Rome, a Home Away From Home

As promised, I am posting yet another installment on Europe. My second destination of my two weeks abroad was Rome. It was mostly a wonderful experience, yet I could have lived without the first night, which is my topic for tonight. I will try to be as brief and as detailed as possible. (I wonder how that is going to work. If you read this blog regularly, you should know by now that I tend to be quite wordy. I apologize in advance.)

I'm sure you are all dying of curiousity to know exactly what happened our first night in Rome. The flight over on Ryanair was uneventful (thanks be to God), but when we got off, we had to figure out exactly how and which bus we were to get on in order to get to Termini. For your information, it's a bit more difficult figuring out transportation in Rome than in Ireland as everything is in Italian. Not to mention, we had heard many horror stories of being robbed in Rome. One of our professors actually had his glasses stolen off his face! We eventually found the right bus, bought our tickets, and headed off to Termini with all luggage. 

We reached Termini at dusk, exhausted, more confused than ever, and eager to get to the Convent (our host). We had been told to look for a Tobacco shop. The shop supposedly would be right outside the station and would have a sign with a white "T" and encircled by dark blue. There was nothing of the sort in site. I did know, however, that we would need a one week bus pass which could get us on pretty much any bus/train in Rome. I found a stand which sold something of the sort for 16 Euros. After much debate and a bit of arguing with my travel buddies, I decided to risk buying the ticket. Then we had to find the right bus. Once again, all the signs were in Italian. I had the "instruction" sheet in my hand. I was really about to lose it as was one of my travel buddies. Her fiance had no clue what was going on. You know what girls are like: highly emotional, their brains working a mile a minute, and they easily get frustrated with others who haven't got a clue (i.e. fiance). I felt like I was going to burst into tears, but seeing that my friend was at the end of her rope as well, I figured she felt the same way as me and that she would lose it if I lost it, seeing that was following my lead. So I took a deep breath, muttered under my breath, "Mother Mary, help me". And then it clicked. The sign post read the same destination as the piece of paper in my hand and I lead the way to the proper bus. 

Once on, we huddled in a group with our stuff in the middle. It was jam packed in there. So we were going in the right direction, but where to get off? "St. Joseph of Cupertino, come on buddy." (He and I are pals for life. ) And then Alena saw, (oh joy!) an automated sign naming off destinations and such. (The interesting thing is that this was the only bus I was ever on in Rome with one of these signs.) We got off at the bus, expecting to see well, the convent. We were told the bus stopped right in front, but where was it? So we started walking down the street. (It was dark at this time and we still had all our bags.) We asked a young woman, who only spoke Italian, and I pulled out the sheet and pointed to the address. Other direction. Okay, turn around. We reached the corner. Still, no convent. Ah, a grocery store. Again, we pointed to the address on the sheet. Other direction. Whoops, too far. ("St. Joseph, your job is not over yet.")  Then we noticed the very small plaques with addresses in tiny print next to huge doors in the big brick/cement wall. We eventually found our way to the big brown doors and were let in by the very nice Italian nuns, who, once again, spoke no English, but were quite friendly nevertheless. We were very grateful, but traumatized and scared of the huge and busy city which seemed to speak no English and have lots of walls covered in graffiti. 

After a very quick dinner at a small pizzeria down the street, we hurried back and talked to the school's R.D. for a bit who convinced us that we had have a wonderful time in Rome once morning came and we were well rested. And the sun would be out, which would make things a lot nicer. And we wouldn't have all our luggage. Another plus. "Just wait until tomorrow and approach the week with an open mind. You'll see. You're going to have a blast." 

And we did. I knew from the moment I stepped into St. Peter's Square and was struck by the sheer beauty of the architecture and the awesomeness of my Catholic heritage, that JP Catholic was going to have the experience of a lifetime in Rome. We were home.