Day Uno

After a long nap, despite the screaming boys playing soccer on the field outside my window and a good shower. Sal gave me an official tour of the flat, starting with his chipmunk. Sal is my current landlord, an older man who shares my love for life and people. He taught me how to use the expresso machine and we sat talking with our expressos.


Before I met Sal, Maria said that he was a “character” and that I would see and after sitting with him, I certainly agreed. He is sweet and said things like, “Two hours of reading is like missing two hours of living your life!” He also said, “Finding a good book is like finding a good boyfriend…if you don’t like it from the first page, what’s the point?”

Sure enough, my first night in Rome played out to be wonderful. Good conversation over wine, a home cooked Italian meal, and even gelato! I met the other girl living in the flat, Sara, who is every boy's fantasy of an Italian girls. Her friend Georgia also joined us for dinner, who will be living in the flat in a couple of weeks. I even got to help prepare the meal. I chopped the onion (thank you Stephen Gonzalez for teaching me to keep the tip of the knife down) but was labeled "too slow!" at cutting the apples. Dinner consisted of Gnocchi (NOT pronounced GA-NOCH-EE like I thought, which is a type of pasta-substitute potato) with proossutto, sauteed onions, basil, and apples. Both Roso and Biana wine were poured and we cheers-ed to Sarah's preparty of her 30th birthday, although her beautiful looks and liveliness couldn't put her a day older than me. The dish was extremely flavorful and although I hope to become better at describing food but for now, let's just say that it was a WHOLE lot better than the disgusting food that I had on the plane. Conversation played a huge role at the table and a lot of Italian was spoken! (Cue me kicking myself in the butt for not learning more...) They joked about the Italian accent..TER-ME-NAY-TORE and TREE-LER. (Terminator and Thriller)



After dinner I was exhausted but Sara convinced me to go out…”You are young!” The “no matter how you feel….get up, dress up, and show up” game is a game I will be playing every day. So I went out with the girls. My first time really walking down the streets and although it was dark and rainy, it was the first time I was like, “I think I’m in Rome….?” We walked Georgia back to near her apartment. Her parting words to us were, “Open your eyes….but don’t open anything else!”

And then I was in Scholars, an Irish pub, drinking a Peroni (out of a giant bottle!) having an in depth conversation about Harry Potter and how the Ginny in the movies is NOT as hot as she should be. Our entertainment was the couple sitting next to us HEAVILY making out. I mean....GOING AT IT in the middle of the bar. I was told that I would see a lot of this in Rome. At first I looked at is as "passion" but it quickly turned to disgust. TOO MUCH heavy petting for my first night in Rome.