Getting Lost in Rome

      So I have not updated this blog for a while and had the intent to make a post about my trip to Rome. Though I did not right away because I think I needed some time to process everything and write a worthy post about the trip. I could go and write absolutely everything I could about what I saw when I was there but I feel that would be a disservice to the experience and could only do this properly by talking about how I felt about it instead.

So where do I start?

     I’ll start with the telling that going to Rome was something that I had always wanted to do in my lifetime. For as long as I can remember, Rome is the city I was always the most interested in even as a child. I saw films featuring Rome and pictures of the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine and it was difficult to imagine even as a child that a place like this really existed in the world. It was even more difficult as a child and probably more so as an adult to fully understand the depth of the history of this remarkable city. This passion to go to Rome was fueled even more when becoming an art student but it was still just a dream. A dream I thought unattainable. I never imagined I would really go anywhere outside the comforts of the state I live in for the most part. I had been to a few places in the U.S. for sure but flying over the ocean to a country I knew nothing about was not something I could truly fathom ever occurring.

     And I really knew nothing about what I was going to see and experience when arriving in Rome. I had read books, knew the history of the Roman Empire, did as much studying of the culture and it still did not prepare me for what I was walking into when I stepped off that plane. It really was a feeling of not being in Kansas anymore. As soon as I stepped off the plane and into the terminal I had no clue what to do or where to go or how to get out of the airport. The airport in Rome is like the city, a maze that is difficult to navigate. But that is what was great and could have summed up the entire trip.  I had no clue what I was doing in that city and it was great. I just went with it and had the most amazing time.

     I have heard it said many times the best way to take yourself out of the comfort zone is to travel to a foreign country. And I agree. There is no better way for all the things you think you know and all the things you don’t know and all the things you want to know to meet in one big collision. My first days in Rome could be summed up as absolute confusion. I just tried to find my way around and not stick out like a sore thumb. The last thing I wanted to do was look like a tourist. I genuinely wanted to immerse myself in this culture and be a part of it through experience. I did not want Italians to look at me and see the “American tourist”. I wanted Italians to look at me and see someone who respected their history and wanted to truly know about their city and culture. And I feel on some level that it is how they felt towards me. I was not afraid to ask questions, I tried to use their language as much as possible when I could, and I felt they knew I was genuinely interested in what they had to say. And I loved that because of my interest I was able to learn about and see many places that were off the beaten path that tourists don’t see.

     Don’t get me wrong, seeing The Vatican and the Colosseum is amazing but my biggest memories are going to come from standing on Aventine Hill and looking out over the city. Or standing in a circle of ancient ruins that has a keyhole in a single door and when looking through that keyhole shows St. Peter’s Basilica as it is directly in the line of sight of the keyhole. Something I would never have known about had I not conversed with the people who live in this beautiful city. Sure I was a tourist as clearly demonstrated by the camera around my neck but I did not want to see this city. I wanted to get to know this city like I would a new friend met purely by chance.  This is really how I found myself in Rome and having this wonderful experience to talk about because nothing was planned.

     This decision was made literally in the space of a few minutes after some encouragement from an instructor and realization that if I did not go I would regret it for the rest of my life. And so I found myself in Rome and had no clue what I was doing. My first thoughts of being in the city were ‘what do I do now?’ or ‘where do I go?’ And I had no idea. Here I was in this unfamiliar city on my own and all I knew was I’m here for two weeks. And by unfamiliar, I mean really unfamiliar. The way things are in Rome were so vastly different than anything in the United States I did not even know where to begin. So I did the only thing I could do...  I put my bags in my hotel room, nervously walked out on to Ancient Roman cobblestone streets and got lost!! And it was perfect.

     There was only really minimal planning involved as to what I was going to do when I got into the heart of Rome. I knew I wanted to see Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, Roman Forum, The Pantheon, and The Vatican. But not a single one of these places was seen without seeing amazing things on paths I had not planned on taking to these destinations. Even Trevi Fountain was seen because I simply got lost on the way back to my hotel. Not a one of these things were seen without encountering a chatty Italian who just wanted to talk to this strange person who clearly was clueless about where they were going. Not a one of these things were done without multiple Vespa riders coming close to hitting me as they navigated the winding streets of Rome. Not a one of these things were done without hearing street musicians or seeing horse carriages circling the fountains in the Piazza’s.

     These are all the things I will remember about going to Rome. Because at the end of the day after seeing all the sights and learning more about the history, it will be the experience and how I felt that will stick with me until the day I die. It will be the lack of planning, the cluelessness and being lost, and the nervousness of being in a place of which I was not familiar. It will be the memory I had at the end of the trip of knowing that I had learned so much of which I really never thought about learning. It will be the memory of knowing that by the end of the trip, I was finally starting to understand the culture and embrace it, it will be the memory of knowing that I had finally after two weeks had begun to get lost a little less and less. It will be the memory of knowing that Rome came to be a really good friend that I can’t wait to see again. And that by the end of the trip and before, the nervousness faded into a relaxed calm and I found myself doing something that I always wanted to do but never thought I ever would. I challenged myself and went into something completely unknown and came out with wider eyes and a bigger understanding of who I am and who I want to be.