Then I browsed the Campo de' fiori, where I shopped for the appropriate pieces of the perfect Bacchus ensemble (which, truth be told, meant picking out the proper flowery vine to wrap around my head in order to match the bedsheet I wore). I assembled the costume that evening in both my apartment, and that of the UW students around the corner on Via Gofredo Mameli, before we moved as a large, somewhat boisterous and definitely bizarre group up to the American Academy for their Halloween party.

You will probably have no trouble believing me when I say that after the party, as many of us walked along the Gianicolo hill toward the grad students' apartment, the Roman police kept their eyes on us, just in case I suppose...