As I finish my study abroad in Rome, I look back at these last four months and am delighted that I decided to do this. Throughout the months leading up to my departure, I was thrilled and excited to explore the Eternal City, which is constantly bustling with life and moving around. While my expectations of living in a vast city packed with ancient history, beautiful ornate architecture, gorgeous natural views, and fantastic food met, I also encountered various things I had yet to anticipate. One was the Italian way of life, often called La Dolce Vita, which translates to the sweet life. This lifestyle is associated with enjoying the simple things in life, like good food and drinks, spending time with friends and loved ones, appreciating the beauty around you, and sometimes just taking in everything that is going on around you. This completely threw me off initially as I was very much used to the American way of doing things, especially regarding hours of operation in businesses and restaurants. The first day I spent in Rome, I tried to get a late lunch at 3 pm and almost every place I tried going to was just closed and would not open back up again until 7 pm. Likewise, when I did sit down to eat somewhere, the service was much slower than I was used to. Instead of being in and out of a restaurant in an hour max it was much closer to an hour and a half two, not because they were highly full or busy but because that is just how things are operated. This took me a while to get used to, mainly because I had to change my mindset of always being in a rush for no reason, if I’m being frank, and start embracing more of life around me. Whenever I would go out with my friends to eat somewhere instead of checking the time constantly, it was very refreshing to just exist in the moment, appreciate the quality company and the great food, and just stop worrying about things and instead focus on the little things that bring me joy, and that is what let me enjoy the sweetness of life around me. Italians share a unique way of life and culture as they enjoy life for what it is, savoring every moment as it comes instead of always rushing to the next one without thinking twice about it. While outsiders may see this initially as just not doing much in reality, it is about doing something but taking your time to do it well, and from what I experienced these last couple of months, Italians know how to live life well. By placing such importance in enjoying life they are able to balance work and pleasure much better than many people across the world as they do not live to work but instead work to live, not sacrificing special moments for money as to them it is not of much use if they cannot enjoy it and be happy as that is what makes life worth living. Overall, this experience helped me understand how to better adapt to the culture and world around me while also being able to take the time to appreciate and better recognize the multicultural and interconnected world that we live in as though we are globalized and more connected than ever before we are still so detached and disconnected to one another. The idea of the sweet life and appreciating the little things, such as the company of friends and loved ones over something as small as a cup of coffee or a meal, while initially seeming very foreign and inefficient to me helped me understand that there is more to life than just going from one thing to the next without thinking twice about it. This all helped me better understand the Italian way of life, their culture, and the meaning as well as the importance they place on their connections, traditions, and way of being.
