First Impressions of Rome

Setting the mood...

I can't believe this is only my 4th day in Italy. I've done so much it's felt like I've been here for at least a week, if not longer. Here's my first impressions and notes from my first few days in Rome:

Roman parking is creative, to say the least

-Romans can and will park anywhere: Romans are hilariously opportunistic behind the wheel. Parking turns into a game of trying to find a space wherever possible. This results in people parking right around the corner of an intersection, parking a car in the opposite direction of another on the same side of the street, or parking mere inches away from one another. I've also seen a line of cars parked in the center divide between lanes on a street. Someone I was with pointed out that a good portion of the cars have dents from being hit. 

-The stereotype of everyone riding motor scooters is accurate: They are all over the place. It's no joke.

-The size of all the buildings and monuments is ridiculous: This isn't just the churches (which you can read about here) or the Colosseum, but even the modern government buildings are huge. Texas, in its pride in being big, has nothing compared to Rome. I'm convinced the Romans don't construct anything small. Except...

-Everything is very compact: It's a paradox of Rome that the buildings are massive, but everything in and around them is small. Romans don't seem too concerned about space. The streets are all narrow. The widest I've seen had, I think, two lanes in either direction. The cars are also tiny (lots of Fiats and Smart Cars), and a lot of the businesses are holes in the wall. The city, aside from the main streets, is a network of small alleys instead of proper streets, which makes navigating way more difficult than a lot of other places I've been. There are also instances where you'll be walking down a small alley and you'll hear a horn honk and you turn around and there's a taxi or a truck right behind you that's trying to get through, so all the pedestrians have to move to the side and it rolls through with a couple inches to spare. This has happened several times, so I can only assume it's a common experience

Gelato is amazing

-The city is cheap if you don't eat at the Tourist traps: This is the biggest and most pleasant surprise about Rome. Sure, when you're near the Colosseum and you see a glitzy sit-down restaurant, it's going to cost you like €15-20 for a meal. However, I try to avoid tourist restaurants and in doing so, I end up spending €6-8 per meal, including drinks. What's also dangerous is that most gelato places only charge €2 for a small cup and two flavors. I've already had it 3 times, and yes, it is delicious and worth it.

-The city is surprisingly walkable: Maybe I'm just from LA, which is impossible to walk, but I thought a city of such size and age as Rome is would be more spread out. Everything in the center of town is a 30 minute walk max from everything else. This makes it easy to plow through landmarks, as there is always another one right around the corner from the one you just saw.

-You don't just get water at restaurants: Normally in America, when you order food at restaurants, they bring you water right away or give it to you free of charge. Though Roman tap water is perfectly good and safe to drink, they never serve it at restaurants. You have to buy a bottle.

-They don't care about graffiti unless it's along a major tourist route: I'm staying at a student apartment in the Trastevere neighborhood, which is southwest and across the river from the center of town. Every wall that could be graffitied, is. It's rampant here and also in the backstreets and alleys downtown. I'm not sure whether it's too rampant to do anything about it or nobody cares, but it's all over the place. However, the major streets and touristy areas all have spotless walls, so maybe it's a matter of emphasis.

-Paninis > regular sandwiches. Fight me if you disagree: Paninis are amazing and have become my lunch of choice. Every bar (coffee shop) has them and they're delicious and dirt cheap.

-Pretty much everyone smokes: It's impossible to walk anywhere without walking past at least a couple smokers, especially at night. It's what I imagine walking in 1950s New York was like. My favorite smoker was a guy who was duel wielding cigarettes, one in each hand. He may be slowly killing himself, but he's doing it in style.

Piazza Navona

-The city's 2000 year history mashes together: The best example of this is Piazza Navona, which is a Renaissance plaza built on top of the ruins of the ancient Roman stadium, which is now a tourist destination with upscale touristy restaurants, gift shops, and gelato bars everywhere. There are also streets you'll be walking down and there will be a random Roman ruin just sitting there. Once you get off the main streets, there are buildings that seem to be built off ruins of older ones. One part of a wall will look significantly older than the rest and other times, the first two floors will look old and the floors above will look much newer. 

-Most people speak some English: The first night I was here, I decided, probably against better judgment, to go out on my own in search of dinner. I went into a place and tried to order lasagna. All I know how to say in Italian right now is, "ciao" and "grazie," and you can't exactly order food with "hello" and "thank you." I stood there contemplating for a while before awkwardly pointing to the menu and saying "lasagna." The worker then asked if I wanted a drink. I couldn't understand him, so my mind reverted and I told him in Spanish that I needed a moment. He shot me a brief look of, "what the hell?" and then asked me if I spoke English. Though the English of a lot of people is broken, most of them understand enough for you to get your point across, though I feel like an arrogant, entitled American if I don't even try to speak Italian. Despite this,

-There's less of a culture shock than I thought there'd be: Maybe this is easier for me than others, but visiting Rome feels exactly like the times I've visited other cities. Places I've been like DC, New Orleans, and San Francisco are all markedly different than LA in their own way, and Rome feels like it has the same amount of difference. The cultural differences aren't as drastic as some people make them out to be. It's been a lot less culture "shock" and more of a culture "Hey, that's different. Alright."