Days 316-319 – Rome like a local

The Transition

On Sunday my Roman holiday ended. But I didn't leave Rome. I just changed status. For the past four days I'm no longer a tourist here, and this whole week I'll be playing the "Vivere Roma come i romani" game that I invented for myself.

I moved from my fashionable hotel on the fashionable Via Veneto into a cute little apartment in the very historic heart of the city, Piazza Teatro di Pompeo, famous for being the largest theater ever built in ancient or modern times and the place where Julius Caesar was murdered. The apartment is just perfect. The building is nobly shabby on the outside and nicely renovated inside, with very high ceilings, red soft couches, a round table, and velvety curtains on the three huge windows overlooking a little piazza with the best (supposedly) pizzeria right in the middle of it. Oh, and the bed! It is tucked neatly in a little room upstairs (yes, my apartment is two-level!), and it is one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in, covered by very tasteful lace sheets. Ah, the choice between staying in it all day long with a book and a cup of tea and wandering the streets of Rome is a very tough one, I swear!

The "Job"

I also signed up for Italian classes. Now, please don't ask me why. I would never be able to explain why I felt the need to start a new page in my ineffectual Romance language album before finishing and perfecting at least one. But I'm glad I decided to do it. It's an interesting course: learning Italian through mini-excursions around Rome. Of course, I don't have enough time to learn anything properly, but I'm happy to add a couple of new mispronounced words to my collection.

The Italian language is beautiful. I love the intonations! And I just love how every day now I can make out a few more words in the puzzle of the everyday conversation I hear in the streets of Rome.

Unfortunately, my Italian teacher is no match to my Spanish maestro. She is the pretty regular "do it by the book" type, but it's OK. When she is using too much English in her explanations, I insist on turning back to Italian. I am surprised to see how much I have changed my ways about learning a new language. I'm not afraid of making mistakes. I come up bravely to a store attendant and ask where the book I'm looking for might be. I know a waiter can speak a perfect English, yet I pretend that I don't know one English word and try to order everything in Italian. If they don't understand what the heck I'm saying from the first attempt, I don't give a damn, I don't shut down, I just repeat the whole thing and eventually they get it. Ha, I love how I just made it sound like my two-word exchanges with the outside Roman world were actually real conversations. But they do seem so real to me! And I feel so victorious after each apple I buy "in Italian" at the local market!

When in Rome

I smoke now. I mean, I'm not planning to continue when I leave Italy (fingers crossed), but all the Romans smoke. It's 35F degrees out and yet everybody is taking their lunch under those heater-lamps outside, deliciously sucking in a cigarette after cigarette. I have always loved smoking, so I decided to give myself a Christmas present and join their ranks, if only for a little while. After all, when in Rome…

The Feeling

I don't know whether it is the apartment, the classes or the smoking, but now I definitely feel that I actually live in Rome. It's strange really. On Monday I went out to dinner at Open Baladin with Irene who has lived here for the past 6 months and her friend from Holland who is here on a week's vacation. When the friend was trying to plan her next day, should she go to Colosseo or Villa Borghese, she needs to pick one because she has no time and both are so interesting, maybe she can fit both in one day though, hmmm... I was looking at her concerned face thinking, "Interesting, at this moment I don't even care what I see and don't see in the city, and if I leave next Monday without visiting one more 'important' sighs, I'll be absolutely fine". This attitude definitely proves that I no longer feel like I'm a tourist here. On the other hand, maybe it's all because I have already been to Colosseo and Villa Borghese:).

As a "local" I stayed at: Home Suite Rome (5 out of 5)

As a "local" I ate well at:

• Pizza Baffetto - considered the best pizza joint in Rome (YES!)
• Roma Sparita - good for lunch
• Open Baladin - food is not really exceptional (burgers are OK), but artisanal beer is excellent
• Ristorante Monserrato - amazing for dinner, not touristy although located near touristic areas, exceptional wine selection (I especially recommend Castelli Romani, red but awesome with seafood when chilled)
• La Campana - the oldest restaurant in Rome (since 1518), food is amazing, reservation advised, staff is terrible