Dead Bodies and Four Cheese Sauce

After traveling for the past two weekends, it was nice to have a full weekend in Rome. Northeastern advised us from the beginning to avoid overbooking ourselves, and I certainty understand their viewpoint. There is so much to see in Rome, it's not necessary to try and travel every weekend. That being said, let me tell you about The Capuchin Crypt, a very cool place right here in Rome.

The Capuchin Crypt is a burial ground beneath the Church of Santa Maria Della Concezione that houses the bones of over 4000 Capuchin monks. The soil beneath the Church, where the monks are buried, was brought in from Jerusalem, so the monks wanted to be buried there due to the connection to the "holy city." Eventually the crypt became overcrowded with deceased monks, so to bury a newly deceased monk, the monk that had been buried the longest was dug up, and his bones were nailed to the wall in decorative fashion. The result of this practice is a very creepy dungeon-like atmosphere where there are bones nailed to the walls and ceilings in strangely artful patterns. Some bones are arranged like clocks, some simply form huge piles, and some even hang from the ceiling as light fixtures. There are a few dead bodies that have been positioned to look as if they are praying or reading, and it's really creepy. I realize this is the third time I will use the word creepy, but there's really no other way to describe it. I certainly can't say the sight evoked feelings of happiness and jubilation, but I wasn't exactly sad either, as this was the desired resting place for the 4000 monks buried there. I wish I could share pictures with you, but out of respect for the dead, there is no photography allowed. However, you can find pictures on Google, so someone's been sneaking a camera in there.

Other than looking at a lot of dead people this weekend, my roommate and I decided to step our cooking game up. In the states I cook fairly often, but it's usually simple things unless I'm particularly motivated that night. Here in Italy, my cooking is usually similarly simple, chicken and vegetables or pasta with some kind of meat sauce, but tonight I did have that little extra motivation. My roommate and I bought fresh Gnocchi, lots of cheeses, a few spices and some spinach and made a delicious meal of Gnocchi with spinach and 4-cheese sauce. I should note there is no alfredo sauce in Italy; it's just something us Americans like to pretend is authentic Italian, so our desire to overeat really fattening white sauces led us to make some very delicious cheese sauce of our own. We used parmesan, romano, mozzarella and gorgonzola, along with heavy cream and butter, then mixed in the spinach and a top-secret blend of spices. For someone who normally uses those fat free individually wrapped cheese slices, this meal was extremely rich and extremely heavy, but it was still the best meal I have made so far. I might try actually making the Gnocchi from scratch next time, but the lack of a dishwasher really makes cleaning up difficult and I'm not sure I want to be doing dishes all night.