My Last Days In Rome

I have many pictures from the second half of my semester in Rome which I will put up and write about, but I can more vividly remember about my last few days in Rome. The weekend before my last week Stephan and Yolanda visited me, so I showed them around many of the main sites and took them to some good places to eat including a Blue Ice gelateria. The last thing we saw together was the Colosseo (it was my third and final time) but ran out of time for the tour of the Forum so my roommate Pat and I went the next day since we already paid for admission. I typically would go out to Campo de’Fiori for drinks with my CEA group, so I showed Stephan and Yolanda the area when they visited me. However in the very beginning of the semester Pat and I found a really nice bar, “The Old Bear” or “Bear Bar” as we like to call it, and we didn’t go back until the last couple of weeks because it took us a while to remember exactly where it was and it was often closed without any signs outside. It was here where we had our 2nd to last group dinner with some CEA friends. I got the sampler plate of the appetizers which included different kinds of sliced meat, some mozzarella, olives, and a slice of a cheesy pie… yum! The next day was my last full day in Rome so I tried to visit the Villa Giulia which is the main museum for Etruscan Civilization that preludes the Romans. Also I saw its nymphaeum in a picture my sophomore year when I was taking my history of architecture class (although I saw it when looking it up myself and not during class) and was impressed by it. Unfortunately it was closed since it was a national strike that day but I saw the outside of it and many other interesting sites along the way. Oh well, it’s just another reason to come back to Rome some day! I also walked around the huge park in the northern part of the city where the Villa Borghese is located, and discovered an area with many marble busts lining the paths including those of Da Vinci, Marco Polo, etc. That night I went out to dinner for the last time with my CEA friends at a place right next to the Colosseo. I had bruschette with cheese, spaghetti carbonara (with small pieces of pork), wine and ending with a traditional digestive of limoncello. Then most of us went for the first time to the ICE CLUB, a bar made entirely of ice close to the Colosseo and they even provide you with parkas and serve you drinks with cups made out of ice. I first heard of this kind of bar from Jon when he visited one in Stockholm. Then we ended the night by going to Scholar’s for the last time, where we usually end our nights, except this time we would say goodbye to friends for good. My other roommate Ryan moved out earlier that night so it was just me and Pat left when we woke up the next morning. It was Saturday morning, December 16th, our program end date. We wrote “CEA Fall 08” on our shoes and threw them out on a pole like previous CEA students who lived in apartment did… so there were a total of 5 pairs of shoes hanging from the pole. It would be exciting if they or even more were still there whenever I visit Rome again. I threw my Converse shoes which I bought before I left the US and had worn while seeing all the major sights in Europe and Egypt. I spent my last few hours packing my bags, shipping a couple boxes home, and cleaning up the apartment. Then I left it for the last time, leaving my keys inside. Most of my friends left for home on Saturday but I was lucky enough to fit in a week of traveling before I headed back to the U.S. I first decided to stay in Florence with Pepe for a few days because it was a free place to stay and I wanted to see more of the city. Before I headed to the train station I walked to the nearby Trevi Fountain to toss a coin into it and ensure that I would return to Rome.
I am content with my time in Rome. I have seen all the major sites and several small ones, which is a prodigious task considering how large Rome is. I can close my eyes and visualize all the significant parts of the city. What is especially nice is that I know the location of most of the Ancient Roman structures, and can imagine what it might have been like for Julius Caesar when he walked from the Roman Forum to the Curia of Pompey where he was assassinated.
I love Rome because every corner you turn you are bound to run into an ancient Roman ruin, and see sites that affected the history of the world. What I will miss most about Rome and Italy are their beauty: Tiled roofs everywhere, cobblestone streets, narrow high alleyways, wooden shutters, balconies filled with plants, walls covered in ivy, stone or old plaster on the facades of buildings, arches making up windows and doors, classical motifs such as pediments over windows, statues decorating some buildings, sloping steps, and undulating hills with small towns, villas or vineyards. However after living somewhere for awhile you begin to become complacent about the beauty around you until you realize that it will soon be gone. I’ve always tried to keep this in mind my entire time in Europe and because of it I feel like I saw a lot more than many of my peers and appreciated it more too. I am sure that I will return to Rome sometime in the near future, and I will enjoy seeing the same sites that I had seen and few that I didn’t get a chance to see. No matter how long it will be until I visit, it will seem trivial compared to the thousands of years some of the Roman monuments have been standing!