A Word on Food

Food is, like, a big thing here. But Italy isn't like America in their food culture. If you want good food in Italy you get Italian food. If you want good food in America you get whatever you want. The best food in my home town isn't necessarily American food. The best food in SF isn't necessarily American food. The best food in Seattle isn't necessarily American food. Not only does non-Italian food not live up to expectations, it is hard to find. On top of my head I can think of two places-- Mcdonalds and a Tex Mex place. Neither of which I am honestly even remotely interested in eating.

But on the other hand, it is really hard to find bad food here. Even the 3 euro pizza is good-- gourmet compared to the comprably-priced Hot-And-Ready Little Caeasers back home. If you do give in to eatting only Italian food, you're basically guaranteed high quality.

While living in Rome, I have eatten out for almost every lunch and only eatten out for dinner once. Lunch time food consists of 3 euro pizza or paninis most days, but dinners get pricey so making my own food had been helpful in saving money. And pasta is pretty hard to screw up.

My new favorite thing is frying up salami and adding it to whatever dish you are making. Bread and brie cost pennies so they serve as good snack food, and Italians have absolutely perfected sugar cookies. When in doubt, eat nutella.

Also, gelato is a must all day everyday. If you walk past a gelato place and DON'T get some, you are actually breaking Roman law. It's best to quietly comply. And don't just try one flavor over and over. In America it is exceptable to claim chocolate or vanilla or coffee is your favorite flavor-- but here you can't just get the same thing. You will find flavors you didn't even know existed in icecream, and with gelato places, it's pretty common to get two or three flavors so find a couple that sound good together and enjoy!

Wine is wine, honestly. I mean, being on a budget makes buying the expensive wines impractical, but as far as I can tell anything from 1-7 euros is all the same. Better than two buck chuck, but nothing worth noting.

Coffee is complex here. Italians are perhaps the only people in the world who have been able to combat the American coffee/ Starbucks influence. If you order a latte you get milk, usually warm, sometimes steamed, and always always disappointing. This has never happened to me, but I have watched, cappucino in hand, while my friend stares blankly and a steaming mug of white liquid, wanted to laugh but mustering a sigh instead. It's an easy mistake. The only complaint I have is that there is no consistency in price for a coffee. In a bar in my neighborhood a cappucino is 1.50. In my friend's neighborhood it is 1.00. In the bar near school it is 3.00. In a bar a block away it is 2.00. And in the vending machine in our school building is .50. I'd like to say you buy what you pay for, but really that's not the case. Well it is to some extent-- the fifty cent vending machine cappucino doesn't stack up to the 3.00 one but I'm not gunna lie, the vending machine makes a better cappucino than Seattle and I rather have six dixie cups worth of that, than one dixie cup at the bar downstairs. That's my other complaint with Italian coffee culture. EVERYTHING IS SERVED IN A DIXIE CUP. Where is my extra extra large to-go cup???