Hands down, Italy has some of the best food in the world. Everywhere you look, the streets are full of cute little restaurants that don't even have names. The Italian culture revolves around food. In the middle of the day, from noon to about four, the entire city will shut down so that the Italians can go home and have a long lunch with their family. Here in the United States, going out to eat is a very quick and systematic procedure. You sit down, get your drinks, order your food, get your food and eat, then pay and leave. All this takes roughly a half hour to 45 minutes. In Italy, this isn't exactly how it goes. An ordinary meal in Italy, lunch or dinner, takes about 3 hours. This is because Italians believe that food is the center of family and it is what brings a family together. The usual Italian meal consists of 3 courses: Antipasti (an appetizer), a main dish, and a desert (Wikipedia). Although I have had a meal that was up to 7 courses, 3 is the usual number. It's also considered extremely rude for a waiter or waitress to bring the check before you ask for it. These tips are nice to know so you know what to expect for your first meal in Italy.
There are a lot of Italian dishes that are served at pretty much every restaurant. Some of the most popular pastas include Carbonara (my personal favorite) is a pasta dish that consists of eggs, bacon, and a parmesean cheese sauce. Arrabiata, which means "angry pasta", is a very spicy pasta dish that has a tomato sauce with chili peppers. Cacio e pepe is a pasta dish that is simply just olive oil and parmesean cheese (Wikipedia).
The pizza in Italy is very different from the States and it will take some getting used to. The crust is very thin and the toppings are sometimes strange. The most popular pizza in Italy is called pizza margharita, which is just a flavorful tomato sauce with cheese on top. The pizza romana includes tomato, mozzerella, anchovies, oragano, and oil and the pizza viennese includes tomato, mozzerella, german sausage, oragano, and oil (Wikipedia).
During my four months in Italy, I came across some really great restaurants. However, these are hard to get a location on because the restaurants don't have names so you'll have to do some exploring when you get there. Our favorite restaurant in Rome was Abbey Theatre, Via del Governo Vecchio 51 (Facebook), which is an Irish pub that serves American food. Needless to say, we pretty much lived in this restaurant.
Overall, the food in Italy is an experience. Once you figure out what you like, you'll never want to go back to American food.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Will My Phone Work?
One of the most frequently asked questions I get from people traveling to Europe is if their cell phone will work overseas. This blog will address what kind of phones work in other countries and what calling plan you'll need. However, if you’re like me and are not really attached to your phone, I will give you some alternative options for contacting the United States.
All the major cell phone carriers offer an international calling plan. These plans can get pretty expensive, that's why I chose not to use one. But if you are planning on using this plan, the cost will depend on your cell phone carrier. First of all, in order for the international plans to work, you need a smart phone. This means you either need a Droid, iPhone, Verizon Wireless' plan starts at $1.29 per minute for Italy with no monthly fee and text messages are priced $0.50 per sent message and $0.05 per received message (verizonwireless.com). AT&T’s international calling plan is about $1.39 per minute of Italy and $0.50 per sent message (att.com). This is why, unless you are pathetically addicted to your phone and you have a lot of money to waste, you should probably consider alternative options.
I constantly use Skype because my boyfriend and I have been long distance for about four years now. So when deciding how to contact home, I knew Skype would be my life-saver. I love how it’s absolutely free to video chat with anyone in the world. There are no catches and no hidden fees for video calling. However, because of the seven hour time difference between the States and Italy, it can sometimes be hard to catch the person that you are trying to video chat when they are near a computer. This is why I also purchased a calling subscription through Skype so you can call the person on their cell phone through your computer. Unlimited calls to North America through Skype costs only $7.99 a month! (skype.com). It’s a fantastic deal if you are planning to go to Italy for the semester. If you are just going for the 5-week program, you can still get a great deal through Skype. You can establish a pay-per-minute plan where you just load money onto your account when you run out of minutes. Skype offers calling to the US from Italy for just 2.3 cents per minute (skype.com). You can add money onto your account in increments of $10.00, so if you added $10.00 onto your Skype account, that would give you roughly 435 minutes to connect to the States.
The University of Mary also purchased some European cell phones for you to use during your time in Italy. The phones are pre-paid, so you have to load money onto them to get minutes. You will mostly use this phone for calling your classmates in Italy. There will be 5 minutes loaded onto your phone when you first get it, but depending on how often you use it, you may have to load more on. The gelateria down the hill from Al Casaletto sells these phone cards. you can go there and they will load the minutes onto your phone for you, or you can go to Vodafone. Vodafone is like Italy’s Verizon Wireless. This is the carrier these phones are under, and there is a location conveniently located near the campus. I usually loaded my phone here because the workers spoke a little bit of English. You can also use this phone to contact the United States. It’s more expensive than Skype ($0.15 per minute), but it’s really convenient when you’re traveling and you don’t want to bring your computer. When you receive this phone, you will also receive an EDIcard. This is just like a phone card, but in order to reach the United States, you have to connect through the number on the card. This card gives you about 300 minutes for free; all you have to pay for is $5.00 for the card and the minutes you load onto your Vodafone account.
This may be a little confusing at first, but they’ll explain everything and help you when you get there. Just know there are other options besides spending an arm and a leg on your cell phone’s international plan.
All the major cell phone carriers offer an international calling plan. These plans can get pretty expensive, that's why I chose not to use one. But if you are planning on using this plan, the cost will depend on your cell phone carrier. First of all, in order for the international plans to work, you need a smart phone. This means you either need a Droid, iPhone, Verizon Wireless' plan starts at $1.29 per minute for Italy with no monthly fee and text messages are priced $0.50 per sent message and $0.05 per received message (verizonwireless.com). AT&T’s international calling plan is about $1.39 per minute of Italy and $0.50 per sent message (att.com). This is why, unless you are pathetically addicted to your phone and you have a lot of money to waste, you should probably consider alternative options.
I constantly use Skype because my boyfriend and I have been long distance for about four years now. So when deciding how to contact home, I knew Skype would be my life-saver. I love how it’s absolutely free to video chat with anyone in the world. There are no catches and no hidden fees for video calling. However, because of the seven hour time difference between the States and Italy, it can sometimes be hard to catch the person that you are trying to video chat when they are near a computer. This is why I also purchased a calling subscription through Skype so you can call the person on their cell phone through your computer. Unlimited calls to North America through Skype costs only $7.99 a month! (skype.com). It’s a fantastic deal if you are planning to go to Italy for the semester. If you are just going for the 5-week program, you can still get a great deal through Skype. You can establish a pay-per-minute plan where you just load money onto your account when you run out of minutes. Skype offers calling to the US from Italy for just 2.3 cents per minute (skype.com). You can add money onto your account in increments of $10.00, so if you added $10.00 onto your Skype account, that would give you roughly 435 minutes to connect to the States.
The University of Mary also purchased some European cell phones for you to use during your time in Italy. The phones are pre-paid, so you have to load money onto them to get minutes. You will mostly use this phone for calling your classmates in Italy. There will be 5 minutes loaded onto your phone when you first get it, but depending on how often you use it, you may have to load more on. The gelateria down the hill from Al Casaletto sells these phone cards. you can go there and they will load the minutes onto your phone for you, or you can go to Vodafone. Vodafone is like Italy’s Verizon Wireless. This is the carrier these phones are under, and there is a location conveniently located near the campus. I usually loaded my phone here because the workers spoke a little bit of English. You can also use this phone to contact the United States. It’s more expensive than Skype ($0.15 per minute), but it’s really convenient when you’re traveling and you don’t want to bring your computer. When you receive this phone, you will also receive an EDIcard. This is just like a phone card, but in order to reach the United States, you have to connect through the number on the card. This card gives you about 300 minutes for free; all you have to pay for is $5.00 for the card and the minutes you load onto your Vodafone account.
This may be a little confusing at first, but they’ll explain everything and help you when you get there. Just know there are other options besides spending an arm and a leg on your cell phone’s international plan.
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