my first day was interesting to say the least.
I couldn’t sleep on the airplane. I tried but I just could not get comfortable. So I was awake for the entire 7 hours and 45 minutes of our flight from Philadelphia to Rome. I watched Water for Elephants, The Agency, The Lincoln Lawyer, Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and half of two other films. When we finally began descending to Italy, around 7:30 in the morning; I was taken away with how beautiful the landscape was around us. When I think of airports, I see metal, millions of cars, planes, runways, no green for miles around. And although this airport had other planes and cars, and obvious runways, you could see the land so vividly and it was so bright. The colors are hard to describe – lots of gold and green. The trees are the green aspects but the fields are all gold. After we got off the plane, we went straight to our luggage terminal – where we waiting for what seemed like forever. It was so hot inside the airport. I, not so subtly, began sweating as I pulled my two massive 50 pound suitcase around – trying to hopelessly find the train station. When I finally did, I bought two tickets, one from the airport to the Roma Metro and one from the Roma Metro to Viterbo. I then proceeded to get on, what I thought was, the appropriate train. I was wrong. After a very long mix up and lots of bag handling, I finally decided, “Screw it – I’m lost alone in a foreign country, I will take a taxi.”
When I got to Viterbo an hour later, and 260 Euros poorer, I felt like crying. I just spent all my rent money on a taxi ride. It was about noon, I hadn’t had anything to drink or eat. I was moody and anxious. Although my taxi driver had showed me countless beautiful sights on our little excursion, the thought of all the money I had just wasted was not settling.
I went into the hotel we were having our orientation at – met my roommate for the night Kat from Boston (thank god she was cool) and proceeded to go upstairs to our room to unpack some things. After changing and washing my face, we decided to venture into the walls of the city of Viterbo. It is indescribable – a medieval walled Italian city, every corner there is a pizzeria or a gelato store. Everything is store, and lots ancient and unreal. I was officially in Italy. It was sunny and hot. The first thing Kat and I decided to get was gelato, the obvious choice. After we had finished eating we went back to the hotel.
6 hours later, I awoke from a nap to Kat exclaiming that we had to meet everyone for dinner and we were already 15 minutes late. I threw on my shoes and we headed out the door. We asked the hotel manager where the group went – he just pointed towards the door. Luckily, we had the name of the restaurant so we decided that worse-comes-to-worst we can just ask around for directions. We did. And let me tell you we were sent all over the city. Up hill, down hill, across highways, back over them, finally we found the restaurant, the Pizzeria Lazettra, hidden in a far back corner, inside an old church. It was magical. We arrived just in time for the appetizer; assorted meats and brushetta. We drank sparkling water and colas. After the appetizer and after meeting two new Italian boys, and several other members of the program, the pizza arrived. First, a plain cheese pizza – thin small delicious pieces, then a pizza with French fries on it – definitely not what I was expecting at all, and lastly a cheese pizza with grilled zucchini and eggplant. It was so good and I was full before I knew it.
After dinner, several of us decided to explore the city before turning into the hotel for the evening. We went to one little bar (very bright inside, with little tables and couches that resembled a retro 50s ice cream parlor) – there we each had a shot to Italy, some sort of vodka contraption. Lets just say Kat had my shot that evening. After leaving that bar, we headed down the street, about a ten or fifteen minute walk to another bar (much more my style). It was darker with tons of outside tables. People were more relaxed. Drinking and smoking and walking their’ dogs outside. I got a glass of vino rosso, red wine. It was delicious, sweet and potent and smooth. We talked to other girls in our program, to our two Italian boy tour guides and to one another. We smoked hand-rolled cigarettes and we laughed.
After about two hours there, Kat and I decided to turn in for the night. We headed back to the hotel. Luckily Kat remembered the way because I never would have gotten there. I e-mailed my parents, took a shower, and got into bed. I was exhausted but three hours later I was wide awake, not able to fall back to sleep and that is when I decided to write this. It is now 6:27 am in Italy. The sky is rosy pink and I am awake. I am in Italy.
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