Life is hard. I spent the weekend in Rome, seeing the sights, enjoying warm weather, eating good food, and hanging out. Anyways, it had been just over a year since my first trip to Rome, and my friend had never been there before, so we went. She takes life as seriously as I do, so our pictures are mostly of us making fools of ourselves in front of a few Italians and a million other tourists.
Based on my extensive (two) experiences, I can authoritatively say that Romans don�t believe in heat or absorbent towels. Last time, my hotel room had a radiator that was firmly in the �off� position, even though daytime highs were 40F (4C). Same thing this time, which was slightly more forgivable, given that daytime highs were 60F (15C), but the lows were still cold enough that heat would have been appreciated. I think Italians are in denial. They believe so strongly in their Mediterranean climate that they don�t want to cave in and use heat. The towels were once again made out of material more suitable for tablecloths, and I felt silly trying to towel off and dry my hair using something that probably would be sold to a restaurant once it was no longer white enough to be foisted on hotel guests.
Our room had a bidet. The first time I saw a bidet, I was in Milan, on summer tour with my college choir. A friend came out of the bathroom, saying, "Italian couples must be really close. They have his and hers toilets so they don�t have to go to the bathroom separately.� I explained to her that the second one wasn�t a toilet, but it was sort of a sink for your butt. I never really understood the appeal of bidets. How much mess is there that you need a butt sink? And if it were that messy, wouldn�t hosing yourself down make things worse by turning a mess into a diluted mess spread over a larger area? Ick. And then there was a smaller towel (or tablecloth) hanging behind the bidet. Does everyone use the same bidet towel? That�s as appealing as recycling communal toilet paper. Bidets never made it big in the States, and I don�t feel like we lost out in that regard.
Rome is the The Place To Be for Catholics. You�ve got the Pope, the world�s biggest cathedral, a bajillion churches, tons of relics (including, apparently, pieces of the actual cross, and thorns from Jesus�s crown, don�t ask me who ran up and grabbed those), and tons of famous religious art. If Rome isn�t Catholic enough, then Vatican City, a country in its own right, is an entire nation (albeit a small one) smack in the middle of Rome, dedicated to Catholicism. Seems odd to have a country inside a city, rather than vice versa, but then we have D.C., which isn�t part of a state, but is inside one, anyways. Anyways, I think of nuns as being predominantly older and white. My friend had the same impression. So it was a bit mind-blowing to see young nuns of every race milling around Rome. Chinese nuns. Indian nuns. African nuns. How does a twenty-year-old woman in a village in India, Ghana, or China decide that she wants to be a Catholic nun and then end up in Rome? A mystery for the ages.
We saw Brokeback Mountain, which isn�t out in Switzerland, and realized that we are more Swiss than we care to admit. It was strange not having assigned seats. It was odd that there were no snacks or restrooms. It was surprising to see the couple next to us eating the whole pizza that they brought with them. It was frustrating that people talked throughout the movie and didn�t turn off their cell phones. But we are not entirely Swiss: the movie was shown without intermission, and for that we were grateful.
One other thing that we realized that we really miss: random banter. People in the street, shopkeepers, waiters, locals, tourists, everyone talks to you. They joke with you and smile, going beyond the polite formality observed in Switzerland. To the waiter who gave us free pastries and asked us to come back, to the punks who tried saying hello in every language they could think of, to the hotel clerk who told us we could sleep in past the check-out time, please come to Switzerland. We need people like you here.
Based on my extensive (two) experiences, I can authoritatively say that Romans don�t believe in heat or absorbent towels. Last time, my hotel room had a radiator that was firmly in the �off� position, even though daytime highs were 40F (4C). Same thing this time, which was slightly more forgivable, given that daytime highs were 60F (15C), but the lows were still cold enough that heat would have been appreciated. I think Italians are in denial. They believe so strongly in their Mediterranean climate that they don�t want to cave in and use heat. The towels were once again made out of material more suitable for tablecloths, and I felt silly trying to towel off and dry my hair using something that probably would be sold to a restaurant once it was no longer white enough to be foisted on hotel guests.
Our room had a bidet. The first time I saw a bidet, I was in Milan, on summer tour with my college choir. A friend came out of the bathroom, saying, "Italian couples must be really close. They have his and hers toilets so they don�t have to go to the bathroom separately.� I explained to her that the second one wasn�t a toilet, but it was sort of a sink for your butt. I never really understood the appeal of bidets. How much mess is there that you need a butt sink? And if it were that messy, wouldn�t hosing yourself down make things worse by turning a mess into a diluted mess spread over a larger area? Ick. And then there was a smaller towel (or tablecloth) hanging behind the bidet. Does everyone use the same bidet towel? That�s as appealing as recycling communal toilet paper. Bidets never made it big in the States, and I don�t feel like we lost out in that regard.
Rome is the The Place To Be for Catholics. You�ve got the Pope, the world�s biggest cathedral, a bajillion churches, tons of relics (including, apparently, pieces of the actual cross, and thorns from Jesus�s crown, don�t ask me who ran up and grabbed those), and tons of famous religious art. If Rome isn�t Catholic enough, then Vatican City, a country in its own right, is an entire nation (albeit a small one) smack in the middle of Rome, dedicated to Catholicism. Seems odd to have a country inside a city, rather than vice versa, but then we have D.C., which isn�t part of a state, but is inside one, anyways. Anyways, I think of nuns as being predominantly older and white. My friend had the same impression. So it was a bit mind-blowing to see young nuns of every race milling around Rome. Chinese nuns. Indian nuns. African nuns. How does a twenty-year-old woman in a village in India, Ghana, or China decide that she wants to be a Catholic nun and then end up in Rome? A mystery for the ages.
We saw Brokeback Mountain, which isn�t out in Switzerland, and realized that we are more Swiss than we care to admit. It was strange not having assigned seats. It was odd that there were no snacks or restrooms. It was surprising to see the couple next to us eating the whole pizza that they brought with them. It was frustrating that people talked throughout the movie and didn�t turn off their cell phones. But we are not entirely Swiss: the movie was shown without intermission, and for that we were grateful.
One other thing that we realized that we really miss: random banter. People in the street, shopkeepers, waiters, locals, tourists, everyone talks to you. They joke with you and smile, going beyond the polite formality observed in Switzerland. To the waiter who gave us free pastries and asked us to come back, to the punks who tried saying hello in every language they could think of, to the hotel clerk who told us we could sleep in past the check-out time, please come to Switzerland. We need people like you here.
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