L'inizio

La Vita Romana

Every good law student knows that context is vital. Before I embark on wild descriptions of trips, revelations, revels, historical sites and cultural experiences, I feel the need to frame them with a picture of our daily lives as we've settled into a routine over the course of the first week. The basics: where we live, what we eat, and what we see every day. For this reason, I've dubbed this one "L'inizio," The Beginning. That is to say, it should have been my first Roma post, to start everything off in the proper atmosphere. But it wasn't, so we're a little sideways. As that seems to be the Roman way anyway, I don't really mind.

Just about everybody in the program is housed in John Cabot's Gianicolo Residence, basically a dorm building (the most Italian, picturesque dorm building ever seen) full of 2-6 student capacity apartments. It's a beautiful living space; the building is obviously very old but it's been recently renovated and outfitted completely with IKEA furniture and amenities.

The residence itself as well as John Cabot's two campuses are located in the Trastevere neighborhood, just over the Tiber from the main part of the city. "Trastevere," in fact, is derived from Latin and means "beyond the Tiber." I know, Latin's pretty cool. Anyhow, I can't think of any part of Rome in which I'd rather spend 6 weeks of my life. The neighborhood is beautiful, quiet and more subdued than the city proper; however, it's not a far trek and/or bus ride to the Vatican or any other Roman attraction. And at night, the whole place wakes up and glitters. The italics is to indicate my earnestness.

Trastevere is basically a maze of tiny streets that in any other city would be properly labeled "alleys." They all look alike and they all seem to lead everywhere. Every once in awhile they open up to little piazzas with fountains and crowds of people, locals and tourists alike, all sitting, standing, walking, eating, drinking, chatting, begging, selling, shopping and posing for photographs. The most famous of these is Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, which houses Rome's oldest church, of the same name. In this piazza are musicians, impromptu concerts and magic shows. It's exciting, but it's also the most tourist-y. (Read: don't eat here, it will be more expensive.)

On the piazzas restaurants and storekeepers can expand into the square with displays, tables, umbrellas and extra seating, while the streets are narrow and shops instead make the most of their windows and open doorways with bright colors, lights and gorgeous arrangements of whatever it is they're trying to entice you to buy. It's like constantly walking around a Christmas tree after Santa has paid a visit. It's also here that the best food is to be found. Tourists stick to the main streets and piazzas, so prices are higher and the food is slightly more generic. Not that mainstream restaurants are bad; they have easy, set-price "tourist menus" with antipasti, primi and secondi piatti (courses), and dessert for a flat fee. The courses will include traditional platters so you "get the experience," most of the waiters speak English and all of the descriptions are translated so you don't accidentally order raw meat (it's possible).

The real way is to tough it out a little: find a small place with a nondescript door where you only hear Italian and you think you'll need your phrasebook to place your order. It's definitely worth it. Most likely that little nondescript door opens to a cozy, softly lit interior with wooden tables and red-checkered tablecloths and garlic hanging from the ceiling. You can almost hear "Bella Notte" from Lady and the Tramp playing in the background. Minus the whole dog thing.

A night out in S. Maria di Trastevere

By the way, you'll be doing this at around 8 pm, 7:30 at the earliest--nothing opens until then. If you start at 8, dinner won't be over until 10. And the night is still young. Suddenly the streets are full of twice as many people as were out and about before you started eating; people walking everywhere, speaking a variety of languages. It's a week night, and the streets won't even start to empty until midnight or later. On the way home: dessert. There's a gelato shop about every 5 meters.

So that's the neighborhood.
As for our accommodations themselves: I live with one other girl in a perfectly sized, air-conditioned room outfitted with two twin beds, two little desk-tables and two identical wardrobes, plus a massive power strip for our numerous electronics and a window that looks down onto...well, not much, but the view straight out is gorgeous.

Our little "camera di letto"

And that's just our bedroom.

We live with four others in our 6-person, two double-bedroom, two single-room, double bathroom monstrosity (complete with dining area, living room and kitchen), where we have plenty of room for activities that include (but are not limited to) quiet studying, yoga and multi-apartment, multicultural dinner parties. The group of us, Loryn, Tyler, Chris & Hannah (the ampersand is necessary to denote their Engaged Couple! status), myself and Rafe, is a terrific one. The rest of the folks in the program are similarly awesome: it's a well-balanced, fun-loving crowd of future lawyers with a little bit of a wine habit (but it's ok, we're in Italy!)  For example, this evening witnessed a herd of us in the living room, involved in a heated game of Family Feud on someone's iPad and all eagerly awaiting the commencement of Taco Tuesday, unbearably delicious smells wafting from the kitchen.

Rafe demonstrating our spacious living room

This, then, brings me to the best part: our fully loaded Italian kitchen. By "fully loaded" I mean with a gas stove, oven, dishes (IKEA, of course), cooking pots, cheese grater, refrigerator, microwave, corkscrew, washing machine and terra-cotta tiled walls; also without a dishwasher, toaster, measuring cups, towels, counter space, dryer or a lightbulb above the stove.

We're able to stock our cabinets with fresh fruits, veggies, cheeses and breads from the local area markets. The liquor policy is frankly strange for a group of students of an average age of 26, but 1 L/person (including empty bottles??) in a 6-man room still gives us a colorful array of bottles decorating the counter. We also discovered a few "normal" supermarkets/ grocery stores where we can get hot dogs and potato chips for those meals when we're just feeling, well...American. We did have a good excuse the first time--but the 4th of July only comes once a year. 

 Hannah and Chris: experts at this Italian cooking thing.

A few of us (me!) were slightly startled when the "Room & Board" expected costs from orientation didn't include Board...some sort of "you don't have to buy food every day" meal plan. Well, we're big kids now I suppose, and spending my planned "fun money" on food just means that I won't travel out of the country as much as I'd thought. I will, however, definitely eat better than expected. As I reflected on this, I'm actually quite pleased that it worked out like this. Of course, I'd love to have all of the travel cash I could ever need at my fingertips, but I've only got 6 weeks here and I'm determined to make the most of being here, in Italy. So I'll stick, immersed in the language and the food and the religion and the art and the FOOD. Cutting out Prague, Budapest and Greece leaves a little bit more spending space for Milan maybe, and certainly a brief re-visit to my beloved Florence. And for Rome, and i ristoranti Italiani. Naturally. And gelato! Every day. 

Freedom.

Besides, having to provide our own meals as cheaply as possible has brought out the creative side in more than one of my classmates. We've invented all sorts of snacks, sauces, meals and goodies, mostly using just typical Italian ingredients: olive oil, tomato sauce, pasta, cheese, and basic vegetables. A surprising collective culinary prowess has made itself manifest the first week in the form of "dinner parties" as well. The original idea of sharing a meal with the apartment of 6 below us and a few other guests has now grown into such a lively tradition that they've started taking on themes. 

the Chefs

It all started with Marc showing off his Italian food skillz with an incredible pesto-steak pasta. Then, as the Fourth of July required some sort of special celebration, we settled on the obvious: hot dogs and burgers, but with an Italian twist. Our typical American feast came with sauteed mushrooms and onions, improvised relish, Caprese salad and freshly-grated Parmesan over everything. Tonight it escalated to Taco Tuesday, which is exactly what it sounds like. With originally-compiled taco seasoning mix and Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Eat your heart out, JCU cafeteria. Buon appetito!

Mob descending on Taco Tuesday table