The day before finding out our program in Rome was\ncancelled, I spent the morning in Villa Doria Pamphili. A park on the west side\nof the city, only a 10-minute tram ride from my apartment, Villa Pamphili became\nmy \u2018happy place\u2019 after my very first visit. On that Friday morning, walking to my\nusual spot, secluded in a few small hills, I passed an elderly Italian woman playing\nwith her dog. After hearing a faint, \u2018Scusi!\u2019 behind me, I turned to find the\nwoman speaking to me in (fast) Italian. Sheepishly admitting that I didn\u2019t speak\nmuch Italian \u2013 after all, I had only been in Rome for a little over a month \u2013\nthe woman used the few Italian words and phrases I did understand to simply\ntell me that she thought my hair, which I had recently re-dyed purple, was beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later that night, a group of friends and I headed to\nan authentic Italian restaurant located toward the center of the city. We took\nthe tram to Piazza Venezia, walked past Trajan\u2019s Column and the Roman Forum,\nand saw a glimpse of the Colosseum at the end of the street before making our\nway through the small side-roads of Rome to find the restaurant. We sat\nsurrounded by Roman couples and families, all happily conversing, and ate\ntraditional Roman meals served alongside great wine. On our tram ride home from\nthe restaurant, I remember telling my friend, Madeline, that it was the best\nday I had had since arriving in Rome, and she echoed my sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the 4 a.m. email we received the next morning changed\neverything \u2013 we all seemed to go from riding our highest high to hitting our\nlowest low \u2013 that last day of normalcy in Rome is all that I could have asked\nfor. From my interactions with local Romans (whether they were people or dogs)\nin the park to the Cacio e Pepe I had the pleasure of eating at the restaurant\nto the company of my amazing friends, my last Friday truly encompassed all that\nRome gave to me. My time in the city, while it was not nearly as long as I had\nhoped for it to be, allowed me to fall in love with the culture, the people,\nand the sights of Rome. Even though I may not have spent much time there, I\nalready feel like part of myself is tied to the city \u2013 which, I guess, is a\ntestament to my growth while there \u2013 and I can\u2019t wait to return to my second home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The day before finding out our program in Rome was cancelled, I spent the morning in Villa Doria Pamphili. A park on the west side of the city, only a 10-minute tram ride from my apartment, Villa Pamphili became my \u2018happy place\u2019 after my very first visit. On that Friday morning, walking to my usual…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":605,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[369],"class_list":["post-20038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-isarome","tag-rollinsabroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20039,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20038\/revisions\/20039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}