We dance, we kiss, we schmooze, we carry on, we go home happy. What do you say?

There’s nothing better than cuddlefest and Hercules to start off your week. And that is precisely what we did. Grace and I watched the much beloved Disney film with our friends Chelsea and Francesca on Sunday night. We all cuddled up in two small beds that were pushed together and sang along as we watched Herc go from zero to hero. I totally called dibs on being Meg for Halloween, and I think Franny said she would be Hercules because she is a ginger. Then Grace and Chelsea volunteered to get some cronies to be the five muses with them. We jokingly talked about using the hotel’s bed sheets for our Grecian get-ups. Epic plan? I think so. Fun fact number 37 about Allie: when I was in primary school, I had a sweet lavender-colored backpack with Meg on it that said “Meg-a cool!” I know what you’re thinking, and no, it doesn’t get any cooler than that.

Monday night was the kick-off of God Squad, and I am stoked! God Squad meets once a week and we learn about our faith and the Church and Rome and how they all go together. There are seven deacons and seminarians that are in charge of the program and they are fantastic. A few of them have excellent beards, and one of them remembered me from a weeklong program that I participated in four years ago at St. Meinrad Archabbey. I’m hard to remember, yet impossible to forget…

For breakfast this morning I had a cappuccino and a cornetto. The cornetto was fresh out of the oven, so it was still hot, and there was warm nutella in the middle. I knew as soon as I took a bite that today was going to be a good day. You just can’t have that for breakfast and not have a good day, you know?

After breakfast, I went to the library to study Italian for a few hours, and I got a lot of work done. Great success! I then met up with my one and only (Grace) for lunch. Then it was time for my two hour Italian class. Yikes. But today was good. I actually carried on a mostly intelligent conversation with my teacher and I was able to answer correctly every time she called on me. Ten points to Gryffindor! After Italian, I headed back to the library to get ahead on Western Civilization. Then it was back to the room to make our beds (Tuesday is clean sheets day!) and to do laundry. Look at productive Polly over here. I was feeling so good about all the work I had accomplished, and then Grace walked into the room and made my day even better. Her neighbors are in town for a few days, and they brought goodies with them from the states. Homemade cookies and wait for it, wait for it…

PEANUT BUTTER!

Fun fact number 22 about Allie Zahm: I am addicted to peanut butter. No joke. I have it at least once a day. But, here in Italy, they do not eat peanut butter. So I have gone through withdraw for about a month now. Until today. And let me tell you, peanut butter has never tasted so good. Thank you, Pat Coffey.

I always look forward to going to moral theology, and class was extra good today. We talked about the roles of and relationships between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Then we discussed how humans relate to and carry out the work of each part of the Trinity. At one point, Fr. Mark made a comment about “living of love,” so I was singing the Avett Brothers song to myself for the rest of the night. When they ask you what you’re thinking of, say love, say for me looooove…

Grace and I topped off the evening by going out to dinner with her neighbors, the Schuberts. They took us to a nice place called Francesco’s (so Italian) and we had an amazing dinner and good conversation. We then went for a nice stroll, and Grace and I showed them our world. We introduced them to the best gelato place in Rome. We showed them to the less ghetto supermarket of the two that we frequent, the classroom building, the library, the office building, and Pascucci. It was a lovely night, and it was nice to meet a few of the many amazing people that Grace has been telling me all about.

It’s the little things in life, you know?

You know you, yeah? (Said in British accent just for my Tash.)

Happy feast day of St. Luke!

I would like to throw a special shout-out to my big brudder Josh, who is home from Afghanistan. Welcome home, doc! I wish I could be there to celebrate your safe return with you.

I hope your few days in h-town will leave you well rested and feeling extra loved. Because you are.

A presto.

They say you gotta lose a couple fights to win...

Yvon Chouinard once made the comment, “The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong, that’s when the adventure starts.” I must say that both last Saturday and this Saturday turned out to be awfully big adventures.

Grace and I got about three hours worth of sleep last Friday. Strike one.

Grace, Caitlin, Lindsay, and I rose before the sun in order to catch a bus that took us to the train station. Destination: Venice. When we reached the train station, we got in line (behind some interesting-looking characters) to validate our eurail passes and to buy our tickets. The man behind the counter, who looked an awful lot like V from V for Vendetta, told us that the next three trains to Venice were already booked. He offered us tickets for a train that left close to noon, but that would mean sitting in the station for five-ish hours and then once we got there, we would have to turn around and come back. Strike two.

I was kind of excited about our failed plans, because it opened up a world of possibilities. Well, a country of possibilities, anyway. The girls and I conversed for a minute and then decided, what the heck, let’s go to Verona instead! We purchased tickets for the 8:05 train to Verona, thanked V, and went on our merry way. It took us a few minutes to figure out the platforms, but we finally realized that our train would be at Platform 9 ¾. Yeah right. I wish. It would actually be departing from Platform 21. We had some time to kill, so we walked around a bit and then went back to the platform just to be safe. At one point, a man came up to me and asked me for a cigarette in Italian. I told him I didn’t have one and he said, “Non fumo? Perche?!” He then realized that I was American and he started going on about college football. Zahhhm, baby, what’s up? Football! 

After some more time passed, I started getting antsy. I checked my watch. It was almost 8:10, and our train still hadn’t arrived. We checked the board to see what was up. Our platform number had changed. I remember Grace saying something about Platform 4, we started panicking, and then we all started running. *Cue intense yet hopeful music.* It was like a movie scene: the four of us sprinted across the station, and I was laughing hysterically because I didn’t know what else to do. We reached the platform just in time to see our train leave the station. Once again, this is movie material. *Cue Charlie Brown Christmas music.* Strike three.

But we would not allow ourselves to be benched.

Grace and I tend to be “glass half full” people. We recognized the fact that our plans didn’t exactly work out, but we also recognized that we still had the entire city of Rome to explore! And explore we did. We started out in Vatican City and worked our way towards the hotel. We walked our little feet off while we discovered different marketplaces and little shops off the beaten path. We window-shopped, enjoyed the beautiful fall weather, got lost, found ourselves, walked by the Tiber, and Grace and Lindsay even did a bit of bartering…

One of my favorite places that we stumbled upon was the market in Campo di Fuori. It was like a big farmer’s market with a ton of fresh fruits, veggies, wine, cheese, and spices. Everything was colorful and lively and it smelled amazing. Don't even get me started on all the cute little old ladies buying their weekly produce.

On Saturday night, Grace and I went out on our first date. We went to a restaurant with handsome waiters, one of which sang to us the entire night. We shared a lovely Italian meal together. When we finished, a waiter brought us each a glass of complimentary “sexy wine.” Those were his words, not mine. I promise. It was quite possibly the best wine I have ever tasted, regardless of the name.

The day turned out to be quite lovely, despite the failed travelling plans. What can we say? Grace and I are great at flying by the seat of our pants. It is also helpful that we are good at making the best of whatever situation we are in. But seriously, how could we possibly be unhappy? We are in Rome!

The week flew by quickly with lots of lectures, homework, afternoon study sessions in the library, and late night laugh sessions with Grace. Last night after a great class on moral theology and a delicious dinner, Grace and I decided to unwind by watching some good old YouTube clips of Whose Line Is It Anyway? We laughed soooo hard. Go team Colin. And to top the night off, we went to an Irish Pub (of all places!) called Abbey’s Theater and had a beer with our friends Jenni and Courtney. We just chilled out while we talked and listened to some wonderful live music. We headed back early to try and get a good night’s rest for today’s plans. Destination: Florence. Of course, we stayed up way too late talking and once again got three hours of sleep. Strike one.

We woke up early and got outside just in time to catch our bus to the train station. We purchased our tickets and even got on our train early. Pro status! We were so proud of ourselves, and we couldn’t wait to get to Florence. We switched back and forth between giggling and dozing off during our train ride, which went by quickly. An hour and a half later, we reached Florence. Besides the lack of sleep, everything was going smoothly. Who knew?!

Just in case you were wondering, Florence is beautiful. One of the first places we saw was a gorgeous church. We didn’t get to go inside, but the outside was decorated enough to keep my eyes busy for weeks. We wandered the chilly streets until we found a huge marketplace that was rich with the smell of leather. We walked around the market for quite some time, buying a few gifts and trying to stay away from the really pushy vendors. We walked around some more and had lunch in a cute café with pink tablecloths. We ended up meeting a woman from Ohio while we were eating, and she pointed us in the direction of Galleria dell’Accademia. Grace and I found the gallery and purchased tickets so we could see the Scultore del bello naturale.

The galleria was amazing. It was filled with religious icons and paintings, as well as gorgeous statues. We spent some time looking at a room full of large icons, which were painted with rich gold and red hues. When we turned the corner, our jaws dropped. There he was: the statue of David.

Let me tell you, the boy has some big hands.

The statue itself was massive and intimidating, but the first thing I noticed was the detail in his hands. The carved creases and veins made them seem so realistic, and for some reason they looked disproportionate to the rest of his body. The statue was so impressive. His body looked relaxed (and quite chiseled) while his face seemed tense and possibly a bit disturbed. Granted, he just got done killing a giant.  We couldn’t get over how beautiful the statue was. With the exception of his feet and shoulders looking a bit rough, the rest of the statue was silky smooth, and the lines in the marble seemed to match the contours and veins of his body. It was another one of those casess where pictures and words will never do it justice. During the short period of time that we were there, Grace and I may have formed a huge crush on David. It’s whatever.

After our museum experience, we found a pastry shop and Grace had her first ever cannoli. She even shared it with me. Italy sure knows how to make their pastries. 

After our treat, we headed back to the station so we wouldn’t miss our train. We kept getting excited because we had just spent the day in a city we had never been to and we found our way without complications. Look at us being all grown up and responsible in a foreign country and whatnot! The ride back went smoothly, and we both slept most of the way because we were tired birds. We reached the station in Roma and once again gave ourselves a pat on the back for having such a successful and stress free trip. We spoke too soon…

When we walked out of the station, there was a rally of sorts happening in the streets. The buses weren’t running in that part of town because the streets were blocked off, and we had no idea how to get back to the hotel. Strike two. Grace and I decided to find another bus stop. We walked around for a while, but we couldn’t find a stop that was part of our bus’s route. So we walked in what we thought was the general direction of our hotel.

Two hours later, we were completely and hopelessly lost. Grace asked about 10,000 different people for directions, but her endeavors were fruitless. So we walked some more. I honestly have no idea where we were for those few hours, but all I can say is that we did a good job of not completely freaking out. After lots of uneducated guessing and aimless wandering, we miraculously found a familiar street: Via del Corso. Oh, the joy of finding oneself again! No strike three this time. We happily made our way back and rewarded ourselves with the best gelato we have ever tasted (I know I say that every time, but it just keeps getting better.)

It’s just another chapter in the adventures of Grace and Allie. It was quite the experience, and I have the blisters to prove it. But there is something to be said about getting utterly lost and then finding your way home. I grew a lot today, and I learned how capable I was of pushing past my limits. I wouldn’t change a second of it.

But before I turn this into a novel, (too late?) I think I am going to get some shuteye. Sleep is a good friend that I haven’t spent nearly enough time with lately, and I think she is starting to feel neglected. Goodnight world. You just got a whole lot bigger.

P.S. What started out as a peaceful rally in the streets did not end so peacefully. Grace and I were lucky to get home safe before the destruction started. Here is an interesting link for the story:
http://www.13abc.com/story/15701412/rome-protest-against-corporate-greed-turns-violent

I fell in love again, all things go, all things go

I have found it to be true that I almost always fall in love in the fall. This is a good time to fall in love, in my opinion, because autumn is easily my favorite of all the seasons. Everything about it makes my little heart quite happy: the trees, flannel, fall playlists, tea, anything pumpkin, Halloween, cardigans…you get the point.

I fell in love today. With Rome. I mean, I have loved Rome ever since I stepped foot on its narrow, cobble-stoned streets. But today sealed the deal for sure.

I woke up to gray skies and cool air. And scattered rain. You know how there is that one day where you realize that fall has finally arrived, and it gives you the giddiest feeling in the world, and you feel (even if it’s just for a moment) that everything is right in the world? If you don’t know what I mean, then you’re missing out. If you do know what I mean, well, that is what I felt like today. And it was lovely.

The day started out wonderfully. Grace and I caught up on some sleep, since we got very little (well, Grace got very little) the night before, and last night, we had an epic late night chat with our friends Chelsea and Fran. We took our time getting ready and then we walked to Pascucci with our friend Leo for lunch. Then Leo introduced us to one of the best gelato places in town. (I feel like I say that about every gelato place…)

Instead of having Archaeology today, I had a tour at Villa Giulia, which is a museum filled with Etruscan artifacts and pottery. It is so cool to actually be able to see the things that I am learning about in my classes. I got really excited when I saw a particular sarcophagus that we learned about. I kid you not. Call me a nerd, but it was amazing. These pieces are thousands of years old and they are right in front of my eyes. And my mind is continually blown.

Speaking of awesome old stuff, Grace and I happened to find the Trevi fountain the other day. I must say that pictures don’t do it justice. The fountain is huge! It’s like the opposite reaction that one has after seeing the Mona Lisa (which is super tiny, or so I’ve heard.) We both threw coins in, but I only threw in five cents. And I threw it over my right shoulder instead of my left. Fail. Good thing it is only a fifteen-minute walk from where we are staying.

Speaking of the Mona Lisa, I am going to Paris for Thanksgiving break with my lovely friends Caitlin and Lindsay. I am so stoked.

Speaking of Caitlin and Lindsay, Grace and I are accompanying them to Venice tomorrow. Can you say gondola ride?

Speaking of tomorrow, I have to get up at 5:15 am and it is 1:00 am. So, technically I have to get up today. So I am off to bed. I hope you all have the sweetest of all the dreams.

Speaking of sweetness, Lindsay’s ridiculously sweet boyfriend, Joe, read us the book Goodnight Moon over skype this evening. Precious. And a teensy bit hilarious.

Goodnight, moon.

B-B-B-Benny and the...Angelus?

Oh helloooo! (Exclaimed in Mrs. Doubtfire voice.)

I hope this post finds you well, wherever you are on God’s green earth.

Let’s be like old friends and just pick up where we left off, shall we? Good.

Going to the Vatican was quite the eye-opening experience, in more ways than one. Grace and I got all dolled up in our Sunday best, making sure that our knees and shoulders were fully covered. (Which wasn’t difficult to do at all, considering I wore pants.) Then we set off with the other girls on the twenty-minute walk that it takes to get to Vatican City. When we got there, we had another “Ohmygoshthisisnotreallife” moment. And then we got in line to enter St. Peter’s Basilica. Yes, there was a line. It was similar to the lines you see on Black Friday at 6:00 AM in front of various department stores. We sure have our priorities straight in that there Amurica…

The line moved relatively quickly and we passed easily through security. Yes, security. Like at an airport, except maybe not so strict. I didn’t have to take my shoes off. After security, we were free and clear to head into the basilica.

I have two words for you. Swiss guards.

Just kidding. That’s not all I have to say.

The basilica was massive and beautiful, just as I suspected. But it still managed to blow my mind. There were multiple statues of large proportions that were situated in various alcoves in the walls. There were scenes painted on different parts of the ceiling, and I remember seeing the color gold a lot. We walked in right as the procession started. I have never seen so many priests in one place in my life. There was incense, and I looked through the crowd, hoping to see Jon serving. But he is in Nashville being a scholarly beast. Alas.

The mass was spoken entirely in Latin. I have never been to a Latin mass before, but I have always wanted to experience it, and I finally got to! It was very beautiful, and now I have even more of a thirst to learn Latin. I suppose I should conquer Italian first, though. Our program director told us that there was no guarantee that we would receive communion because of the number of people that attend mass every week, but we did get to receive it, and for that I am quite thankful. After mass, we joined the large crowd of people gathered outside that were waiting to see the pope. I have never been so violated in all my life. Don’t get me wrong, I like to be touched, but this was more of a smother. It was insane. No can of sardines will ever be as packed as that crowd. And once the pope came to his window, people actually tried to move through said crowd to get a better view of him. Grace and I miraculously made it to the edge, where there was the teensiest bit of elbow room. Good old Benny came and perched at his window and prayed the Angelus in Italian and I got a glimpse of his arm. It was nice.

After our crowd experience, Grace and I thought we deserved some gelato. So we stopped at a little shop in Vatican City and got the best gelato we have had so far, minus Assisi. We strolled back to the Tiziano (the hotel where we are staying) in order to get some homework done. Partway through our homework sesh, we decided that a twenty-minute power nap was in order. Three hours later (sorry I’m not sorry) we woke up to continue our homework. Later we ventured out to find some dinner, but most places were closed or had slim pickings so we ended up at the supermarcato and bought bananas, coffee yogurt, crackers, and jam. We took our delicious spread home (err, back to our room) and sat on the floor to enjoy our feast. Somewhere in this time frame we were almost trampled and killed by a horse-drawn carriage, but we managed to escape.

Classes are going wonderfully. I answered a ton of questions in Western Civ the other day and I was so proud of myself. Yay for not being completely ignorant! I am loving archaeology, as usual. My Italian prof has managed to make learning a foreign language fun. Who knew?! And Fr. Mark Attard can talk about the Paschal Mystery like it’s going out of style. I know the story quite well, but he just has a way of speaking that makes it so real and rich. He has many leather bound books. Not really, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he did.

The past few days have been great bonding time with Grace. I mean, ever since we got on the stinkin plane it has been good bonding time, but this week especially. We have had so many good conversations, lots of giggling, a few serious moments, and lots of dance parties. We made travel plans together and finalized them today. We are both starting to catch a cold. It’s like we’re the same person. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that our beds are literally two inches apart…it’s whatever. I would just like to throw a special shout out to her for being a fantastic roommate. I’m not sure there are very many people on earth who could put up with me as well as Grace Coffey can. Haha, coffey can. It’s punny, get it?! (That one’s for you, Maureen.) Grace puts up with my singing in the shower, my random movie quotes and song lyrics, my ridiculous laugh, and my need for hugs. And she is tops at keeping up with my sass. 50 points to Hufflepuff! (We both decided that if she attended Hogwarts, that is the house she would most likely be in.)

Happy Birthday, Joseph Paul Zahm. You are one beautiful man.

Happy Feast Day of St. Francis! He is also one beautiful man.

P.S. Skype can be a wonderful thing. I was able to talk to four of my favorite people so far this week. Wizard. 

And I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing

If you know me even a little bit, you know that I have a ridiculously loud and “unique” laugh. I find it to be obnoxious and slightly abrasive, but I’ve been told that it’s a good one. News flash. I have met my match in the laughing department. His name is Jolly. Fitting name, right?! Jolly is one of the three boys on this trip. He is a big guy, like a teddy bear, with ginger hair and the most wonderful and contagious giggle I have ever heard. I don’t even know how to describe it, but it is so good! And our laughs together are solid gold. The other night, Grace and I sat with the three boys (Jolly, Leo, and Mauro) at dinner. Pretty much anything Jolly says or does makes Grace and I laugh, which makes Jolly giggle, which makes us laugh even harder. So, needless to say, our table was insanely loud with laughter during the entire meal. Moral of the story: Jolly and I shouldn’t sit together at meals because we are laughing so hard we can’t eat. And everyone else at the table can’t eat because they are laughing at our laughs. But it was still a beautiful experience.

On Thursday, Grace and I managed to get lost on the way back from our midday walk. (I know what you’re thinking, and yes, we are like a cute old couple.) This getting lost business would not have been that big of an issue, except I had fifteen minutes before I was expected in class. Instead of stopping and asking for directions, we walked through random streets in what we thought was the general direction of our hotel. After a few minutes of searching, we started getting into slightly sketchy-looking territory. So we decided to ask a nice man in a uniform where the Pantheon was. Grace asked him in Italian, but he answered in English. (We weren’t fooling anybody that day.) We made our way back to the Pantheon, and from there I got to class with a few minutes to spare. Go team!

That evening, Grace and I did our nightly workout together. We ended our workout sesh with a little interpretive dance to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing.” Don’t you dare judge us. While we were dancing mid-song, we heard a knock on the door. Our neighbors, Chelsea and Bethany, had heard the music and came to join us. And let me just say that we had quite the finale.

Friday classes were amazing! I always look forward to Archaeology, and I am never disappointed. We learned tons of interesting things about the Etruscans, and it sounded even better with my prof’s British accent. She relates ancient history to our lives in a way that I never thought possible, and she is darn good at it. I actually get excited while learning about 9^th century BC urns and the different kinds of columns that exist in Roman architecture.

Grace, Caitlin, and I decided to have pizza and beer for dinner on Friday night. So, we went to a little restaurant across the street, bought our food and drink, and went back to our room to have our first Italian beer. Turns out that the beer was in fact from Denmark. It also turns out that I was the only one who liked it. Grace and Caitlin thought it was disgusting, so we had to make a run to the supermarket to pick up some fruity alcoholic beverage for them to share. Amateurs. (Just kidding.) Jenni ended up coming over and we chilled out in our room and had a great conversation. We disbanded around midnight, and then Grace and I talked and giggled until the wee hours of the morning. I love having friends that don’t have to get wasted to have a good time.

We had an all-day class tour today. We went to the Forum in the morning and saw the seven hills upon which Rome was founded. The ruins are quite beautiful, and it is interesting to see how much Rome has expanded since the beginning. We learned about Augustus, Nero, and the house of vestal virgins. In the afternoon, we made our way to the Colosseum. I still can’t believe that I actually got to see these incredibly old places and walked where the ancient Romans walked. It’s kind of exciting in a way. I learned so much today. We didn’t just look at how they did things, but we also thought about why. Why did they do it this way? What made them choose this instead of this? Etc.

We dug deeper than just the factual points of history. We measured history against ourselves in order to connect with it and understand it more fully. And boy, was it great.

I did my first load of laundry in the bathtub tonight. I’m a fairly decent washing machine! The trick is finding space to let everything hang so it can dry…

Tomorrow we are going to St. Peter’s basilica at the Vatican for mass. I am so stoked. I love me some Jesus!