April 25, 2018 - When in Rome.......

This is Heather speaking and this post is a compilation of our every-day experiences living as Romans. I want to say, this is not meant to be disparaging of Rome, in any way. We love this city and we take it, the good with the bad, all together. I just want to illustrate what our experience is, in a truthful way; not just all of the most beautiful shots that we have been eager to share thus far. To see all sides of it gives a more realistic view of Rome!

Easter Sunday was the day our contract was up, and we had to leave our sunny, happy apartment, but not before finding some hidden eggs and Easter goodies that the Italian Easter Bunny had left :) . We were sad to go, as it was very comfortable and had started to feel like home. We also had very little idea of how the new apartment would compare. 

We packed our bags, went out our gate for the last time, and walked the several blocks to the new place. Fortunately, it is generally in the same area of the city that we are getting to know. You can see thousands of apartments on the outside here in Rome, but have no idea what they are like inside. They may look old and terrible, but be luxurious inside. We were excited to find out what ours would be!

There is part of the ancient Roman City Wall right across the street from our front door, which, as we now realize, is pretty normal here (parts and peices of the Wall seem to crop up all over). It also has the typical buzzered front gate/door (portone), an entry way with post boxes, and an inner courtyard. We have seen peeks into some of the most beautiful inner courts, that no one would ever suspect were there! Ours was at least full of greenery, if a bit neglected. In the pic below, that is Hannah peeking out of our new dining room window. No window screens here. Everyone has these nice big heavy windows that open wide, and heavy steel shutters. I love it, until the bugs come, which they have not..... yet.

Above, is the view out the front window and below is the view out of the back of our apartment, to the building next door. It turns out, that our apartment is a building completely inside a ring of buildings. Our last place was on the 5th floor and full of sunlight and great window views, but soooo loud! Sirens wailed by every few minutes and the noise of the city was ever present, including the city tram that rumbled the ground. This place is very quiet and peaceful, with the cozy garden just outside, but very little direct sunlight. As the summer gets hot, we are realizing that this coolness will be a blessing. We love the quiet, but it is a little dark down here on the lower floor.

It's all pretty comfortable and has everything that we need. We will be here until we leave Rome, which is about a month from now. After talking with other ex-pats, there are a few interesting things I have learned. Hardly anybody has a dryer. All clothes are dried out the window or on a rack, making balconies a desired feature. We had weeks of lots of rain, which made laundry a bit difficult. Another interesting thing, when someone purchases an apartment here, there is no kitchen, just utility pipes coming out of the wall. You bring your own kitchen, like the ones we have shown pictured above and in a previous post. I have seen these whole kitchen units for sale, including a tiny fridge, a sink, a gas stove with electric oven, a range hood (almost never actually connected to a vent - just for show), a tiny area of counter space, and cupboards above and below. It all comes as a one wall unit, backsplash included. It is all very small, but efficient. Out in the country houses, I suspect the kitchens are much different. One very ingenious feature, that I have heard is universal in these tiny kitchens, is a cupboard above the sink, with a built-in dish drain/dish rack. The cupboard has a pull out plastic tray instead of a bottom, so that you can put the dishes away, for good, right as you wash them! They drip dry very nicely in there, and just stay there until needed next time (of course, nobody has dishwashers unless it is luxury living)! It keeps the tiny space more tidy. But any sort of complex cooking projects and those tiny kitchens get crazy messy in a minute!

It was still Easter, so we listened to General Conference and Hannah got to dig into the traditional Easter sweet bread called "Colomba di Pasqua" or "Dove of Easter" (see how it is shaped?). It was very yummy. She also broke her giant chocolate egg to get the toy out of the middle; another Easter tradition here.

Do you think we have enough dead bolts?! One might get the impression that we live in a scary neighborhood. We did get lots of prepping for this trip, on how to stay safe. But since living here, we have actually felt quite safe. Of course, there is crime, and we may yet experience some, but have not felt any situation to be very dangerous so far. When we first got here, the look of most of downtown Rome, was a little bit scary. I have never seen a city so covered in graffiti and, unfortunately, lots of garbage (except Naples!!). There does seem to be a real problem with adequate trash removal. At first, when we went walking, some areas seemed a bit forboding. All store fronts have garage doors that come down after hours. It can be very surprising to walk the same street at another time of day, and find a completelly different neighborhood; stores open, tables out along the walk, kids walking around, and a very welcoming atmosphere. It is very surprising. The time of day can make all the difference. There is a span between 1:00 and 3:00 pm, where nothing is open. They take this siesta time very seriously. Then things open up again and really get going for the evening. These Italians really seem to be night folks. Just as we are winding down for bedtime, they are getting going. Looking for dinner before 6pm just doesn't work, and the restaurants are empty until about 9pm. Then the crowds start to come in. It is hard to get used to, but we can tell that we are adapting.

Of course, there are some areas of town that it is just best to not visit, but are interesting. One day Hannah and I did a little exporing and found a more "interesting" part of town. We checked it out but did not stay long.

There are also those areas along the subway/train tracks that are a veritable museum of graffiti art!

There are many areas, throughout the city, where there is a spot of greenery or a tree or bush, and you know that someone has been living there. Homeless folks, including many refugees, find shelter wherever they can. This shrub in the photo below, right between major streets, had evidence of blankets and food scraps. And yes, the trains, trams, and cars, drive right through those ancient arches, all over town.

This the claimed spot of a homeless person who is living a few doors down from the MEDU office.

A really great tradition in Rome is the availability of water. There are little fountains like this, all over the city, some nice, some not as nice. And, of course, there is the famous abundance of large fountains with statuary! The success of ancient Rome was founded on the amazing aqueducts and plumbing ingenuity, that brought large amounts of water right into the city, to support a large and thriving population. Since the time when that failed system was restored, the city has again, celebrated its water. The Trevi Fountain was built as a symbol of that celebration. It is said that every fountain that runs, such as the one above, is clean, drinkable water. We have been grateful for it many times!

The puzzling thing to me about the water tradition, is that it should include the reasonable inclusion of bathrooms to go along with all of that water drinking! In all of downtown Rome, there are possibly 3, or maybe just 2, public restrooms!! This is a problem. You can always buy something at a cafe to use their toiliet, or sneak into the lobby of a fancy hotel (although some don't seem to have bathrooms), but some public toilets would be a great addition to the city! It is also wise to tread very carefully in any area (especially of greenery), that is screened at all, from public view. Any of these areas have most certainly been used as a bathroom, many, many times. We have gotten pretty good at scheduling our bathroom needs with our activities, and being as prepared as possible, but not without many stressful situations! It seems fine for men to take care of their "water" needs whenever and wherever they feel best. Not my favorite tradition.

I will end here with a lovely little lemon tree, carrying a huge lemon. Citrus trees of every kind, are everywhere we go. I have seen so many different kinds of all varieties. Even lemons the size of footballs! I have lots more about everyday life here, but I'm going to take a break at this point, and Mark is going to add more about the some of the things he has been doing.