TL;DR – I didn’t get to see the beautiful flowers, but I did sit in a restaurant wondering why they were playing “What is Love.”
Today I learned about the American call sign, it’s “What is Love” by Haddaway.
Allow me to retell today’s events by partially repeating what everyone else had done. Remember that no one’s experience is ever the same.
Started the day with a complementary breakfast. In the communal lobby/dining area sat various (but questionable) pastries displayed on dishes. There was a row of cereal resting in dispensers. Baskets of sliced bread and containers filled with jams accompanied the choices one could make when choosing what to eat for our first breakfast in Rome.
The little worry bee I keep with me suggested that I stay away from the pastries for fear of a surprise hazelnut filling (remember my allergies?), although I really wanted to eat the adorable little danishes and filled croissants. I settled with toast, spreading peach confettura on one slice and lightly salted butter on the other.
We had the rest of the morning to ourselves so Kayla and I walked over to the Elite Supermercati down the street and explored the store while also trying to figure out how we can feed ourselves while on a tight budget. Since the morning was open, lunch was also on our own. We figured that buying food from the supermarket instead of going out to eat would be the best idea. Our purchases mostly included chips, bread, and chocolate. A sustainable meal, right? It was going to be a long day…
We met up with our group in the lobby of the hostel around noon and walked to our first media visit of the trip. We would be heading to the American University of Rome (AUR) for a lecture on Italian media. The lecture was more like a refresher since a lot of the information was sometime we’d learned through our group presentations that were presented in preparation of our trip. I was most surprised to hear our host speaker, Dr. Andrea Bini, talk about the representation of women in Italian media. This was because it was the topic my group had chosen to write about in our very first group project for the class. Following the lecture, there was a brief presentation about studying abroad at AUR, which was strange to hear since I had already graduated and will have to pay off my student loans very soon.
Before heading to the Colosseum for our guided tour, we were shown a beautiful garden space that is used by AUR students to relax and study in. There was this beautiful flower arch that I really wanted to take pictures of. The first of many missed floral photos, I just couldn’t bring myself to walk over to the arch because there were too many students around. The point of this trip is to avoid looking like a tourist, right? Right??
We took the public bus to the Colosseum site. The bus ride was your general form of public transportation. We had to pay for the ride using bus tickets and then have them scanned through these ticketing machines stationed in parts of the bus. It seemed to be more convenient and efficient than having to enter and pay only at the front of the bus like we have on Pittsburgh’s PAT buses.
After the Colosseum tour was another guided tour of the Roman Forum, which are the remaining ruins of Rome’s government and historical buildings that existed many centuries ago. While on this tour there was a rose garden in the distance. As our tour guide told a Roman legend dealing with beautiful women being treated like royalty, wined, and dined, I stared off into the distance admiring the rose garden from afar. Was I going to let this moment go to waste or would I briefly separate from the group and observe the roses? Answer: I wasted it.
As I’m writing this I realize that these days get longer and longer. It feels like it’s been three days, but it was only our first full day in Rome? We finished off the day by getting dinner at Osteria Maruzzella. It was a five minute walk from our hostel and we were very hungry, so we headed off to this restaurant before realizing that we were walking in the wrong direction then turned around and avoided looking at the same people lounging on the sidewalk that we’d passed the first time around. Our waiters were so kind and patient with us as we struggled to figure out how to be seated and order our food. It took us a while to figure out whether we needed to wait for a check or go up to the register to pay. Before going up to the register to pay, “What is Love” started playing from the restaurant’s speakers. Casey, Kayla, and I looked at each other in disbelief. It was a weird, yet oddly comforting song to hear. Did the waitstaff play it on purpose?
Like many others, I was so exhausted by the time I got back to the hostel. I had walked so much that my calves were in this constant state of aching. I didn’t get to see the beautiful flowers, but I did have an interesting dinner experience. I couldn’t even tell you what to look forward to now. I’m too lazy to empty my memory card or transfer photos from my phone onto my laptop.
You’ll just have to use your imagination.