Day 29

I spent my Tuesday morning slowly but surely getting some work done on my paper. I still didn't quite let myself get on a roll with it.

Katie and I had lunch at Ai Villini, the amazing family-owned place right across the street, and FINALLY got our tiramisu again. I'm telling you, their ravioli in walnut cream sauce is absolutely DIVINE. I will miss it so dearly come next week.

We had a make-up City of Rome class at 1:30. Our class and some other class had to listen to some terrible lecture about Pompeii. The guy giving it obviously knows a lot about it based on his list of awards and credentials and such, but he really has no business presenting on anything or lecturing anyone. Very soft-spoken, very uncomfortable, and very uninteresting.

In the afternoon, I did some more homework before getting in some good Skype sessions. First, I talked to Kayla for about an hour, which was super fun. She even booked a little study room on campus just to talk to me. So cute! Later, after a quick dinner at Mondo, I Skyped with my mom for her birthday. She was mad at my siblings (including Mackie) for making her run errands all morning, but she was happy I took the time to call her. (Can't wait to see the comments on this post).

Finally, it was time for prosecco in the square! Katie, Gina, and I opted to get little bottles again this time, but just a regular white kind, not a rosé. For our little snack accompaniment, we got the Kinder eggs that have little toys inside. Mine had some weird pouncing puma thing in it.

We sat at our regular bench, and were disappointed to find there was only really one dog to watch (a super cute lab puppy). In fact, there were barely any people there at all, which was strange. There was, however, a group of five Italian guys running around and being kind of obnoxious. They didn't look very young, but they acted pretty young.

After a while, three of them came up to us and asked us where we were from. We chit-chatted for a minute, and then they announced that one of their friends who stayed behind at their bench, Giorgio, was very interested in Katie. They somehow got him to come over, but he was very shy.

We told them we were going to go to Scholar's, an Irish pub that has karaoke on Tuesdays, and they decided to join us. Sadly, Giorgio ditched at some point along the way (I think he was intimidated by Katie's height), but the other four were fun enough. Most of them spoke pretty good English, too.

We got to the bar, and the bouncer ID'ed the guys (which was kind of hilarious, because they were 20-21, aka our age...but we didn't get ID'ed).

At Scholar's, we had to wait a while for karaoke to start. It was definitely worth the wait, though. I FINALLY got to amaze the crowd with my rendition of Fergalicious, and it was epic. Meanwhile, one of the guys--Renatto, I believe--was trying really hard to woo Gina (who has a boyfriend). Katie, the other guys, and I found this to be quite amusing to watch.

Gina and Renatto on stage performing

After we left, they decided they would walk us home, which was fun. Katie and I talked to Giulio, who is apparently a very big fan of American basketball. He especially loves the Knicks (for whatever reason), so when we told him that we go to Madison Square Garden pretty often, he was super impressed.

We got back to school and parted ways with our friends, who apparently were very far from their homes. Oops! Oh well.

I have to say, Italian guys my age, or at least these ones, are much, much tamer than their American counterparts. They basically acted like 15-year-old American boys, and I mean that in a good way (if that makes sense). They were not creepy or aggressive or anything, just very nice, and a little bit shy. We had a very good time.

Us and the three guys that stuck it out till the end