What a Month.. and to celebrate Frascati

Today marked one month since I landed in the Rome Airport to start this amazing experience. Anyone who has talked to me online, on the phone or on skype during the last month knows what an amazing experience this has been for me and how much I am absolutely in love with being here for the semester. Between the food, the culture, the scenery, the city and a not too shabby roommate and solid group of friends... I couldn't pick my favorite thing if I had to.
So today, to mark our 1 month anniversary (ask our friends, Gabby and I have been talking about our 1 month anniversary of becoming roommates/meeting for at least a week and a half), Gabby and I took a couples escape to Frascati, a small town that was a 30 minute train ride from Rome. We wandered the town some before getting our first meal at a restaurant since the Chinese Nun Incident/Florence weekend. It was amazing. Frascati is known for their white wine, so we had some of that, which came from a tap from a barrel and was really delicious. For our meal I got a risotto with pear, gorgonzola and walnuts in it, and Gabby got a thick spaghetti noodle with a spicy red sauce and bacon. They also brought us biscotti and these ginger cookies after the meal as we finished our wine.
After lunch we wandered and stumbled upon the park in the picture, as well as checked out the magnificant view, seeing as this small town had probably just as many hills as people. There were also like 100 stairs to get from the train station to the area of the city. It was an adorable city though. We only needed 2 hours maximum to walk around and know exactly where we were in the city, so we got some gelato before we left. I was still extremely full from lunch (it's a requirement to be part of the clean plate club in Italy), but it didn't take much to convince me to get gelato. It was only 1.50 for a choice of 3 flavors and some panna on a cone. Delicious. I got vaniglia (vanilla... obv), tiramisu and baileys. Nom to the max, got to admit. We then made our way back to the train station to catch the next back to Rome.
It was great to have a getaway and I have decided to make an effort to take a lot of day trips like today because when else will I have the opportunity to just go to these places for the day for a 3.80 round trip fare. I have a much greater chance of going to places such as Paris, London and even Prague when I'm older, but won't be living in Rome for long. Tomorrow I'll be heading to Anzio, a small beach town. While it won't be Hawaii by any means, for starters it will be like 60 degrees tops, I am still looking forward to doing some reading on the beach and getting some seafood hopefully. Then Saturday is Venice for Carnival!!!!