Buongiorno!

Friday: Day 1

I arrived in Rome on time. I took the express train from the airport to the center of town (14E!!!) with my directions to the hostel and city map in hand. I felt good. The directions basically said ‘walk straight til you get here.’ I got lost immediately. The roads here are so short and windy, with no street signs! I checked my map every five minutes, and each time I expected to be one place and found I was actually way over in never-never land.  After about a half hour of exasperation from being lost on windy skinny cobble stone streets with two rolling suitcases, I caved. I paid 10 EUROS for a cab to take me about five blocks. I had been close all along, dang it.

A deep breath, and I am undeterred. I’m in Italy! There’s no room for self pity! I check into my hotel which is a little.. different than I had expected. It got the second highest ratings of any hostel in Rome, but my suite was on a different floor from the rest of the hostel, and it wasn’t finished being built yet. Despite this, my mattress already had period blood all over it. On both sides. Slightly disgusted, I made my bed and tried not to think about it. I give myself a few minutes to settle in and freshen up, and then off I go!

I figure I’ll start with the classics. The Trevi Fountain is about a 15 minute walk away, and from there its an easy walk to basically everything else. I thought. First, crossing the roads in Rome looks basically suicidal. There are some crosswalks, but cars don’t stop. After many (many, many) false starts, I watched how other people did it. They just walked. Into traffic. Without looking! I remind myself of the streets in New York and off I go. It turns out, if you’re walking in front of a car they really will stop. 

I follow my map in the direction of the fountain, checking it at nearly every intersection. I wander around quite a bit, but I finally make it. It’s really beautiful. Exquisite, even. The fountain is humongous – it takes up what could easily be the side of a two story building. According to Wikipedia the theme of the fountain is “taming of the waters,” and it features the god of water, Neptune, in the center standing over two titans wrestling sea creatures. I think what I like most about it is how it conveys motion. You feel the struggle in the titans, and is you lose yourself in the image you feel like you’re actually watching a battle in action. It’s really cool. There are stone risers around the fountain filled with gelato-eating tourists and some local teenagers. Lots of people are taking pictures throwing in their coins in hopes of a return or love. I sit for a while, but eventually leave in search of dinner. 

I settle for a place nearby with tables outside and order a caprise salad. Now, I’m not Italian, but I’m pretty sure caprise salad comprises of tomato, mozzarella, and basil. What I got was some unripe tomatoes, mozzarella, and iceburg. Fail. Well, the cheese and wine were good. No complaints! 

I move on, looking for the Spanish Steps. They’re super close, according to the map, but after about another hour of wandering, I’m getting frustrated. Just as I’m thinking of giving up and turning in for the night, I hear “Madeline?” I look up and who do I see but Mike Palliola, a buddy I met in Tanzaina! We had planned to meet for dinner the next night (he was in town to visit family and run the marathon) but fate felt that Friday was more convenient. I met his dad and his dad’s uncle and his wife who were gracious enough to lead our little pack of tourists around. They were in their 90’s and walking around on uneven streets through packs of tourists like nobodys business. They only spoke Italian, but luckily Mike was able to translate for his dad and me. They took us to the fountain (again) where we threw in coins of our own and took some pictures, before heading to Piazza Novana. Then they invited us back to their apartment for a home cooked meal. 

The uncle’s wife went into the kitchen and about 20 minutes later, voila! A traditional (and DELICIOUS) three course Italian meal. We started with pasta with egg and bacon (Incredible. Amazing. Delicious.), then chicken cutlets (from a chicken she butchered herself the day before), followed by salad and dessert. Of course, we had several bottles of water and seltzer to go with everything. It was really lovely. 

After dinner Mike, his dad and I took a cab back to the city, ate a disgustingly sour orange from a tree growing at the US embassy, and I went to bed (by then it was probably 2 or 3 in the morning, my time). A wonderful first day in Rome.