A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...ROME REDUX

Last week we heard from Wake Forest professor and journalist Justin Catanoso who recently returned from a month of teaching in Rome.  This week we hear from one of his students, Taylor Curry.  I'll let Taylor take it from here!

For the past month, I have been living in Rome with thirteen of my fellow Wake Forest classmates. We were taking a travel journalism class where we not only talked to experienced travel writers, but also researched, investigated, and wrote our own travel stories. This experience was a once in a lifetime opportunity and here is one of my stories that came out of the class! 

One of my favorite things in this world is food; I love cooking, eating, anything to do with food and yesterday really fostered this passion. A food and lifestyle blogger, Eleanora Baldwin, came and talked to our class about her career, food writing, travel writing, and food in general. She gave us many great tips for finding restaurants and gave us quite a few restaurant recommendations that I am dying to try!

After Eleanora’s talk, we were all predictably hunger, so a couple of us headed to one of her suggestions- a family run, true Italian restaurant, that just happens to be spitting distance form the Pantheon. Despite it’s location, this restaurant is the opposite of touristic, probably because they require a reservation for most customers. Happily, we arrived right when it was opening so we were able to squeeze in without a reservation. The food was authentic Italian and my spaghetti all’aglio olio e peperocino was spicy and delicious.

My lunch and Eleanor inspired me to go on a Google adventure and find some of the best restaurants in Rome because despite the stereotype, you can definitely find bad food in Rome. My first mission on my Google adventure was to find real cannoli in Italy. I am spoiled at home because our local Italian market, Giacomo's,  is run by a Sicilian family (where cannoli are originally from) and our cannoli are always fresh and delicious. So, my cannoli standards are very high. After a little research, I found a Sicilian bakery, Ciuri Cuiri, here in Trastevere. Part two of the adventure was finding the bakery, which actually proved to be very easy. Upon arrival at the bakery, we pointed and asked for our cannoli with chocolate. They filled the shells right in front of us and then dipped the ends in chocolate chips. To say the least, these cannoli were incredibly fresh and just as delicious. My expectations were far surpassed and I am definitely going to become a regular by the end of the month! Thanks for the inspiration Eleanora!

CLICK HERE for more posts from Taylor and her fellow students sojourn in Italy.  Trust me.  

You'll feel like or there!