God Bless America

Let me tell you, Italians do have best pasta, meat, etc in comparison to the USA, but we, Americans, do have one advantage, the CHEESEBURGER. Here is it normal to get a cheeseburger, and I ask myself why? They have them at McDonalds, but they are like less than an inch of meat, and they charge you for ketchup!!! ( I am a ketchup fanatic, so this is a problem )

I have been in Rome for four weeks, and literally they have been the best time of my life, despite the breakup of my boyfriend and I of three years. Anyways, this past weekend my friends and I went to the Hard Rock Roma! We might have spent like 14 euros for cheeseburgers, but they were worth it! Additionally, you have to love free refills… I felt so bad for our waitress; we were American girls wanting separate checks for basically the same orders of cheeseburgers and sodas. In the end, the food was amazing and quick, and brought me back to America for a hour. You really do not understand how much you miss home until the culture shock really gets to you.

Speaking of how great America, here are a few things you should know before coming to Rome:
#1: Do not say you are American; you will be overcharged for a lot of stuff because they mistakenly give you the “wrong change”

#2: They do not have dryers here. In Italy, electricity is very expensive so instead of drying their clothes, they hang-line them. I was skeptical at this at first, but then it is nice to have jeans that did not shrink.

#3: Do not touch or accept the roses from gypsies on the Metro, Bus, Spanish Steps, Colleseum, Vatican, or Circus Maximus. If little kids ask, still say no, because even if you touch the rose they demand you to pay a euro, or one time my friend was ask for five euro, which is like equivalent to $7. Also the gypsies are nasty people, they will throw things in your face to distract you and steal from you. If a person looks particularly unsafe…it is in your right mind to be paranoid and walk away

#4: Never keep anything in your pockets, people will take your wallet and replace it back there without anything in it. Honestly, you will not even know it happened because it is so quick.

#5: If you go to a sit down restaurant and do not want to pay for water, ask for the tap, it is free and is really clean. It is probably more purified than back in Maryland.

#6: This is not America where you get complimentary bread, when you sit down you will be charged for bread even if you do not eat it. Also if you do decide to eat it, before they bring over more refuse it, or else you will be charged for a second serving.

#7: If a place is in English and has food on the outside of the building, do not go there it is a tourist trap, and will probably be way too expensive.

#8: It is okay to wear American brands of clothing, especially Levi or Nike, because people have that here. However, do not wear Abercrombie or American Eagle, it screams “Hey I am American, come take my money!”

#9: This may sound sexist, but never ask a man for directions, they find it funny when you go up to them in broken Italian to ask for help. They will most likely send you in the wrong direction…

#10: Finally, know some basic Italian phrases and bring a dictionary with you. I cannot tell you how many times I was happy I had my dictionary there, and I took years of Italian in high school and at Loyola.

Catacombs of St. Sebastian

So today for class, our professor said we were going to the catacombs. I was thinking to myself, “Ok that’s fine, I’ve seen catacombs before, like the ones at the Vatican with the Popes.” So I reassured myself and was excited to see the first catacombs in Rome, especially since it is one of the oldest places in Rome left. Let me tell you, this place is amazing, but is an extreme hike from the center of city. In order to get to the catacombs of St. Sebastian, you need to take two metro lines, go out of the gates of Rome, and arrive in the countryside of Rome. Now the countryside of Rome, you would think would be beautiful, let me put those thoughts to rest. The countryside resembles a scene from a scary movie, in that if a car broke down, it’s miles away from civilization. I would never recommend going there alone, or after dark. Anyways, after twenty minutes we finally arrived to the Church of St. Sebastian, and the catacombs were shown to be underneath the church.

When we went down into the catacombs, it is 21 miles into the earth! Luckily, we only went down into the first level, but it still was a bazillion degrees colder than outside. So we walked for a half a mile down these narrow steps, and thankfully I am short, because the ceilings were very shallow. Now, just to clarify I am not claustrophobic, but these catacombs were so tiny and narrow, I felt like I was losing oxygen. Just to make the situation worse, our tour guide told us the one section we were supposed to go for the tour felt apart yesterday….. This did not make me happy not one bit. When walking through the catacombs it seemed very similar to walking in like a pyramid, everything was extremely old, you had to crawl at some points, and there was so much history still in there.

Continuing, the catacombs were overall amazing. In the past, there used to be 173,000 graves, but the bodies were all taken out during an excavation and put into various churches in Rome. Additionally, during excavation archeologists discovered plausible evidence pointing to the idea that originally Peter and Paul had their graves there at some point. The evidence was red marble that had people’s prayers inscribed on them, stating, “Peter, pray for ______” or “Paul, please ________.”

Today the catacombs are open for the public to see, just like we did. However it is very strange that this beautiful basilica is built there, but in the middle of nowhere. In the church there are also many relics such as the arrows that pierced St. Sebastian during his execution, and footprints of where Jesus stood when he appeared to Peter.

Get the Point?

Rome is an amazing city, and the people are very open to other cultures. In Rome, the way to communicate is simply through pointing. It is universally known, since you are a toddler you point to food, up until you are 20 years old in a foreign country. Our program director said if you ever need to know or want something just point at it. So far this tool has been very helpful. One place it is necessary is a Bar, which are small cafés and restaurants, where the workers do not speak English. You point to what you want, and they show you via using their hands how much it is. Also in a Farmacia ( Pharmacy ) if you are ill, you simply need to point to the part of the body that hurts and say, “male”. Following this pharmacist may give you a strange look, but then give you medicine. This may seem weird and “sketchy”, but this past week when I had a sore throat, they gave me cough drops.

Excuse me, can you repeat that?

It has only been the first week here in Roma, and I know already it pretty well. Rome may look big on a map, but honestly the city is very small and easy to get around. People see a map of it, and automatically get confused, but if you know English everything is very similar. For example in Rome, the Vatican is called the Vaticane here, see it is easy. Additionally with the names of areas and attractions in Rome, many types of food and common phrases are similar. If you know English, a majority of people in the heart of the city do as well, so if you came not knowing Italian you would be fine. Additionally, my roommate does not know Italian but has been speaking in Spanish, which is similar to Italian, and people can communicate with her just fine. Overall this week the language barrier is breaking down and I am getting to know my new home for the next four months.