First impressions of Rome

Rome. A city that never sleeps, but always chills. A city filled with thousand tourists with open mouths and disposable cameras, a city where the quantity of churches exceeds the quantity of supermarkets and probably even cafes. A city where no one speaks English. Ok, last statement is not completely true, but I have to admit that of all the places I’ve been in, Rome is the one with the smallest amount of those who do speak English. That complicates my life just a little bit since io non parlol’Italiano. But later about that.

Rome is a big surprise to me, because everything that I’ve heard about Italy is just so wrong. People here are open, joyful, eager to please, helpful, passionate, not irritating, which was my greatest fear – I thought that every person in Rome would cross the border of my comfort zone, scream something in my face with his hands all around the planet. I’m glad that I was wrong, since I’ll have to spend here almost a year of my life.

I came to Rome some time ago to study in Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, but my first two weeks had nothing to do with that, I was in a 100% “tourist mode” – walked km around the city, just to enjoy a place where every tiny bit of the ground is made of two thousand years of history, to see all the must sees with my own two eyes, to check out the most important places that all intelligent people go to (cause I’m all so full of it, would be a shame to tell my friends that “Ahh, no, haven’t seen the Colosseo…”).

I remember one thing my mom said before I left to Rome, that I should pack my bag carefully, because it is a city of well dressed woman, I thought – what the hell, I’m going here to study, not to shine with my nonexistent pack of popular labeled dresses, and what a surprise – I was right, Rome is full with hipsters, but I guess nobody calls them that here. Although fashion shops are not a rare thing here – on one street you can find 3 ZARAs, 2 H&Ms, 2 Piazza Italias and etc. But the most fashionable place here is THE market, that is on… every metro station, every square, every single street that has some free space and people that might buy something, and by something I mean everything – from small electronic gadgets to furs, from bicycles to Louis Vuitton bags, underwear, jeans etc. Now I know where these girls in their 14ns get all this fancy stuff, 5 Euros per bag – who wouldn’t like that.

I’m going to write a lot of different things about Rome and my time here, I’m going to share it because maybe you would even find something useful or interesting in all my posts, I’m not sure, only wiki knows everything about everything, but I guess a “real life” experience could be handy for some. At least I’ll have something to rely on when I’m old and grey and I have to prove to my grandchildren that it is true, been there seen that. Anyway, some first impressions on Rome. I’m not a photographer, so don’t judge my skills too harshly.