a buffet of oily, tangy, spicy, and savory vegetables that you can just pile high on your plate. Yum. It was like my dream dinner. We toasted with my first legal glass of wine (!) and had a lovely evening dining outside in the busy piazza, watching Italians go by eating panini and gelati, probably in celebration of my 21 years. 

Afterwards, we went to a gelateria to which I have pledged my undying loyalty. During the week Gitti took us on a field trip to said gelateria to see how gelato is made and let us use our conversational Italian a little more. So we walk in to this bright, lovely, little place called Gelateria de Teatro because it's right next to a theatre of some sort. The man working there owns it and appears to have a real passion for making delicious frozen delights - he's a sort of legend in Rome for this very reason. His wife was already working on a batch of melone, or cantaloupe, gelato so when we walked in she was actually peeling and slicing about 10 melone. I'm not sure I'd have the patience to make gelato on my own, because i'd say it took her about three minutes a melone - granted that's pretty fast for one person to peel and slice a whole cantaloupe - but still, tedious. She finished slicing and dicing and then added a very precise measurement of water, a little bit of glucose, and a dash of cornstarch. Then mixmaster it all together and pour it in the machine, which has two parts - the top part for fruity gelato, the bottom part for cream or milk based gelato.

20 minutes later this machine birthed the best gelato in the whole world. Who would think cantaloupe gelato would be appetizing? Not me. I'm a strictly dolce girl. But oh - my - god. This was like eating a cantaloupe - but better. And cooler, and smoother, and sweeter - but not a puckery sweetness. It was as if their recipe for melone gelato involved extracting all the deliciousness of the fruit, adding a little love, and mixing it all together to make a masterpiece of flavor.

After trying the melone, I decided to go a different way with mela cannella (apple cinnamon), tartufo (four different kinds of chocolate mixed with dark chocolate chunks and brownie pieces), and cannoli (self-explanatory). All gelatos. Holy cow. Holy mother of cow. The mela cannella (which I think would be a really cute stripper name, or maybe stage name to make this a little more PG), was like the inside of an apple pie, as if they just extracted the best part of the pie and made it a gusta, a flavor. Tartufo was like a chocolate explosion in my mouth, but in a good way. It wasn't too intense, but it was gooey and deep and warm and cold at the same time, rich and radiant and wonderful. The cannoli was like eating an actual cannoli, even with pieces of pastry and pistacchio - and I don't even like cannoli. But the owner showed us the amount of ricotta that goes into one batch - a lot - so the gelato is pretty much just like eating a real cannoli, but cooler and creamier with a little more sugar. It was sweet and tart, light and a little sour.

Savoring these gusti, these flavors, was a mind blowing experience. I didn't think you could tell the difference between yummy gelato and amazingly artistic and wonderful gelato - but you can. Gitti asked the man what his favorite flavor was and he replied in Italian that choosing his favorite flavor would be like having 20 children and having to choose between them. The man loves his craft, and you can taste that in his product. He told us that you can tell when gelato is fake because it's either really brightly colored or, really puffy and fluffy, which means it's made from a mix and has air pumped into it. So now I know and now I am a gelato snob.

Anyway, that's where Stephie, Ari and I went on my birthday. I ordered the same thing as the day before. "Vorrei un cono da due euro con mela cannella e tartufo, per favore. Grazie mille. Delizioso!" Afterwards I headed back towards my area to go to a house party.

It was at this kid Scott's homestay, hosted by him and his homestay brothers - both Italian, named Fabio and Flavio (I know, I'm not kidding. They're actually just best friends who live together. But still, Fabio and Flavio? That's like two friends named Lauren and Shmauren.) - because their house mom was out of town. How high school. It was awesome and a total throwback to good ol' fashion parties in the States. There was beer pong and bad rap music, a crowded kitchen, and red plastic cups - a total hit. The night ended on the early side, around 2, and I headed home for my first night dreaming as a 21 year old.

The next day I went for a great run in the 75 degree sunny weather - trying to start the year right - and met Becca and Rachel, in from Florence for the birthday extravaganza, at Termini. I've seen them both already when I went to Florence and then Rachel again when we went to Amsterdam together, but it doesn't get less exciting to see them in Italy, especially this time because we were in my city. Of course, the first destination was Gelateria de Teatro, where I tried coco e fragola (coconut and strawberry) this time. Needless to say, it was amazing. On a hot day, it was cool and sweet, the essence of each fruit. In all fairness, we actually went in that direction to see if my package had arrived at school, which of course it had not, but I had no problem allowing my addiction to worsen.

After that, the girls were still hungry so I took them to a new discovery - Il Fornaio, which really just means "The Bakery" and pretty much all the bakeries in Rome are called that. This one is right off Via Vittorio Emanuelle, just outside of Campo di Fiori and the selection is so amazing that I've had to walk out of there a few times because I was too overwhelmed. They each grabbed a slice of pizza, and then sitting on the steps of a museum next door, we chilled in the sun eating pizza and talking about life. Just me and some of my best friends - in Rome.

Acting as the tour guide for the weekend, I started with central Rome to hit up all the famous monuments. I didn't take the girls towards the Pantheon (amazing as it is) to appreciate history, I took them to appreciate the best coffee in the world at this great coffee shop just around the corner from the Pantheon called Tazzo D'Oro. I guess they're most famous bean is a Jamaican Blue Moon, or something like that, and it sells for 98 euro per kilogram. That's a loooot. It must be amazing. But I prefer a simple cappuccino - the best cappuccino in the world. I'm not even a coffee person, though I suspect I'm becoming one, and the best word I can think of for this hot, caffeinated beverage is smooth. It goes down smooth and sultry, and doesn't even need any sugar to feel sweet. It just sort of caresses you with each sip, relaxing you into a delightful little caffeine buzz. After more food touring, another birthday dinner, a handful of great conversations, and a barrel of laughs, I sent Becca and Rachel on their way back to Florence.

Tomorrow I will go to Sienna where I'll enjoy such things as touring, seeing art, participating in a wine tasting, and attending a seder hosted by one of the women congregants at probably the only synagogue in Sienna. I'm so excited. I have a feeling this food is gonna blow the rest of what I've had out of the park. I can't believe how much time has passed here. I can't believe how little we have left. And I cannot believe I am 21. Let the party begin...