This city is not real.
I woke up on my first full day in Rome and immediately got ready for an appointment on campus. I had never made the walk before, but my roommate had. So of course, she led the way. Ordinarily, it would’ve felt like a long walk first thing in the morning, but the street being so beautiful made it 100% more enjoyable. It was about 20 minutes fast walking to campus, 25 if we were strolling. However, we were far from strolling because we were almost late. I tried to stop to take a picture of a pretty city street on the way to school until my roommate said Girl! We are seeing this street every day! Let’s get to class! I think that was the American mindset getting to us.
I got there, did the boring immigration paperwork, and then there was a free lunch offered in the cafeteria. That cafeteria was deckeddd out. I’m not sure if it was because it was the beginning of the year or what, but they had a scrumptious buffet complete with ricotta ravioli, red sauce penne, portobello mushroom, crispy fish, sausage with potatoes, salad, and tropical fruits like watermelon and passionfruit. I am the worst person to have at a buffet because I can’t help but take one of everything. The sentence above was basically my plate, minus the sausage.
I asked these two women if I could sit with them, thinking that they were students. Turns out, they were full staff of the school! But they were really nice to talk to, and even complimented me on my Italian when I said a few phrases. I told them it was my first time in Italy, and that my walk here this morning was a little longer than I’m used to. (The walking here is a whole different breed. My legs have been aching at the end of every day!! But it is the best way to drink a city in. Even if my feet say otherwise). They said, how long was it? I said 20 minutes. They practically howled! One of them says, mine is two hours! (Public transport saves her day.) I don’t know if I could do that commute every morning! But goes to show, Italians don’t mind the distance. She said that she had visited the U.S. recently, on a work trip to Seattle. I asked what she thought, and she made a comparison that I thought back to all day. She said, Seattle was fun and the people were all nice, but I couldn’t help but feel that the buildings were all so cold. None of them had the personality that comes from age! America is too new.
If America was a newborn baby, Rome would be a 2000 year old vampire. You can feel the age in every building. Every door has opened for thousands of people over the years, every window has witnessed decades of views and the erosion of the stone tells you that the walls have stood longer than anyone alive. The whole city exudes the mystery of a worn relic high in a museum. At least in the Trastevere neighborhood, I can’t say I’ve seen one building that looks younger than several hundred years. Like my lunch friend said, its age gives it a warmth that comes from the comfort of knowing that generations walked the same cobblestone you walk on.
Something besides that felt so different from any other city I’ve been, and I finally put my finger on it: no parking lots! I think I’m so used to seeing parking lots on every street that their absence makes a huge difference. It’s easy to forget what a huge eyesore they are. Just huge blocks of dirty asphalt with cars in rows. Without so many of them, the stores and homes line the streets and cars are not the focus of the city. There were a few I spotted, but overall they seem few and far in between.
I joined a Italian culture presentation through the school after lunch and learned a bit about the different stores around Rome, and some phrases useful in the stores. Like if you want to say, Oh, I’m just looking, you say Solo sto guardando. Or if you’re looking for something, you say, Sto cercando ___.
I said, Oh I need to find some of those stores! A girl sitting next to me said I need to, too! She was very pretty and had several interesting small tattoos. So her and I went looking for the stores. Her name is Lena and she’s from Germany! We chatted and explored a bunch and I was glad because I had a new friend!! When we went to the first store to get plug converters, she didn’t know how to ask and was just going to leave, but I used my Italian skills to ask for it and specify what we were looking for!! ‘Sto cercando’ came through. I felt very proud.
We also got our first aperitivo, which we learned in the presentation that Italians will have before dinner. It’s usually a aperol spritz and a snack, so we got that iconic drink and a focaccia. Honestly, the hype for the aperol spritz is worth it. I genuinely could not think of a better summer drink. Citrusy, fizzy, cold. Lena described it as “in the lemonade family.” I could see that. An aperol spritz is definitely the energetic Italian cousin of the lemonade.
Unfortunately, we eventually parted ways. I still haven’t gotten my SIM card yet so I didn’t have a GPS, but I felt fine because I thought I remembered the way home… I did not. Of course I get lost in the streets of Trastevere, and on a side note, people here drive like pedestrians don’t exist! I had to dodge a number of mopeds and tiny little cars. (Every car is adorable and compact, like a Fiat. I imagined one of those jacked up Texan pickups driving through these streets and laughed). In my wanderings home, I stumbled on a beautiful old church nestled in between apartment buildings. I bought a ticket and explored the church, which was from the 1600s, and its neighboring gardens, which had a huge fountain and many old people. A good first day in Rome.
Shout out lemonade family