Rome via Brooklyn

Word Count: 653 words

Time to Read: 3-4 minutes

Hello Everyone!

I am retroactively writing on my first day in Italy and the commute from the airport to Trastevere as well as the official happenings of my first day.

I was way too overcome with emotion and logistical issues to report on my feelings and experiences in real time, now that I am more settled in and better adjusted I feel ready to talk about it!

After we met up with Professor Yarrow post baggage claim and customs we promptly headed to the train and had an impromptu lesson on purchasing tickets and then validating them.

This process was one that was quite confusing and did not run smoothly as we were in a rush to get on the train and knew the tickets had to be validated but had no idea how.

Soon Professor Yarrow saw our struggle and came to the rescue showing us that our tickets had to be aligned to the left once inside the machine to be properly validated.

After this train ride in which we all looked out the windows of the train and remarked on how a lot of the area we were passing looked strikingly similar to the Caribbean in terms of architecture and the use of colors in said architecture we arrived at our stop.

At our stop the elevator was not working and we had to carry our heavy luggage to the top of the train station and then walk with our luggage to the apartments. That journey was certainly not for the faint of heart.

Once we settled into our apartments, selected rooms, and unpacked a little we each took some time in our rooms to reset before we set back outside to meet the group for dinner.

Now that I was in the apartment and some of the delirium from the flight had set aside I was full of hesitations.

In the Rome Alive! reading there is a quote from Virgil in the Eclogues in which he describes his experience arriving to Rome and seeing it for the first time that I will insert here.

“The city which they call Rome, my friend, I foolishly thought
Was similar to the market towns where we take our lambs;
In the way the puppy resembles the dog, or the kid its mother,
I likened the smaller to something bigger of its kind.
Not so: that city lifts its head above all the others
The way a cypress towers above the trailing yews.” (pg. 4)

I really though this quote was beautiful and heavily connected to me and my experience here. I was overwhelmed and although I felt unprepared coming in I was even more unprepared than I thought.

“I come from a big city, so how much of a shock could Rome be?”, I thought. I ate my words as I was still immensely shocked.

Rome and New York City do not compare in my opinion. NYC is larger, has more people and yet, in my mind, Rome could engulf NYC.

Perhaps it is all the history and stories it holds within.

And with that point even being said the stories are bursting through the seams, it does not remain contained, it refuses to. There are so many instances in which the ancient coexists with the modern.

So at our first dinner together I was overwhelmed as I always am, but I took a try at optimism.

As I ate my carbonara and tiramisu I looked around the table, I felt scared yet hopeful.

-Paola ❤