ROME — Sumwhere in the World

Rome Itinerary:

Piazza Navona
St. Peter’s Basilica - Michelangelo’s “La Pieta”
Sistine Chapel - Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam”
Trevi Fountain
Vatican Museum (16 euros)
Spanish Steps
Colosseum
Palatine Hill
The Roman Forum
Piazza Venezia
Villa Borghese
Mouth of Truth
Orange Garden
Sant’Eustachio (Coffee recommended by a classmate)

ROME JOURNAL ‘15

In 2015, I reached out to an old friend and asked him to let my travel companion and me sleep on his couch. To my surprise, not only did we have a place to stay, but he told me he happened to have a whole extra apartment we could stay in by ourselves. Initially, I told him we had planned to stay in Rome for two days. He responded with an almost indignant incredulity, “That’s not enough time for Rome! Two weeks.” We negotiated with him and ended up cutting into our planned time in Venice and Florence, extending our stay to 5 days. I’m so glad we listened. Indeed it wouldn’t be enough.

In high school, my friend Jesse’s family hosted an Italian exchange student named Valentino, a soccer-loving, guitar-playing, Bruce Springstein-obsessed Roman kid. I remember having intense conversations with them both in high school about feminism and politics (oh, the little we knew at the time), and we even exchanged a couple of letters when he returned to Italy. I always liked the idea of having pen pals abroad!

When my friend and I arrived in Rome, Valentino met us at the train station, his face now covered with hair. Immediately, he escorted us to the metro and taught us how the lines worked so we could start getting around on our own. Rome metro is very straight forward. There’s an A line and a B line. For our place, we simply meet at Termini to switch lines, get off at Laurentina (the last stop on line B), and done. Easy peasy. When we got to the place we would be staying, we opened the door to what felt like a palace. The floors were a gorgeous tile, the furniture was quaint and antique, oil paintings of fruit hung on the walls, and there was a spacious balcony overlooking the city. And, most importantly, there were two big, comfy beds for my friend and me.

The first night there, I asked him to teach us how to make carbonara, so he took us to the local grocer and made us dinner. I certainly can’t thank him enough for not only giving my friend and me such a warm welcome to Rome and place to stay, but also for the memories we won’t ever forget. Here are some of the romantic sights Rome graced us with.