Cheapest Hotel? Prison.

This morning I had the lovely chance to wake up at noon!! I got a full 12 hours of sleep :) The most sleep I’ve gotten this entire trip has been about 5-6 hours, so this was a major benefit!! My feet were starting to hurt, and I was a little sick. But this massive amount of sleep made me feel incredibly better this morning. We have gone to just about every famous sight here in Rome and we’ve seen all of the buildings that we had planned! I also got all of the shopping done that I wanted, and picked up a few gifts! I don’t feel guilty for sleeping in and missing a half-day in Rome, it was needed and I feel SO much better. Shea’s cooking class was this morning, and mine wasn’t until 3. It was really nice getting to sleep in, wake up slowly, sit around and listen to music, then start getting ready at a slow pace. I liked not being rushed for time! But I’m sure this probably won’t happen much… I left around 2:45 to meet with my group to go to a family-run farm in Tarquinia!
After the 30-minute drive through hills and valleys, we arrived at one of the biggest farms in Tarquinia! It began about 200 years ago, and is still going today. There were vineyards and fields everywhere! The tour lady said each word like it was supposed to be, “vine… yards,” instead of the way it sounds- vin-yerds. Haha do you get what I mean? It was funny. We walked into a beautiful villa and a huge covered patio full of tables with cooking supplies on them. The patio overlooked a valley and there was a great view of a really cool swimming pool! After taking some picture, we washed our hands, and went two to a table. The instructor at the front spoke no English so there was a translator next to her. She demonstrated how to make ravioli, linguini, tortellini, fettuccini, and many more! We then went to our tables and started making fettuccini. I put corn-flour (not sure what it was, but it was coarse and less refined) in the shape of a circle with a hole in the middle. Then, I put one egg in the middle and the flour acted as a wall so it wouldn’t run everywhere (one egg per person eating the pasta is the rule we learned). Then, I slowly mixed the flour into the egg in a circular motion with a fork. After it was evenly dispersed, I kneaded it with my hand until it was pretty firm. It was bright yellow and looked like a handful of play dough! Next, I rolled it with a huge roller into a big circle. I rolled it up like a hotdog, without pressing it down, and then cut it into sections as wide as my fingernail is across. Then, when I finished cutting, I unrolled the sections and it made fettuccini strands! After that, we went on a walking tour of the farm. We picked sage, rosemary, and lavender; it smelt so good! I brought some back to the cabin on the ship to make it smell nice. We walked for quite a while and saw plum trees, grapes, blackberries, olives, watermelons, flowers, and many more things you’d find in a garden! Everything that this place grows does not receive any chemicals or pesticides, so it was safe to try a bite here and there! The olives off of the tree didn’t taste good at all but the grapes and blackberries did! They have a little store by the entrance that sells marmalade, jams, cookies, crackers, olive oil, olives, carrots, mushrooms, wine, rum and so much more! It was so fresh and smelt wonderful so I bought some jam and hazelnut cookies to take back! Actually, I’ll probably eat it before this trip ends… It is so tempting! We walked by some pigs (saw a cute baby one!) on the way up the hill to the villa. The reason we had picked lavender before was to smell it when we walked by the pigs. Yucky smelling, but so cute! Then, it was time to swim and hang out! We played Uno and then jumped into the pool. It was one of those pools where the edge drops off and there is no ledge! I want a pool like that one day, I always have. The view was beautiful! It was almost sunset and we were sitting in an awesome, refreshing pool in the high heat, drinking wine and about to eat a big, healthy dinner.  Once we got out and stared some more into the gorgeous countryside of Italy, we headed back to the top to make dessert! There was an elderly man who showed us how he makes tiramisu. I’m guessing it was his family’s farm. First, you take egg whites and make them all foamy in a blender, and then you add sugar, the egg yolks, and some mascarpone. Then, you get the biscuits and dip them in coffee, and line the bottom of the pan. Pour a layer of the mixture, another layer of coffee-dipped biscuits, and so on until you reach the top! Lastly, sprinkle cocoa on top and put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours, yum. We then sat down on the patio for dinner time! They brought us wine, sparkling water, and regular water. In Europe, they seem to be obsessed with sparkling water. You have to specifically order “water, no gas,” then they understand haha. To begin, we had a big bowl of chicken liver, on top of a candle, surrounded by pieces of bread. I tried it just so I knew what it tasted like, and I can say that I will never eat that again. We had pieces of bite-sized bread, with tomato slices and prosciutto on top! The prosciutto was amazing, very full of flavor, salty and fresh. Next, we were served the fettuccini we made, but they added tomato sauce and chicken. You could tell by the noodle hardness and shapes that they definitely served us what we cut and made... haha but it still tasted great! Most people ate it all and thought that it was the main dish. I knew not to get full from it because Shea came back and told me that there was so much food! After that, we had chicken (from their farm) and a really good mixed salad with the olive oil that they make. The salad leaves were the best I’ve ever tasted and were dark green/perfect. I was definitely full by this time! Lastly, we had incredible tiramisu. We were each served a very generous piece, and I ate all of mine! You could easily tell the difference from this kind we ate compared to all the other kinds I’ve had in America, Spain, and restaurants in Italy. We had a great time just talking, meeting each other (the meeting never ends!) and just looking around at the amazing view! After dinner and hanging out, we headed back to Civitavecchia. On they way back Luisiana (tour lady) said, “Look to the right at the cheapest hotel in Rome.” It was the prison, haha. When we got back, I got on the ship and we had that emergency drill thing and now we are sailing to Naples! We will be there in the morning.
Today was such a great change of pace. It was so different than anything I’ve done so far. Being in the busy city in Barcelona and Rome has been a blast, but it can get pretty exhausting. Dealing with mopeds, buses, cars, honking, people everywhere, and crossing streets can be very stressful and it’s hard to find time to take a break. That’s what this day did; it gave me a much needed quite, relaxing break. It was in the middle of the nowhere, no pickpocketers, no tourists and vendors, no cop whistles and car horns, just nature and a small group. I didn’t have to wash my hands constantly, and my feet stayed dirt-free. I can’t tell you how thankful I am that I did this today. I didn’t have to wear a money belt, didn’t have to lock my backpack, and I didn’t have to pay attention to my surroundings :) It was so refreshing!!! It was such a great experience seeing the busy city of Rome, and then venturing into the countryside of Tarquinia, Italy. Naples in the morning!