Ciao, e benvenuti nel mio blog!

The past ten days have been very exciting and fast-paced, especially for those of us like me who have never been to Italy before, but we do get a nice amount of down time to relax (for instance, no seminar was scheduled for yesterday, so most of the morning and afternoon were free). I finally got ahead on reading earlier, so I decided I really ought to start keeping a journal/blog. Since this is a first impressions post, I’ll try not to ramble on for too long.

These first ten days, what has really struck me about Rome has been…

• the vibrancy and richness of the city. This is true both literally…
  

  the strawberry gelato is so pink

  

  the Tiber river!

  

  so many beautiful flowers~

  …and more figuratively–people here are generally quite friendly and readily start up conversations. There is also so much to see and do here: the Colosseum (il Colosseo) and the Roman Forum (il Foro Romano), the Vatican (il Vaticano), the Pantheon, art museums (most notably La Galleria Borghese, featuring a stunning collection of paintings, sculptures, and ceiling art), castles, gardens, piazzas and churches and fountains, oh my! (And that’s just the start.)

  We only have about ten days left to explore this incredible city, which to me feels way too short and where did the time go and what should I see next.

I’ve also been really amazed at

• how cheap many things are here, seeing as Rome is such a popular tourist destination. That is, things are cheap if you know where to go. For instance, there are 2 pizza places within a block of where we’re staying that offer large fold-up pieces of pizza that cost about 3 euro. You can easily get a nice cappuccino for ~1 euro (or so my roommate tells me, since I don’t drink coffee). I paid under 2.50 euro today for a bunch of 7 decently-sized bananas from the supermarket. A panino costs about 4-6 euro, and you can easily get certain types of pizza (such as la margherita, which generally appears to cost around 6 euro) for <10 euro.
  Also, many museums/government-owned areas have free admission on the first Sunday of the month. That’s how we got into il Castello di Sant’Angelo for free on Sunday the 5th and saw some incredible views:

To wrap up, another simultaneously surprising and striking aspect of Rome so far is

• how quickly we have adapted to some aspects of life here. For instance, many of us now take backpacks/tote bags/etc. to the grocery store (il supermercato) of our own volition. Having customers pay for having to get a plastic bag for their purchases makes sense to me, in lowering both environmental impact and the frequency or likelihood of ‘splurge’ purchases on consumers’ part. Dividing up our trash into different segments (compost, plastic, glass, paper, non-recyclable waste) is taking longer to adjust to, but I’m glad that I’m being reminded to lower my environmental footprint every time I have a meal in the kitchen. The last bit makes me wonder whether these more environmentally-conscious habits/practices will continue once we get back to the States. Given how quickly we seem to have adapted in some ways here in Rome (e.g. to walking at least 10,000 steps every day and to carrying a bag with us al supermercato), and yet the lingering resistance to changing other aspects of our lifestyles (e.g. to dividing up our trash and to balancing social life and time alone and successfully communicating with the rest of the group), I’m not quite sure. However, once we’re back in the familiar atmosphere of our homes, I feel that we could all too easily return to our old ways after our stay in Italy.On the other hand, I’m hopeful that my much greater knowledge of the Italian language and increased appreciation of the long history and culture of Rome will stay with me for much longer. Last night at dinner, I successfully managed to speak to the waiters in Italian to ask for silverware and to respond to a greeting, which is more than I’d gotten from the ~third of Duolingo in Italian that I’ve looked at. Today in Italian class, we essentially wrapped up our second unit (on asking directions and getting around as tourists/newcomers), and tomorrow we’ll be starting a third unit on food. Last Friday, we learned more about the history and significance of the Jewish Ghetto in Rome, getting a glimpse of the terribly crowded, restricted living conditions that nevertheless, for a time, allowed the Jews to largely stick to their own culture and faith under immense pressure to convert. Later today in seminar, we’ll be discussing the papal bull that authorized the creation of the ghetto, as well as the diary of Anna del Monte, who was imprisoned and tormented by priests and converts for 12 days (after a certain Sabato “denounced” her, falsely saying that she wished to convert to Christianity) before being released and returned to her parents in the ghetto, ostensibly more sure of her own faith than ever before. I wonder at her resilience and determination in the face of persecution, and wish I could be like that too (though perhaps with less screaming than was reported in the diary, albeit only partially written by Anna, according to the translator/editor).

  Well, it’s time to have lunch. Un panino? Un pezzo di pizza? Una zuppa? Una pasta? I guess we’ll see.

Ciao for now, and see you next time!