Oh Roma, how pretty you are. And how filled with tourists. Well, that one is partly on me, I spent my first full day in Rome hitting all of the big sites, The Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, and Trevi fountain. It was a lot, and I walked all of it, but these were the sites that I felt were must-sees for my visit to Rome, so I wanted to cross them off my list. These places do feel old and powerful, and I don’t think I could visit Rome and not see them, but the tourists were overwhelming. There were just so many people who wanted to take pictures of their faces in front of inspiring pieces of history. I’m hoping that my next couple of days here will be spent in quieter more local-friendly zones. Rome feels like a completely different from the cities I’ve visited so far; it’s the first place I’ve actively felt would be better to share with someone else.
Wandering around gardens and walking on cobblestones that people having been wandering around and stepping on for thousands of years is a very odd experience. I think I was expecting to feel more connected to the past, but instead I felt simply distant from the present, sort of rootless in time. I had less of that feeling at the Pantheon, which seemed like every other fancy church to me. I still think spending time with the historic sites was a good use of my day.
When I got back to the hostel I got to work downloading my photos and checking in with my parentals because I knew it would soon be pizza night, which was great. We all got a chance to make a pizza and stick it in the wood fired oven. Tasty and fun! At first I felt awkward, I am much younger than the other people staying here, and I was one of the only one’s not drinking, but I started talking to a very nice Philippine- German lady who immediately offered me her contact information for a trip to Germany and potentially a place to stay. I informed her I was heading away from the country, but I appreciated the gesture.
The train from Genoa to Rome was very simple, it is a direct route, which was nice, because last time I changed trains was the taxi incident. The tracks follow along the coastline, so I spent the trip watching the ocean and dozing. The countryside is beautiful, small bright red poppies grow all along the track, the fields are bright green, and the water is a pure and strong blue. As soon as I got into Rome yesterday I hopped on another train, this time a local one headed for Zagarolo, the little town 30 minutes outside Rome where I would spend my first two nights. It’s a cute little place, and the hostel here has won international friendliness awards. I tried calling the hostel to pick me up from the station, a free service they provide, but the call wouldn’t go through, so I headed into a nearby newsstand. As soon as I said “Scusi” the kind gentleman looked up, said “Wikihostel!”, grinned, and pulled out his phone, giving them a call for me. 5 minutes later a very sweet lady from the hostel showed up and drove me to the hostel, gave me a tour, and showed me my room. I settled in for the evening and got some work done. I ordered some roast chicken and potatoes from the hostels recommendation and it appeared in 10 minutes, delicious and warm. After a chat with my Canadian dorm mate, I went to sleep.
p.s. More photos in the gallery! 🙂
1 Comment
I know the feeling of rootlessness you describe. I think it’s related to a kind of vertigo, a sense of being “unstuck in time,” to steal a phrase from Kurt Vonnegut. That’s something I loved about Rome. Here in the States, there’s a great urgency to erase history; the past is treated with kid gloves, but also a certain resentment, like a wealthy but unbearable great aunt who insists on riding along in the back seat. People like to talk about how young our country is, relative to the Old World, but I think that’s just a convenient way to avoid looking in the rear-view mirror. In Rome, on the other hand, history erupts from every opening, every bit of sidewalk. It stares you in the face at every turn, undeniable — implacable. And, in doing so, it imposes a strange new scale of time on your senses. xoxo P