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MY FIRST WEEK IN ROME It was a dizzying week of new discoveries, new friends, and a rare case of the event being greater than the anticipation! | |
| What a city! My tiny little room overlooks the Tiber and, once the leaves fall from the trees in front of my window, I will be able to see St. Peters in the distance and the Castel Sant'Angelo right across. Every morning, I go across the bridge with the Bernini Angels and walk in a little park immediately behind the Castel. Folks walk their dogs there, young people--probably travellers--are in their sleeping bags on the grass, and a few locals run around the paths. I go up and down the steps--I like to think of it as an ancient stairmaster. The greatest challenge for me this week has been trying to figure out how to make a phonecall. Not surprisingly, the most mundane is the most difficult! I now understand why 20 million Italians have cell phones. Make that 20 million and ONE now. |
My school is located very near the Campo dei Fiori, which holds one of Rome's finest and most well known farmers' market. It is one of the few squares in the citta that does not have a church. Most likely because it was once the site of executions during the Inquisition. I study Italian every morning for three hours. My class of 7 includes me, an American man who directs opera in both the U.S. and internationally, a German woman who speaks in a a whisper most of the time, an adorable Swiss guy, a Dane, an Israeli, and a Japanese man who speaks virtually no English so most of us have to communicate with him in Italian, what little we know. |
Q - "Why Rome?" asks one of my favorite bosses from his Blackberry© in NYC A - Because it is a city that speaks to my heart. I forgot to mention the piazzas and the fountains Q&A ARCHIVES  A personal story |