Panini Thursday

Thursday, not much exciting during the morning/afternoon 7am-4pm, but here are some evening adventures:

Lindsey and I go to our regular gelato spot right near our Italian class, I think mine today is frutti di bosco and pistaccio.

After Italian class, we headed over to a Cornell exhibit. Their program in Rome is a mix of Art, Architecture, and City and Regional Planning. They brought about 60 students with them, roughly 20 from each major. Comparatively, we have only Architecture, and 30 students.


The beverage table, quite a spread, also, a great food spread.

An art exhibit with punctured copper and punctured paper (under lit), it looked very labor intensive

Nice girl from Cornell. Part of her project was making these paninis, and here were the instructions:

Please take a panini and give it to someone on your walk home.

The recipient should a) be in need of a panini, and b) be a stranger to you

Written (in Italiano) on top of the wrapped up panini:

"And the numberless unknown heroes equal to the greatest heroes known"

We were at the exhibit pretty late, and she had a lot of paninis left, so we took about 12 (stuffed a bunch in my backpack), to give to people that night. It was hard to decide who to give them to, there are so many people in need out on the streets of Rome. First, to celebrate a lovely thursday, a few of us went to Campo di Fiori to a bar to hang out for a while. On the way to Campo di Fiori, and on the way back home here's what happened:

The first panini, old begging woman who took it graciously, unwrapped it very fast, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. There were a few more given away that I didn't get photos of, we didn't want to seem rude or intrusive, taking photos while giving out food.

On the way out of Campo di Fiori, this woman was in shock and awe of the panini. She was playing disco music on a CD player, while asking for change. Her eyes lit up when we gave it to her, as if the food was a dream. Then she started talking to us in Italian, and all we could do was nod and smile.

A couple more paninis were given to these guys hanging out on a bridge crossing the Tiber. They were skeptical at first, but seemed to enjoy them nevertheless.

In the middle of giving away the panini's Trevor got a huge food craving. He wanted a panini really bad, but settled for buying some pizza.

Excited Trevor

We passed through Santa Maria in Trastevere on our way home, it seems very different at night, a crowd is gathered around the fountain, but not the same type of people that we saw when we visited it during daylight hours.

When we got the paninis at first, our goal was to give some to the bums that hang out near our apartment, that we pass almost everyday. They always beg for money, but we don't ever give it to them. I mean, I feel bad about not helping, but I'm not one to give money away to every beggar on the street, if I did, I would probably be on the street with them. There are just so many people in need. Anyway, after our adventures that night, I fought our group to save at least 3 of the paninis for "our" bums. When we finally got home, they were sleeping in their normal place near the grocery store. Incredibly, there were exactly 3 people asleep there that night. 3 paninis + 3 people in need = perfect. I wanted to just leave them there for them to get in the morning, but there was a dog sleeping with them who was awake, and we didn't want the dog to take them all. So, Trevor (who may have been slightly intoxicated) went over and started whispering (loudly) SCUSA!!! One guy woke up startled, and Trev just pulls out a package and says, "Panini?" The man was a little confused as to why a couple of people just woke him up at 2 in the morning to give him food. I mean, I would be too, but he took them and we left for home. Inspired by the paninis, we have decided that at the end of our adventures here in Rome, all of the food and toiletries that we have left, we will pack in a box, and give to the bums down the street.

Everyday is a new adventure.

Anything can happen.