Just Say No (to Chinese food in Rome)

Can't believe I've been in Italy for more than a week now.

After doing research today, I decided to go to this Chinese restaurant nearby since I am getting tired of pasta and panini and pizza and wanted to see what Chinese food was like in Rome. It was terrible. It was beyond terrible, it was just bizarre. First, Italian accented with Chinese is just incomprehensible to me. Second, the food was just wrong. Imagine Panda Express on their worst day and you might come close. They didn't even give me rice! They charged 2euro for white rice (which was soggy, I didn't even know rice could be soggy). At least I came a little under my daily budget for food (which is good because pizza is more expensive than one would think), but then I splurged on gelato on the way home.

I'll probably spend like 100euro just on gelato here. I have some promising leads on my paper, including looking at not only Medieval marriage and property laws, but also contemporary, just to see in what direction the trend tends to move. It's not exactly science, but it might offer some insight.

Enough on my paper. More on Italy.

I think I've finally recovered from the culture shock, although some days are worse than others for homesickness. The people here are generally very friendly, and they don't seem to be rude to Americans at all. (And it's very obvious by how I speak Italian that I'm an American, although I have gotten down "Buon giorno" and "Grazie" pretty well). The weirdest thing is that everythign closes for a few hours in the afternoon, and that restaurants don't open until 12:30pm usually. I'm almost always starving by then, since the typic Italian breakfast is a croissant and espresso. (Obviously, I'm also hyped up from being cooped up reading about ancient Roman law and too much caffeine intake.)

It is a bit lonely to be here all by myself. The days are not so bad, when I'm busy with work, but eating alone gets really old after a few meals. Especially since the Italians take really long meals. Antipasto, pasta, main meat dish and then coffee. This means like one and a half to two hours sitting by myself, reading my guide book. It's true that Italy is for Lovers. I get jealous everytime I see couples walking around.

Speaking of which, I gave someone else directions today! It's really funny how much delight I get out of this one little thing. As I'm typing this, I'm watching Reality Bytes (Ben Stiller, Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke) dubbed in Italian and I really want a Big Gulp from 7/11. I really want some Five Guys too... The Italians are obsessed with American television and anime. I swear they have Charmed on like twenty four hours a day on this one channel.

Ruminations

This post is really for the benefit of people who care about my project, since I haven't gotten around to any sightseeing since my last (and first) batch of photos on facebook. Researching is serious business!

Did a crap top of research today. My head is spinning with Ancient Roman property law. Now if only I can find some Medieval property law at the Biblioteca. However, I'm going to Florence in a few weeks and maybe I can find some stuff in that library or the Medici library. Except I think I'll run into the same problem with the Medicis as I did with the Archivio di Stato... too much renaissance, not enough Medieval. That's the problem with Italy, they've got the Roman Empire, and then they've got the Renaissance. Their Medieval records on law are not as plentiful as France or England's.

Went to a little panini shop for lunch, but the sandwich was monstrous. Also, had gelato, of course. The water here is ridiculously expensive, but I guess that's what you get for living in a tourist trap. In fact, everything here is ridiculously expensive... and I thought Rand was a rip-off. I'm blowing through my budget on pasta and gelato... (not a bad way to spend all your money, if you're in Rome).

Going to Florence with the parents in a few weeks (it's pretty sad that they're going to be vacationing in Florence while I spend a day in the Florence library...) and then Venice, then back to Rome for a week to wrap up what research is needed. If only the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenza's book search wasn't so difficult to navigate.

Anyway... back to stuffing my face with pasta and reading Latin.

Side note: It's really difficult to stick to my Italian only plan when everyone here insists on speaking English to me once they realize how poor my Italian is. I'm getting really good at ordering food and asking where the bathroom is though.

"Sono sozia" -I'm full

"Prendo un cappucino"-I'll have a cappucino.

"Non riesco a dormire"-I can't sleep (b/c I've been drinking too much damn coffee).

-Lisa

The crazies...

Did some research at home today, and went to the Post Office to mail my postcards. Turns out that the Post Office is also a bank and it's crazy confusing. You have to press the right button to get the right ticket, and if you don't get the right ticket, you have to start all over again. It's more confusing and terrifying than the DMV. While waiting, I had a unintelligible conversation with a local old man.

Went to a cute little trattoria today called Dino & Tony's. The chefs were also the servers, and they sang while they served. I had probably the best mussels ever, they were swimming in a wine and tomato bread, with lots of garlic and parsley and bread to soak it all up. It was amazing.

At lunch, I met a couple from Florida who were visiting London, as well as a girl with a Pucca bag. And I gave directions again, which made me very excited. On the way home, I saw a little asian kid running down the street without his shirt on (through St. Peter's) which was very strange. But even stranger, as I was walking out of the tunnel, some crazy Italian woman hit me and started yelling at me... It didn't really hurt, but it was certainly a shock. I know that our cultures are different, but I'm pretty sure it's not acceptable to go up and hit strangers.

Settling in...

Well, I've established a pattern of alternating touristy days and study days. Thus, the day before yesterday I went to the local fresh market, bought some fruit and bread, and a huge chunk of fontina. I looked up some stuff online, and decided that the way I wanted my research to go, the archives would probably not be that helpful, since I was interested mainly in the Medieval period and not the Renaissance. However, I have yet to go to the library and read some Gellius! I think that trip will have to wait for Monday or Tuesday, since it's dreadfully far away and requires a few bus stops.

However, yesterday, I went to Trastevere and rode the bus for the first time. I think I might have stolen a euro from the Italian Transportation Minstry because I didn't stick my ticket in the little stampy thing the first time. Alas. Trastevere was very cute, indeed the stuff of postcards... if you have Photoshop that is. It's pretty disgusting how every single inch of wall is covered with graffiti in Rome. It's like the South side of Chicago everywhere. I suppose it's authentic, since ancient Romans wrote on their walls as well, but it's still very offputting.

I wandered the lanes of Trasvetere and got lost, like normal. But I had the most delicious gelato ever (Chocolate-hazelnut flavor) and some decent pasta. I wish I could say that the pasta blew my mind and was out of this world, but.. meh. Hopefully I'll have better luck with the next trattoria, and if not, I'll have to chuck my Lonely Planet guidebook into the Tiber. I don't know how the Italians can eat so much though, I was full after the first pasta course and I didn't even finish all of my rigatoni. How someone can sit through three more courses is beyond me.

I hate to sound like a downer, but I feel like Italy so far has been a bit of a disappointment. Maybe I should've listened closer to Juvenal and Horace when they complained about the city of Rome, b/c it seems like it's nice, but... That's been my reaction with most of the places I've visited. It's cool, but... And being the constant tourist becomes a bore very quickly. You can only visit so many churches and so many fountains before they all become a blur. But, you can't visit a fountain more "thoroughly" or "carefully."

I exaggerate my complaints. The weather is perfect, the people are friendly (relatively and when they're not driving). I do have the sense of impending doom everytime I see a car; the bus driver literally leaves six inches between the front of the bus and the next car. On the bright side, I've managed to watch American shows again (hooray for the season finale of Bones) and listen to Pandora (translating is much more tolerable now). And I've also dealt with the bancomat people (Thank God for Skype).

Now the rest of the day remains for researching.

First Day

I'm still a bit jet lagged, but I think I've established a comfortable schedule to sleep and also be able to talk to friends at the same time. Woke up at 7am ish today, and headed out. Decided that today and probably the rest of the week would be a day for wandering around. It's pretty cool to have the time to just go where your feet lead in a city like Rome. I walked over to St. Peter's, which is absolutely amazing in the morning. It wasn't too hot, there was a nice breeze, but the sun was high enough to gleam on the dome. You could see locals sitting on the steps beneath the giant columns, eating pastries and reading the paper. From there, I went North and finally found an electronics store where I could buy a SIM card for my phone. After that, I found my way to Borgo Pio, and had a Roman breakfast of espresso and a cornuto (the most delicious croissant I've ever had.)

Eventually wandered across the river to the centro storico, whereupon I went to the Archivio. They were very helpful, but my broken Italian did not speed the process along. After reexamining some of the materials, I'll probably be spending most of my time in the Biblioteca. The Renaissance period is probably too late for what I need. After I finished my business, went to the Campo de' Fiori where there's a wonderful open market, and I had pizza at a very famous pizzeria. I ate my slice sitting on the edge of a fountain and watched the locals shop for fruits and vegetables.

Got lost for a while, but eventually found my way to the Pantheon, which is pretty amazing. However, since this was just a recon mission and the place was swarming with tourists, I decided to walk around some more. Ended up in Piazza Navona and the famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of Four Rivers).

By now the afternoon sun was killing me so I headed back home. It's pretty easy to find home, I merely have to look for the dome of St. Peter's. Pictures are up on facebook. Might add them to the blog if I get less lazy.

First Impressions

The entire trip over I've been plagued by doubts and uncertainties. Sometimes I'm optimistic, and eagerly planning places to go and eat, other times I just want to crawl into my bed and sleep until it's time to go. Hopefully I'll get over the latter and be excited tomorrow. Or at least, the day after that.

The plane ride was uneventful, punctuated only by bad food (and worse wine). Watched High School Musical 3, which is perhaps the funniest movie I've seen all year. Layover at Amsterdam was excruciating, had to wait an hour in the passport line for them to give me a stampy, which I guess in the end made it all worthwhile. The first stamp of my new passport's shiny little life. It's no longer a visa virgin.

Despite the seeming ineptitude of the Amsterdam officials, the airport itself is very nice. One of the first things I saw was a Sbarro and a Burger King, and I'll be damned if that didn't make me feel a ton better. Also a Starbucks. Another cool thing about the Amsterdam airport is their proclivity toward berating passengers via the airport PA system. Especially when they say, "Mr. so and so, please report immediately. You are delaying your flight." Pretty awesome, imo.

Arrived in Rome, flight took longer than I thought it would. Baggage took even longer than the flight, waited probably another hour for mine to come around on the carousel (?). Think I saw a honeymooning couple going to Rome though, which makes me happy and bitterly wistful at the same time. Read the entire book of Twilight during the journey--overrated, to say the least. (Now I'll probably get hate mail).

The room is nice and clean, and very cool and breezy. The view is not bad, it let's me look upon the little terrace with stone benches and pretty flowers, which is nice. Also, I see some palm trees from my window. Rome is a lot dirtier than I expected, I knew it was a city, but this is probably dirtier than New York, and definitely dirtier than Chicago. There seems to be graffiti in every part of town, be it nice or not, religious or secular. However, my residence itself appears to be fairly secure, with a locked gate, a locked front door and another locked door.

Now I'm just writing to keep myself from falling asleep embarassingly early. I figure if I go to sleep at 8pm Rome time, I'll probably sleep my normal 12-14 hours and wake up at a decent hour to start my day. Hopefully I'm less pathetic and depressed (about being in Rome for goodness sakes!) and able to grab some espresso and a croissant. However, there doesn't seem to be any reputable eateries by where I live, but I have been promised a very nice fresh market in the mornings, about five minutes walk away. Unfortunately, the walk back includes stairs twice as bad as those of Furman, so we'll see how often I make that trek.

Not confident about my abilities in staying awake any further, so I guess I'll tap out a few emails and crash. Hopefully more (and better) news tomorrow.

-L