tuscany and pompeii

sorry its been a while, lots of work and rome has been getting so nice and warm out. yesterday was a beautiful perfect day, no need of a jacket. my friends and i went to the jewish ghetto to get burgers and then gelato and sat out on the river taking in the warm sun!! they love those kosher burgers, they are like heaven...its so true! and i found out there is supposed to be an incredible italian restuarant that my friend wants to try too. which would officially be the 2nd place (other then fast kosher) that i can order w/e i want on the menu. fast kosher is so cute too, eventually i will work up my courage and see if they speak hebrew. it wldnt hurt to actually try to remmeber what i learned, esp since italian is failing me. anyawys-the jewish ghetto actually has ruins that agustus tried to build. it was then turned into part of a church...and some woman owns a house right under it. its really cool. also the fake colloseum- as we call it, which was half built after the colloseum was built. it was just never finished- much like michalangelo's bridge he never finished cuz he died is just chilling in rome, like its no big deal (my art teacher quickly pointed it out to us but never stopped and kept walking...). anyways, so people actually live in this half colloseum half modern addition to it...its so cool!!! oh and there is this fountain with turtles on it dedicated to the jews because turtles carry things on their back.....im not sure if thats good or not. and of course churches are all over the outside of the ghetto built because they wanted jews to convert so they kept church close of course. and the ruins turned to church is where jews were forced to go to pray annnnd the square in the ghetto is dedicated to when the nazis came to take the jews. they gave them 24 hrs to come up with a rediculous amount of gold. so all the jwes and nonjews and romans pitched in to come up with the amount so the nazis wldnt take them. nazis took the gold, and as well all know came back later to take the jews.

anyways so 2 weekends ago i went to tuscany for a wine tour and some amazing food. the place was literally in the middle of nowhere with so many fields it was rediculous. the wine was pretty good but the best part really was the 5 course meal. i opted vegitarian to avoid the pork situation- good thing i did. the antipasta for people was pruscuotto and cheese, mine was breschuetta, bread with oil and pepper, and then toasted bread with melted cheese, a pear and honey. it was incredible...i could have had that pear thing as my whole meal...over and over again!! our pasta dish was so so. i got some muschroom pesto sauce which was quite bad and everyone else got a meatsauce which they didnt love either. it was ok, just not as good as the antipasta for sure! the next course i got a place of 8 cheese and jam. that was it. the others got half a chicken and potatoes. since i cldnt give up my cheese, i just had some potatoes and suprisenly cheese and jam is good together. it was basically a cheese board and absolutly amazing! desert was an apricot tart which was good....definately a huge filling meal. well more on their end, mine was just a ton of cheese, im suprised i didnt die.
after we had like 45 min to walk around, so we just kinda went into the fields. it wasnt the warmest day but it wasnt raining and still nice.

this past weekend we went to pompeii for the day. mt vesuveus erupted and basically perserved the huge city. there are even casts of people! the city is huge, there is no way to see the whole place in one day. its not even as ruined as i thought it would be, its def ruins...but still pretty well intact. it overlooks the water and mt vesuveous whihc was nice to see and it was relively a very nice day. we had a little tour then had like 2 hrs to walk around or do w/e we wanted. so we wondered around and found amazing houses with mosaics and frescos. we also attempted to hit up the burger king before we left but turns out we had to cross a highway....wsnt happening.
ill be back to pompeii agian the first weekend of may/last weekend of april....maybe ill see more of what i missed? who knows.

pictures will come up on facebook soon i promise!

other then those trips, not much else. weather is getting nicer which is soooo great! all i want to do is be outside but i have work to do unfortunately. i tried sitting out on our balcony- which we have done a few times. but its a wind tunnel and too hard with lots of different papers flying and whatnot. soon i will take a break and go outside hopefully. maybe go to the store and buy some matzah. i found potato chips made with vegi oil- that will def be a good investment. so vegis, fruits, matzah and potato chips...yummmy. oh and greece!!! cant wait to hit a beach here either!