I Made It

I arrived in Rome on Friday night, which is a week ago but, It’s taken a little bit of time to get my body on a normal schedule. Waking up at early hours and then not falling back to sleep and then falling . I woke up on Saturday night thinking the power button to the tv in my hotel room was flashing on and off. I don’t think it actually was, but this is the state of tiredness I was in. Or maybe the tv is a spy?

Finally feeling like a human again on Monday, why would I want to be inside staring at a computer screen, when I could be outside, sweltering in the humidity. Here is a list of things I’ve done and seen thus far, none of which is in a particular order.

• Meeting up for breakfast is one of my favorite things to do whether I’m at home or 5000 miles away. On Saturday I met up for breakfast with my friend Libby. Libby lives in Italy, Sicily to be more exact. After such a long flight, waking up to have breakfast on my first morning in Rome, meeting a friendly face is the best way to begin a trip.

• I watched Italian tv, hoping the osmosis form of learning a language would kick in. For some reason they were playing a lot of ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’ and whatever its various offshoots, in dubbed Italian. I’ve never watched it before, and watching it in Italian didn’t do it for me either.

• I’ve eaten gelato every day. So far my favorite flavor is chocolate orange. It’s similar to the chocolate orange that Baskin Robbins use to make, in name only. It’s this really dark chocolate, with citrus and not super sweet. And they ask if you want ‘panna’ on it, which is whipped cream. Why would I say no?

• On Monday I went to the Vatican museum and saw the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. Even with a scheduled tour, this was incredibly crowded, and not everything is air conditioned. you’re constantly being bumped into, and then people are stopping in the way to take photos. I saw multiple museum guards sitting with a standing fan pointed directly at themselves. I tried to get a photo of that, but people kept getting in the way. The Sistine Chapel is amazing. It’s a lot to take in just because there’s so much to look at, and it makes up for the crowded Vatican museum. They try to keep it silent, which people only slightly obey and they allow no photos to be taken, because it’s a sacred space.

• In a haze of jet lag, I changed my location on a dating app, to see who would pop up. Most are other Americans traveling through or Italians that had previously lived in the US, so the pool is a little small. But I matched with a man who wanted to know if I wanted to take a class in pasta making. Which I replied ‘Using a dating app as a marketing tool, that’s a bold move.’ He then explained it was his hobby and didn’t want my money. I ended up going on the class/date. We made ravioli stuffed with branzino lemon and pine nuts. It was delicious.

• American pop music is played everywhere, I don’t know if it’s the season, or this is always the case. On Friday night, in a taxi coming from the airport, the first song I heard was ‘Luka’ by Suzanne Vega, then followed by Harry Nielson’s ‘Everybody’s Talking’ two songs that are not played very often on American radio, probably not ever back to back. So with that I’ll end this with a little Harry.