An Eternity in the Eternal City

Rome. Though only there for 5 days, I have never experienced so many different and amazing things in such a short period of time. Due to this very fact I was feeling rather anxious when I tried to think of how to fit it all into a single blog post. It seemed an impossible feat. In fact, it probably is. So instead I have decided to share little snippets of my time in theme with the city’s nickname, the Eternal City. I will try to share my eternal experience of this city from its ancient ruins to its renaissance riches and delicious gelato.

 

What I think when you say Rome - the Colosseum

I knew of course that there were ancient ruins and buildings throughout Rome. The first thing I picture when Rome is mentioned is the Colosseum. But what I did not expect how surreal it feels to walk through the streets and amongst what is left of the temples, Churches and buildings that were built so many thousands of years ago. On entering the Roman Forum shivers tickled my skin and I felt the pre-cry prickle behind my eyes. Playing my hand on the old ruins I could almost seem them transform into their past splendour before my eyes. I was reacting to these ruins the way most teenage girls react to One Direction! Each time when I thought ‘yes, it is amazing but I think I can wrap my head around it now’ I would turn a corner and see something new. The light would hit the intricately designed marble in a slightly different way and I would get the this-is-so-amazing-and-I-can’t-believe-it feeling all over again. Every step took me to a new, better, more breath-taking view of Rome’s ancient past. How it felt to stand on top of the Palatine Hill looking down on the Forum is indescribable. I could have stayed in the Forum all day, but I had a Colosseum tour date, and so after the fastest 3 hours of my life I had to leave. However, once on the Colosseum tour, my disappointment in having to leave the Forum almost totally vanished. Another 2 hours past in a blink of an eye. I went from feeling like a gladiator walking out into the arena, experiencing the simply massive size of the Colosseum, to being a poor animal trapped in one of the small rooms, windowless rooms in the underground. Lastly having all the power in the world, feeling like the Emperor himself on the third tier, looking down at those people giving their life in my honour, before turning around to look of my beautiful city of Rome. It was an incredible experience I will never forget.

 

The incredible, breath taking Roman Forum

 

Intricate marble work

 

The incredible, breath taking Roman Forum

 

The incredible, breath taking Roman Forum

 

Brick, columns, ivy and marble in perfect harmony

 

View from the Palatine Hill

Feeling like a Gladiator heading out to fight for my life

 

Under the Colosseum

 



Looking down from the third tier

My second day in Rome took me to the Vatican Museums. Luckily I had pre-bought my ticket as the lines were unbelievably long despite it not even being peak season. Rather than brush over every part to try and fit it all in I will tell you about my favourite part and simply say that the rest is amazing and definitely worth the visit. Now, without a doubt the most incredibly part of this Museum are the Raphael Room’s and the Sistine Chapel. I have been in love with Raphael’s work for as long as I can remember, partly because his art has always been in my life either in pictures on our walls at home or books full of his work, and partly because he is just simply incredible. Having seen our small copy of the School of Athens almost every day of my childhood, and it being my favourite, by the time I reached the Stanza della Segnatura it was all I could do not to start jumping up and down. I definitely couldn’t wipe the wide smile off my face, and not blinking had never been so easy. I knew it was a fresco and thus would be big, covering an entire wall. But knowing and experiencing and quite different things. I was able to see the colours in a whole new light, details in the expressions of every person was magnified and somehow new and different. They all but came alive as I stared up, ignoring the growing pain in my neck. It is due to this one, spectacular painting that I cannot agree with so many in saying that the Colosseum was the highlight of trip to Rome.

 

Such skill a painting looks like a sculpture

 

The incredible, amazing, beautiful School of Athens

  

Raphael's incredible works

In amongst all this incredible history Rome somehow manages to be almost flawlessly modern at the same time. Segways, as stupid as I think they look, wiz along the streets. There is at least one smart car on every corner and the latest fashion is displayed like art in shop windows. However, the one problem, the part that makes Rome almost flawlessly modern, is with our modern era, trying to live alongside and ancient city comes into conflict when trying to build metro lines. Rome currently has only two of these (attempts at more lead to dead ends when they discover new underground tunnels and crypts. A fact I find rather funny). This, as you may imagine, leads to massive overcrowding. I had thought London underground was busy, but it is nothing compared to Rome rush hour. One evening on my way from the Colosseum back to Termini the platform was so crowded that I decided to wait for the next train. Well, that was what I had wanted to do, but when the train came I was involuntarily swept along and into the already bursting carriage. I don’t think I have ever been in such close proximity with so many people in my life. In fact I am pretty sure there was at least 5 other people touching some part of me. The last two people in had to push off door frame until the doors closed and they could let go, faces squashed up comically against the glass. Though this aspect of modern life doesn’t quite fit into Rome so well, the new, jazzed up Gelaterias certainly do. The best I tasted was without a doubt at La Gelateria Romana which had a wide selection of flavours from ricotta and fig to the smoothest chocolate fondant. Two taps in the centre of the counter ran with milk and white chocolate, incredible looking intricate ice-cream cakes stood on display in the glass doored freezer. Crepes and nut, fruit or chocolate topped yoghurt was also available. I am not going to lie, going there became a favourite, nightly ritual.

Ice Cream Cake taken to the next level

Gelato and nutella filled crepe - heaven!

Strawberry and yoghurt gelato (with white chocolate in the cone!)

 

Ice Cream Cakes taken to the next level

The Beauty in Language Learning

As I have been rather busy with work, application writing and travel planning I am short on both time and content so this will just be a quick and light little thing that I have been thinking of jotting down for a while.

When you arrive in a new country where you know you will be living for some time, that speaks a language other than your own, you expect that you will have to learn at least a little of this new language. This was obviously a thought that crossed my mind when I decided to spent over a year in the amazing shoe shaped country of Italy. Slowly, word by word and phrase by phrase the language becomes more familiar to you. You begin to notice the same word over and over, you look up the meaning and you’ve learnt a new part of the language.

I have found that language learning seems to always be labelled as easy or hard. This seems extremely limiting as an explanation for the incredible journey of learning a new language. For me, the best word (or rather two words) are amazingly interesting. And this has all come from how and what I learnt from the lyrical language of Italian.

It was pretty soon after arriving in Italy that I learnt that direct translation is a complete and total waste of time. That you will just become so confused that you will never want to try again. I actually remember the exact moment I realised this. I had sat down with one of the children’s books, Il Mio Cucciolo. I decided to learn the language I would just look every word I didn’t know up in the dictionary and slowly I would be able to say eloquent phrases in no time at all. That was until I translated the title.

The My Puppy.

Yeah, that didn’t quite seem right. Nevertheless I persevered to the first page.

Questo e il mio cucciolo, Ha le zampe morbide. Gli piace rotolarsi, grattarsi, saltare, e quando abbaia fa… Bau Bau!

Which I translated to;

 This is the my puppy. Has the paws soft. The like rolling, scratching, to jump and when bark ago… Bau Bau!

That was where I stopped. I mean, seriously. WHAT?? Reading it back now is actually rather comical, as I can easily translate it into a more understandable;

This is my puppy. He has soft paws. He likes rolling, scratching, jumping, and when he barks he goes… Woof Woof!

From this one story I began to see certain characteristics in the Italian language. Like there obsession with shoving one of their 6 versions of our word “THE” absolutely    E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E. I mean really, is it necessary to but THE before my puppy?  I also began to see their weird placement of adjectives. Excepting quantities, adjectives always come after the noun so no longer is it a black cat, but a cat black.

Though at first these differences frustrated me to the ends of the earth, I have started to appreciate them. Every time I see a difference between Italian and English I keep thinking how amazing it is that people, all over the world can say something so completely abstract to the way in which you say it, yet the meaning the exact same thing. Once you decided to learn your given language from its own roots, not from your native language, the process becomes so much easier and ten time more beautiful.

The last thing I want to mention, which I have found the most entertaining and least expected, are the difference in sounds in a different language. I don’t mean as in the pronunciation on vowels or words, but the things that aren’t really words at all, but rather expressions that you would never even think to have a translation for.

I am sure every English speaking person has seen the YouTube video Charlie Bit My Finger. In here is a lovely example of what an English child does when they are hurt.

OUCH!!!

However, if Charlie had bit the finger of an Italian child you would instead be hearing;

IIIIIIII-AAAHHH!!!

Another fantastic sound that I now cannot help but using ALL the time is the beautiful “BOH”. Which translation is I don’t know? It’s like a shrug, but oh-so much more satisfactory!

Now, some of you may have noticed that in my children’s story extract above I did not translate Bau Bau until my last translation. That was because it did not appear in my dictionary or in Google Translate at the time. Why? Because it is not a word! In English a dogs goes Woof Woof, but in Italian, I later found out, it goes Bau Bau! Another example is that while in English a rooster wakes you up with a Cock-a-doodle-doo an Italian rooster starts the day with Key-key-ree-key.

So there you have it. For anyone who thought language learning could be summarised into either easy or hard, I have just given you 750 words why that is just simply not true!