On the Road with Julie

Time to Read:

If you are wondering if I ate gelato every single day I was in Rome, yes. The answer is yes.

If you are wondering if there was more than one day that I had gelato more than one time on that particular day, well I can neither confirm nor deny.

But…if you have to ask….

And, If you are wondering if I gained back the 3lbs I magically lost in Florence…only 1 of them!

I may have also found a gluten free croissant. Oh, and there may have also been gluten free, dairy free pizza, hazelnut pancakes, and, of course, pasta.

I think I ate a vegetable at some point. I’m sure of it. I must have.

The point is, big surprise, I had a fantastic time in Rome.

Rome is a place that drips with history. Being there, I developed a greater appreciation for how unaccidental that is.  For centuries and centuries, those that have built and rebuilt Rome have taken the, as my tour guide explained, “lasagna” approach to architecture. When they build new, they don’t typically do it by destroying old. They just build right on top of it.

So, whatever level of Rome you are in, there are probably one or two prior Romes somewhere beneath your feet…or in many cases, stretching your gaze skyward to see the stories of the past soaring high above you.

I often found myself wondering, during my time there, what is it about a building that used to be that makes you feel inspired about what might be someday? 

Maybe it’s the humbling comfort that no matter how important any one person, problem, situation or reality may appear to be, time will have its way with us all. 

And, there is something beautiful and captivating about ruins even though not every beautiful ruins was built for beautiful reasons. 

The Colosseum, one of my favorite and most uplifting sights in Rome, was, in its heyday, a giant bloodbath. So many people and animals died brutal deaths there to the jubilant cheers of tens of thousands of bloodthirsty Romans. Though I do find the idea of watching people get torn to bits by wild animals to be profoundly abhorrent and repugnant, I find myself hesitant to judge too harshly the entertainment hungry crowds. After all,  I myself love a good action movie that typically have their fair share of blood and violence. I’d like to think that I would never find entertainment value in witnessing such things in real life, but I guess I don’t actually know. I can only know myself as the product of the time that has helped to make me.  

No matter what happened there in the past, there is no question that the sight of the Colosseum today, is a thing to behold. And I loved that I got to behold it so often.

Rome certainly had me thinking about what it might be like to live in so many different slices of history. We don’t get to pick which piece of time’s unfolding we are part of (at least, I don’t think we do – and if we do somewhere else, I definitely don’t remember doing it).

Despite some less than savory origins of some of the ruins I enjoyed, perhaps another reason ruins are so entrancing and beautiful to behold  is that they also remind you that nature looks good on everything, nothing crazy lasts forever and everything gets turned into something beautiful in the end.

I had the crazy privilege during my week there to walk through the living museum of Rome everyday on my way to school. As a matter of fact, my entire walk to school was pretty remarkable. It was absolutely surreal and kinda wonderful to walk back and forth through it all as part of going through a day.

Despite the…well…romance of Rome, which I would say is an objectively remarkable city to behold, I actually found myself not locking into it right away in the way that I sometime find myself connecting to a place. I enjoyed myself from day one, but I didn’t feel the romance in my bones as I have other places. I’ve reflected a bit on why that might have been the case. I certainly enjoyed it and was having a grand old time right from the get. Upon reflection, I think part of that had to do with what made it such a remarkable place – the history everywhere.  

I love history. So, at first glance, that is not a reason for me not to lock into a place. But, I am used to experiencing history contained in monuments and museums and memorials, all of which Rome also has, but none of which I had much time to partake in. Most of the way I knew of the history of Rome was by how present it was in the present of Rome. The identity of modern Rome, at least as I experienced it, was intricately woven with the history, beneath it and all around it. It was different to be living in a city that was kind of on top of a city that used to be. It was like the life in the current place is about the life in an old place, but the life in the old place isn’t happening anymore. So, I’m walking down a street, BEING the life in a current city, and the life that I am being is about witnessing a city where there is no one walking down a street that used to be. It’s hard to explain. It was super meta. And super cool.

Then, on top of that was the absolute mob of tourists there to see it all. It’s hard to criticize tourists when I am one. Listen, we’re no picnic to be around. It is still pretty fun to be one.

I find it funny when tourists talk about great places to go because there are no tourists there. Just a quick PSA. Once you go there, there will be tourists there.

There were a few other things that made it a touch more challenging for me to feel fully settled into a sense of living in Rome right away versus just enjoying my time there through the lens of being a tourist. 

Okay – first, let’s just get this out of the way, I am not a stroller. To clarify, I am not intending to point out the obvious fact that I am not a collapsible object built to locomote children. What I mean to say is, I am not one who strolls. 

If I’m walking, I am walking to get somewhere. MAYBE, if I’m going on a walk through a park, maybe you’ll get a stroll out of me. But, on a sidewalk, where there are places to go and people to see. Nope. Not me.

I am an east-coast American to the extreme degree in this particular way. I am most in my element on a NYC sidewalk where walking to get from point A to B is a sport, nay, an art form. 

But, I am traveling to experience other cultures, other ways of being in the world. So, I did not come to Europe expecting to find the same here. And, I did come expecting myself to adjust out of my comfort zone in many ways. But, navigating the streets of central Rome begged of me a level of patience that required more personal growth then I was mentally prepared to do. I did my best.

And, in central Rome, people don’t just stroll, they saunter, they luxuriate, they swing their hips forward and back and just wait for physics to bring their leg along for the ride to complete the full motion of what is known as a “step”. At least, this was my experience. And there are so many people in the city center. The sidewalks are filled and the streets are often too busy with traffic to overflow into – a quick anti-strolling solution that I found useful in Florence. 

And, it’s not just that people strolled. It is more that it felt like it was against natural law for anyone to want to walk faster than a stroll. The whole flow of Rome’s sidewalks was against me when I tried to put pedal to the medal.

I would be walking down a sidewalk, even just wanting to walk a touch faster than the people ahead of me. There was plenty of room to pass. It was like, when people could sense a greater speed behind them, they would move over just the right amount of inches to keep me from passing, thus creating a slightly larger opening on their other side. I would go for that hole and they would sally back a few inches, blocking that opening. I felt like I was in a NASCAR race against the best of the best, as the cars ahead of me just made it look so easy to block me at every turn. It got to the point that it was comical. It would be one thing if this happened once, or twice, but it happened EVERYWHERE. Eventually, I realized, this is about me getting the message. Breathe, just breathe, accept and stroll. Let’s be clear, I never did stroll…but I tried :). 

For many, I’m sure, strolling equals savoring. My savoring happens at a faster pace. When I move at my natural pace, not faster or slower, I am at maximum savor. So my optimum savoring quotient is usually at what most people would call a brisk walk or at no pace at all. I may love walking fast, but the only thing I love more is not walking at all. Sitting or, even better, lying down and just soaking up everything by osmosis. This was the other thing I noticed that made Rome harder for me to connect to other than as a tourist (which of course, is what I actually am). I found it difficult to find places to lounge.  When I had free time, I had trouble finding a nice bench to sit on or a lawn to lay down in or even a coffee shop to get comfortable in for the afternoon. There were some places, but not a lot – not enough to stumble upon. 

This is not a criticism of Rome in the least, just observations that have helped me understand more about myself and my relationship to feeling deeply at home in a place. 

There was actually a really nice park somewhat near my AirBnB, but every time I passed it, I was on my way to school or on my way home, neither of which were at hours where lounging was much in the cards. 

Luckily, my very first full day in Rome was one where I had zero problem lounging and soaking up a Roman sunny sky.

My first day was spent as a student and guest of an amazing Italian couple that lived further out in what we would, back home, call the suburbs. They had a big beautiful home with a generous lawn. After being stuffed full by the most delicious Italian lunch of gluten free pasta, dairy free pesto and ribs (yes, ribs) that my host, Gabriella had whipped up in wonderful Italian style, I had an hour or so to lounge under the sun on the most wonderful lawn chair I have yet experienced.  I would not find a good lounging spot for the rest of the week, but I can still feel the relaxation of that first one in my bones. 

I had a fantastic first day in Rome with Gabriella and her husband, Fausto. We spoke Italian all day and Gabriella is perhaps one of the most enthusiastic, loving, adorable humans I’ve ever met. I wanted to take a video of her just being her so everyone else could have the pure joy of meeting this absolutely lovable human. She was game for a video, but, unfortunately, with a packed day, I just never actually made it happen. 

One of the highlights of my week, actually, was sitting with Gabriella and Fausto in the car in front of a gelato place we were about to enter.  The radio was playing some remarkable Italian belle canto and we needed to sit in the car until the song was done. Gabriella was singing her heart out, and beautifully so. Before long, Fausto joined in and I was lapping up this incredible impromptu Italian concert. It was so absolutely wonderful. The next song on the radio was, “Have I Told You Lately” by Rod Stewart. My turn to sing. Gabriella hummed the tune while I sang along with Rod, “You fill my heart with gladness…!” and Fausto joined in throughout the song for the two English phrases he knew. I’d be singing, “Have I told you lately that” and he’d bellow with a jolly grin, “I love you!”. Then it would come to “…ease my troubles, that’s” and he’d burst out with a big ole “whacchya do”, emphasis on the CH. It was an absolute delight and a fantastic way to start the week.

It had worked out perfectly to spend Monday with Gabriella and Fausto. I had wanted to have the cultural and immersion experience like I had had in my week în France and Germany through the Influent program, but I also wanted the structure and independance that comes from enrolling in a language school and living on my own. I happened to get the best of all worlds thanks to Easter. The school I enrolled in was only open Tuesday to Friday and Gabriella and Fausto took me in for the day on Monday. 

On top of that, I thought I might get a mix of the connection of the homestay experience with the independence of an AirBnB stay when I found a lovely AirBnB in the San Lorenza neighborhood (about 3 miles outside of the city center) where I would actually be staying in a room in someone’s apartment. I usually wouldn’t go for this sort of thing, but the advertised room looked so beautiful and I thought it would be a nice immersive way to practice my Italian while still having the independence of staying in an AirBnB.

My stay with Gabriele was so lovely. I am impressed how she opens her home up to strangers like that, but it felt so easy to live with her for the week. She was so warm, welcoming and just felt like an old friend almost immediately. Not to mention, the reason the room looked so lovely on the AirBnB site is that she is an interior designer and her apartment was stunning. Clean and lovely. It turns out though, she is German! So, it ended up being the best of all worlds. When I arrived on Sunday, we spoke German and I got to find out how much I had retained. Turns out – enough! Then, we agreed, we’d stick to Italian for the rest of the week once the school week started. 

It was really all the perfect bonus.

I can’t sum up my time in Rome without mentioning one of the other highlights. I have been trying, in each place I go, to have classes at a school plus an immersive experience of the language by studying or participating in one of my other passions. In France, it was swimming and a little bit of music. In Spain, hiking. In Austria, it was music, music and more music, piano and composition. In Florence it was more music. In Italy, it was cinema! I signed up for a “History of Italian Cinema” course at my school. You were supposed to have an A2 or higher capacity to sign up, but, I was pretty confident, that, after 1 week in Florence, and with my Spanish and French base, I’d be able to understand enough. I was the only one in the class – so I got a 1 on 1 tutorial on the history of Italian cinema. It was FANTASTIC! I lapped up every second of it. It was such a pleasure for so many reasons – not the least of which was my teacher, Annemarie’s deep and sincere passion for cinema. It was palpable in what and how she shared about it. I learned so much and I have come away with a long list of Italian films that I can’t wait to watch, with a greater appreciation for the historical context out of which they came and to which they contributed.

Then, after my 1.5 hours with Annemarie each day, I got to spend an hour with Alessandro in my “Italy Today” class – another elective I had signed up for. And another delight! Again, it was just me and I had such a lovely time learning with Alessandro. Turns out that he also speaks Russian and we got to have a conversation about Russian history IN Italian. Now that’s a conversation I never expected to have and boy did it scratch an itch in my brain that I did not know that I had!

After my 1 week in the A0 class in Florence, I started out my week in Rome in the A1 class. After 2 days, Annemarie, who was also the teacher of that class thought that I might be better suited to the A2 class. I was so grateful for that suggestion and felt way more at home there. Everyone was speaking Italian – even during the breaks! I was ELATED! This is the first time on my trip where I have been in a language class where the STUDENTS all held themselves to the standard of speaking the language. I loved it. It seems like not that long a time, only 2 days of classes, but it was more than enough to really add to my experience. And, I lucked out with another fantastic teacher, Ida!

The week sped by so fast.

By Friday, after a week steeped in Italian and so many warm connections, whatever was the barrier to me feeling the real, authentic pulse of the place had evaporated, and I started to feel in sync with Rome and wishing I had a month to luxuriate in it and to discover a few more of the seemingly infinite nooks and crannies that are there to be discovered.

And, by the end of that week, I was tired. BUT, I also had only one more day in Rome and, despite all of my walk-bys, I had not yet been INSIDE of the Colosseum. Nor had I seen the Sistine Chapel. I found both of these realities untenable. So, in classic style, I stuffed my last day in Rome to the brim with 6 hours worth of tours, including an international trip in the middle of Rome to the smallest country in the world. And, boy was it worth it. You are not allowed to take pictures of the Sistene Chapel, but I managed to get plenty of all of the other amazing wings in Vatican City.

I wasn’t able to go into St. Peter’s Basilica because the Pope had decided to hold a ceremony that evening. He’s got a fair bit of sway in Vatican City. However, I DID get a chance to watch the Pope on a big screen in the square giving his blessings in the ceremony while I filled out postcards to send to my mother-in-law and other Catholic friends and family while I was in St. Peter’s Square (which is, by the way, a circle). It was pretty neat. 

By this point in my week, I DID feel locked into Rome. The heart and soul of it. I did feel the romance in a personal way, in my bones. I felt the gratitude and the awe all mixed into one peaceful sense of place.

As I said in prior posts, for someone that is neither Catholic, nor Christian, nor particularly religious in any way (despite my tremendous respect for faith), I have had a lot of Catholic synchronicity along the way. My final moments in Rome added one more layer to that. As I was walking out of St. Peter’s Square to head home and then, promptly to bed, so I could wake up at 2AM for my early morning flight, as I was crossing the international boundary from Vatican City, back into Italy, whatever ceremony was going on in the Basilica at my back erupted in the angelic and reverberating sounds of a rousing choir singing something heavenly behind me.

It was a good way to say goodbye to Rome, and, while I know it had absolutely zero to do with me, it felt like a really special way for Rome to say goodbye to me!

Ciao, cara Roma! Ciao, per ora!