Back in a big city, another one of the capitals of the world, wandering Rome was a different feeling than London or Paris. Less clean, crazier streets, and it felt so much older. With every turn you encountered something new: ancient Roman ruins, giant churches, scars from world wars, and another "country" aka the Vatican. It became a joke as we walked around, if we saw a big interesting building and wondered what it was: "Probably a church." We were almost always right. We had the opportunity to meet up with Raoul, a friend of Lórien's who has lived his entire life in Rome and kindly invited us to his birthday dinner. He supplied multiple English speakers for us, so we learned some Italian and what life is like growing up in Rome. New Years Eve had that spectacular big city feeling you always see on TV. Strangers crowded on the streets and we casually passed the Colosseum a few times, which was an odd and powerful feeling. On New Year's Day we happened upon an arts and music festival along the river Tiber. There were performances from every genre: jazz, classical, rock, indie, Italian folk, opera. Oh, the opera. Everything was in Italian so I'm not really clear on the plot, but it was one of the best things I've ever seen. The people in Rome are kind of a combination of the traditional "rude" city people and the loud Italian stereotype. Combined, they possess a type of exaggerated energy that is wonderfully terrifying. Along with that, they enjoy messing with you- we had multiple waiters make fun of our attempts at Italian. Maybe it was the company, maybe it was the fact that I am enchanted by big cities, maybe it was simply the fact that I get to say that I spent New Year's Eve in Rome, but there was something special about the place. I'll definitely be back one day.
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Amy Golden
Amy will be spending the academic year at the University of Sunderland in England studying journalism. Archives
February 2018
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