A.J. Cattapan

Today’s Italian class was a continuation of our lesson on passive voice verbs, but we were also talking about books and libraries. During the opening part of our lesson, we had a series of questions to ask a partner about reading and writing. One of the questions was “Hai mai pensato di scrivere un libro?” (Have you ever thought of writing a book?)

Uh . . .  well . . .yes.

So of course, I had to tell my partner about my book, and the substitute teacher that we had for today happened to be walking past us at the time, so then I had to tell her about it too.

At the end of class, we had to pair up and  pretend that we were either editors at a publishing house or writers who had just written a book. Guess what my partner and I pretended!

Then we had to write about our book and prepare to try to “sell” our books to the publishers. So basically, I was translating the query letter from Angelhood into Italian today! Explaining my book in English is hard enough. Trying to explain in Italian with a limited Italian vocabulary is really hard! However, just like in English, it seemed to get easier the more I did it.

After class, I walked toward the Spanish Steps, not so much to see them, but because I was on the hunt for the apartment used in the movie Roman Holiday. Katie had read in her tour book that you could see it–at least from the outside. I’d also found a website that said the same, so using the address from the website, I headed off to this location north of the Spanish Steps.

This is what I found:

On the door to the right was a sign that said it was forbidden to enter (private property). So much for that! Maybe they got tired of tourists coming around.

On my way home, I passed through the  Piazza del Popolo, where they are setting up for a huge concert series. I tried to ask a guy there who was playing, but he just said, “Domani (tomorrow).”

After working on some homework and travel plans at home (which got really frustrating when I couldn’t find what I wanted online), I met Katie at school. We tried to take the Metro out to visit some churches, but the trains were so full we could not get on. Eventually, we gave up and just ate dinner in the neighborhood.

I’m tired and hope to get to bed early tonight. One nice surprise today was finding the Church of St. Joachim (Mary’s father) during my afternoon wanderings. It’s called “international” because it has separate chapels for a lot of different countries, like one with a painting of St. Patrick for Ireland, and one with a statue of Mary (Immaculate Conception) and paintings of women from the Bible (e.g. Ruth and Esther) for the U.S. It wasn’t a terribly old church but built to look like one. The best part was that it was open in the afternoon (when a lot of churches close), so I got to have some quiet time inside.

Today I went uphill both figuratively and literally.

Let’s start with the figurative.

After a weekend of mostly speaking English, it felt like I had to shake my brain back into Italian. Even walking to school this morning, I was thinking, “How am I going to speak Italian in class today? I feel so out of it.”

Class began with some conversation about what we did this weekend. I’m still really struggling with understanding Italian when I listen to it. I get some words here and there, and then I try to guess at filling in the missing words in between. Sometimes I completely misunderstand the meaning. For example, when we first arrived, I thought my landlady had said something to Katie and me about going to a cafe for dinner, but instead she had offered us “caffe” (coffee)! Oops. I had said yes to drinking coffee at 6:00 p.m.

Sometimes I also have trouble saying exactly what I want, even when I know the words I want to use. For example, the other day I was waiting at a busy piazza for Katie. There were a lot of guys trying to sell selfie sticks and “discount” tickets to the Vatican museums. As I looked around for Katie, a guy walked up to me and said in English, “Are you looking for something?” I didn’t want to get caught up in any tour he was going to try to sell me, so I responded back in Italian, “Aspetto un’amica.” (I’m waiting for a friend.) However, I said it so rapidly, I think it came out as “Aspetta (not aspetto) un’amica.” That one little letter difference changes the subject and meaning entirely. Instead of saying “I’m waiting for a friend,” I think I told him to go wait for a friend! No wonder he seemed a bit shocked by my response! Imagine asking a person who you think is a tourist if she is looking for something, and she tells you, “Go wait for a friend!” Well, at least, he left me alone after that. These salespeople near the Vatican can be really pushy. If another person tries to sell me a selfie stick, I shudder to think how I might respond.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I’m feeling a bit discouraged by my progress in Italian. I’m so envious of Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote in Eat, Pray, Love that she kept waiting for Italian to open up for her and eventually, it really did. This morning, I felt like Italian would never really open up for me. That it would never let me in to really be a part of it. It felt like a terribly uphill climb.

Not only an uphill climb, but a climb up a hill that seems to have no top in sight. It’s a never-ending uphill climb.

And thus, I went uphill figuratively this morning.

After class, I decided to wander Gianicolo, a hill between the Vatican and Trastevere. I’d never been there before, but I’d heard there were lovely views of the city.

Of course, getting to a lovely hilltop means making a literal uphill climb. As I wandered the switchback streets (a little reminiscent of San Francisco), I thought about how my literal uphill climb paralleled my figurative uphill climb with regard to learning Italian.

First, there’s no way to get to the top without moving uphill. If you want the great views from the hilltop, you’ll  have to make your way up there one way or another. Sometimes that means lots of switchback trails that seem to take forever and only get you a small way up the hill. Other times, you find a little staircase that lets you skip up a whole level in a fraction of the time.

My hidden staircase up Gianicolo

Part 2 of my secret staircase.

Learning a language is like this, too. Sometimes you work and work and work and don’t seem to get very far. Other times, something happens, and a whole section of the language opens up. You learn to conjugate verbs in past tense, and now you can say all sorts of things you couldn’t say before. Or you learn the vocabulary for a particular topic, and you can have conversations about things you previously had known nothing about.

Next, sometimes you just have to rest for a while. It’s good to stop for a  little “riposo” along the way. Halfway up the hill, I stopped near a beautiful viewpoint to catch my breath and drink some water.

There was a fountain, and some little boys were playing ball. The red ball fell into the fountain. The bambini stretched their hands out into the water, but the ball only seemed to float away more. Finally, a man came along and rescued the ball for them.  The whole time the boys seemed happy. I guess they just figured the ball would come back to them eventually. I smiled as I watched the stranger return the ball to them.

The fountain where the boys lost their ball

When learning a language, it’s okay to take a  break  now and then, and there’s no point getting upset if the language seems to get away  from you for a while like that red ball got away from the boys. Eventually, someone will help you out, and you’ll get back in the game.

Finally, the effort seems to make the results all the more worth it, doesn’t it? At one point, I debated how much farther up the hill I should go. I had a long walk back to the apartment still. Also, I wasn’t entirely sure if there was a path down on the other side. But I hadn’t quite gotten the viewpoint I’d wanted yet, so I decided to press onward (er, upward?). Finally, I came to a spot with a gorgeous viewpoint. As the view of Rome below me came into view, I got a little teary-eyed. What is it about this city that does this to me? Or was it just the effort of climbing all the way up there and then having it finally pay off?

View of Rome from Gianicolo

Someday maybe I’ll get to the “top of the hill” when it comes to learning Italian. Maybe it will finally reveal itself to me as it did to Elizabeth Gilbert. Maybe its full beauty will be laid out before me just like the city of Rome was today.

And maybe, just maybe, I’ll get a little teary-eyed again.

Today was Katie’s birthday. Celebrating your birthday in Rome is pretty special, but I was hoping we could find some ways  to make it extra special. As you know, things don’t always work out as planned.

We started by meeting near St. Peter’s Square. Our goal was to get into St. Peter’s for the 10:30 a.m. Mass, but when we arrived nearly 45 minutes early, the line to get into the basilica was nearly wrapped all the way around the square. It didn’t seem likely that we’d get past security in time for Mass.

Luckily (or perhaps by God’s design), Katie had run into another girl from our school. She knew of another church inside the Vatican that had masses nearly every hour. The next would be starting in five minutes.

“And we can get into this church inside the Vatican?” Katie and I asked.

“Sure,” she said and pointed us back to a gated entrance just north of St. Peter’s Square. There were Swiss guards there, but they were letting people into a church just inside the gates. We followed  the people in and soon found ourselves in this beautiful small church dedicated to St. Anne, Mary’s mother. The Mass was in Italian, but they had guides for following along. We had trouble following the homily, but the three of us seemed to understand one basic  point; namely, that when we have troubles and our faith is small, God can help our faith to grow and then it will be bigger than our problems.
After Mass, we thought we might catch Pope Francis doing his Sunday Angelus, but it turns out he was in Turino for a special Mass, which was being broadcast on the JumboTrans at St. Peter’s.

Thus, we moved on to our next activity–heading out of the city to visit the ruins of Ostia Antica. This is an ancient Roman  port town that was eventually covered up by a malaria-infested swamp. Although this swamp land drove people away, it preserved the area in much the same way that the volcanic ash preserved Pompeii.

To get to Ostia Antica, we had to take the Metro A line to the Termini station at the center of town, transfer to the Metro B line for several stops and then take a half hour train ride out to Ostia Antica. In all, the trip was about an hour from the Vatican.

Since Ostia Antica is a ways from the city, it was pretty quiet, which I think was a change that Katie and I both enjoyed. We both also really enjoyed the weather. It was sunny with a light breeze and not too hot, especially if you were in the shade.

We tried to follow the Rick Steves’s audio guide to the ruins but had trouble figuring out exactly what he was talking about at times.

The ruins start with the necropolis (another city of the dead) outside the old city walls.

See all those niches? They held the cremated remains of the dead.

We also saw the remains of the old warehouses where goods were stored when they were brought into this port town. Further along, we came to a set of stairs we could climb that would allow us to look down at the old baths, and we got a view of this cool mosaic flooring depicting Neptune.

One of the coolest parts for me was the old ampitheater. Katie wanted to play her flute there, and I was ready to burst into a  Shakespearean monolgue oer poem, but Katie joked I should read from my book there. Ha!

We also saw “Square of Guilds,” which (based on Rick Steves’s guide) sounded like an ancient strip mall. Each store advertised its good and services via mosaic pictures and Latin inscriptions out front.

Square of the Guilds

It took a while to get home, but we enjoyed some pizza and gelato when we returned, as well as a celebratory birthday drink at a nearby bar.

For today’s blog post, I’m joining with the Spin Cycle blog prompt over at Lemon Drop Pie. Our prompt for this week is to talk about our typical day or our routines, so I’m going to talk today about a typical day in Rome for me.

My day begins with two annoying alarm clocks because I have difficulty waking up. I’ve got my iPhone alarm and a travel alarm clock. I usually hit snooze on both.

After showering and dressing, I lift the wooden blinds that lead out to my balcony and take a moment to savor the beautiful view of the northern Roman hills before heading into the kitchen where I join my landlady who has made a little cup of coffee for me. I add sugar and milk, of course. With my coffee, I eat some yogurt or a piece of fruit.  I do this quickly because it is suddenly 8:25  a.m., and that means it’s time for me to leave for school. With a quick “Ciao!” I run out the door and down the seven flights of stairs to the ground level. I could  take the elevator, but it’s one of those ancient cagey types that creak a lot and creep me out, so I try to use it only for going up.

Using an app on my phone, I discovered today that the walk to school is 1.52 miles, which takes me about 27 minutes after I get down all those stairs. I walk through a nice residential neighborhood (home to a  lot of doctors and lawyers, so it’s safe) and pass a number of cafes where people are getting their cappuccino (because morning is the proper time for cappuccino). Soon, I cross the Via della Conciliazione, where I wave to St. Peter’s Basilica and say, “Buongiorno, San Pietro!” (Okay, I do this in my head, but you get the idea.) Then I cross the Tiber River into the center of Rome, where I pass a lot of tourists looking lost and taking pictures. From the Tiber, it is only another 5-10 minutes to school.

Every morning, the same white-haired man, dressed in black pants, a white shirt, and a black vest, greets everyone who walks into the building. The building holds several different offices and businesses, and I think he must run the whole building.

Up a flight and a half of stairs, I turn into the hallways that hold my language school. Through these narrow hallways, I find my way to my room where often a few students already wait. At 9:00 a.m., the teacher enters, and we start class. We have a workbook and worksheets that we use, plus general conversation (for example, today we all talked about our plans for the weekend).

After an hour and a half, we take a fifteen-minute break, which isn’t a lot of time to visit the restroom and grab a quick coffee, especially since my favorite little cappuccino spot from last year has closed.

Then it’s back to class for another hour and a half of instruction. Class gets out at 12:15. Usually,  I’ll grab a small bit to eat then. It may be some fruit, a panino from a local shop, some “pizza by the slice,” and/or gelato. These I usually eat outside at a piazza where I can  partake of some people watching.

Then I might do a little grocery shopping or visit a church if I find one open, but a lot of them close for a “riposo” (a siesta) for a bit in the afternoon.

Back at the apartment, I work on my homework and maybe do a little reading and/or writing. My landlady is often home then, so I chat with her for a little bit.

In late afternoon, I head back out. Usually this means meeting up with Katie after her afternoon class, although I may make a stop somewhere before meeting her. It’s nice when I can find a quiet church where I can pray while contemplating some truly amazing works of art.

Madonna and Child (Mary and Jesus) at the Pantheon (which is a church, don’t forget!)

Our evenings are spent doing a little sightseeing and finding some dinner. They may also include the evening activities with the school, like the orientation meeting on Monday, the group dinner on Tuesday, or the guided tour on Wednesday.

Evenings here in Rome are truly beautiful. The sun is low in the sky, and there’s often a light breeze. The streets fill with people going for walks, whether they are just strolling, shopping, or searching for a great gelateria.

Tiber River at night

Then the sun sets, and the piazzas really come to life. Children play, nuns eat gelato, couples flirt, musicians play, and tourists stop for photos.

Not a bad typical day, huh?

Added not: Katie said I should tell you about the gelato fest tonight, and to be sure, gelato is definitely a part of our typical day in Rome. However, Katie and her roommate saw a newspaper notice about a gelato fest, so we took a tram north and found the fest. Really, it was just a few gelato trucks with different flavors to try. They were unique flavors that I think were supposed to have been made by  celebrity chefs. For example, one flavor we had  was called Coure di fragola al muscovado and had strawberries, brown sugar, and Brazilian brandy.