My Big Italian Adventure, T-Minus 24 Days

Ciao bellos and bellas,

It’s nearly high noon here in Rome and per usual, it is extremely hot. Many people warned me about the heat in Rome and while I expected a little warmth, there are moments where I think I’m going to sweat my skin off. 

Anyways, the return to normal Roman life has been a bit tedious since coming home from Capri. Mostly I eat (A LOT…the heat makes you hungry/thirsty ALL the time) and study and tend not to do much else. The food here is great, but I eat most of my meals from the grocery store about half a block from my apartment. Typically, it’s a cold cut or peanut butter sandwich, apples that are much too expensive, Italian cookies that I have a bit of fetish for, and an inordinate amount of pretzels. I seriously eat more pretzels than any human should consume (I’m not sure how my pants are still fitting at this point), but they’re filling and because Italians don’t snack much, one of the only snacks I can find that are from Italy and therefore, not outrageously expensive.

My Italian class is still going well, although we have our first test tomorrow. I’ve been studying every night since the first night, so I’m hoping to do well, but I know that foreign languages are not my strong suit. Luckily, I’m taking it pass/fail, which means I actually only need about a 70% in the class to get credit for graduation. Because I’m taking it pass/fail, I also don’t pay as much attention to the little grammatical things I probably would care more about if I needed a good grade (as those are what you’re typically tested on), and instead focus on stuff that I need to get around Italy. Phrases like, “il canto, per favorore” (the bill, please) or “dove e la stazione” (where is the train station?) are very helpful for everyday life.

My other class, the one where I tour Ancient Rome, is a smart class to take, but it’s a ton of walking in very high heat. However, it does take me to a lot of museums that I would have to go to anyways, and my tuition covers the entry fees. Therefore, it’s a pretty cost effective class.

Yesterday, in that class, I visited the Roman Forum. We saw the senate building, the palace where the high priest would reside, and various other extremely old buildings. An interesting thing that Italy does is that they allow contemporary and modern artists to have exhibitions in ancient sites. For example, the Roman Forum is currently displaying contemporary statues by a South American sculpture. My professor explains that this is really unfortunate, because it blocks the views of many of the ancient monuments that foreign tourists have traveled to see. 

We’ve booked our Barcelona trip and I’m going to Florence this weekend. I also have plans to explore some of the more untraditional neighborhoods in Rome in order to perhaps escape the world of pasta and pizza and find something a little more…ethnic? Yum.

Catch you soon!