Everything Is More Fun In Rome

...even simple things, like grocery shopping!

Yesterday, my roommates and I headed down the block to the open air market (mercato trionfale) to check out some of the local vendors. It was so amazing! My one roommate Erica described it as "Reading Terminal Market [in Philadelphia] on crack." I have to say, she is right.

This market was incredible. It was humongous and the prices were great. We bought a ton of fruit for under 2 euros. We bought fresh bread and pasta. The market also sold all kinds of poultry, fish, beef, cheeses and wine. We bought 3 bottles of wine for 6 euros! You can't beat that.

Bread and pastries

Wine

After, we bought a few things at the market we headed up the block to our local grocery store. It was such an adventure looking at all the different brands, and comparing it to what the item would be in America. It cracks me up that the only cream cheese we saw in all of Rome so far is Philadelphia Cream Cheese. So funny!

The roommates and I made a delicious dinner with all our new food from the market. We made pasta with tomato sauce, salad, bread and oil. Delicious!

Dinner

Later that night, Andrea Bocelli was performing a benefit concert for the earthquake last month at the Coliseum, so we headed over there to see if we could hear anything. We got there too late, but we had a great time hanging out at the bars in the area. The Coliseum at night is just breathtaking.

Coliseum

Today was the first day of classes...more on that later!