Morning at the market

This morning our class went to the open-air market in the Testaccio neighborhood. The market sort of reminded me of the farmers' market on Locust Lane in State College. We shopped around for fresh fruit, vegetables, bread, bakery items, poultry, fish, flowers, and more. My first purchase was a pint of strawberries (in Italian, "fragola") for 1,50 euros. Emily, Lane, Lee and I decided to sautee vegetables over pasta for dinner, so we bought red peppers, asparagus, and zucchini. The purpose of our trip the the market was to buy ingredients to make caprese salad back at the apartment. Since the four of us already bought these ingredients on the first grocery trip, we just purchased other goods at the market. We walked back to the apartment and stopped at a bakery along the way, where Emily and I shared a croissant. After a complicated process of 16 people trying to use one European-sized kitchen, we finally could enjoy caprese salad, which consists of sliced tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. A variation of this dish is a summer staple in my house; though familiar, I still enjoyed every bite.

After lunch, we held class in the apartment for a while. Class was over by 1pm but I got right to work on my readings. We discovered a porch/balcony area outside the apartment that overlooks the garden, so I sat outside reading in the intense sunshine. I started to get burnt within a few minutes and put on sunscreen soon after that. I have had too many threats of sun-poisoning to risk that at the beginning of this trip. The last few hours that I spent reading were peaceful, pretty, and full of sunshine. I'm glad we found such a wonderful spot to relax right outside the apartment!

I haven't been taking enough pictures, but tomorrow we head to the Colosseum where I am sure I will snap plenty. It's hard to stop and take a picture when I want to focus on remembering how to get everywhere! I'm off to getting more homework out of the way so I can enjoy tonight. Ciao!