Bella Roma!

City 3 : Rome




In one of my classes here in Paris we take our magnifying glasses to the timeline of the city to see how it has changed as a result of historical events and advancements in literature and the visual arts. We look at poems and extracts of books written about the city by people in the city, by people looking at the city, or by people looking at people who are looking at the city. We look at pictures and maps to see how people viewed it historically and how they artistically interpreted it, and how the city itself has changed the way people looked at things. We look at architectural projects and monuments that have changed the city as well, both geographically, historically, and theoretically. I couldn’t help but look at Rome in this critical way when we first got there. One thing in particular is present due to the way that Americans and other tourists look at it: pizza stands are EVERYWHERE.

This is my historical estimation; it seemes like cartoons, postcards, word-of-mouth, and whatever other type of publicity available were spread around by tourists, claiming that Italians are pizza-eaters. Then when other tourists went to Rome, they said to the nice Italians “hey, I heard you guys eat pizza, pasta, and gelato. Where can I get some of this delicious pizza, pasta, and gelato?” Rome responded to the high demand of pizza-craving tourists by setting up a pizza/pasta/gelato restaurant in every other storefront. Now they supply lots of pizza and pasta for this demanding crowd, but the quality has suffered. To attract more business, since their products weren’t doing the trick anymore, they decided to stick creepy men outside the entrances of their restaurants, to hail down anyone wearing sneakers and a Bears hat, for an “authentic Italian meal”. When these tourists kindly say ‘no’ to the solicitors since they’re on their way to the countless amounts of ruins, churches, obelisks, and brightly lit government buildings that Rome has to offer, the friendly men at the restaurant doors suddenly turn into real-life gargoyles/sexual predators, spitting vulgar phrases in thick accents at the suddenly scared and speedy tourists.

A man was handing out flyers for his restaurant when I walked past and I smiled, waved my hand, and said, “no, grazie”. He proceeded to call me a “sexy lesbian” until I was out of earshot.

I was walking with my three friends past a bunch of restaurants with a bunch of those men when one guy spotted me, pointed, and said really loud, “I WANT THE RED ONE!” We walked faster. I also wore my hat for the next two days.


Other than those strange and offensive encounters, Rome was beautiful. The Spanish Steps were gorgeous, the Vatican was breathtaking, and the random ruins at night looked amazing with lights shining on them. We got really lucky, it was Rome’s birthday the week we went, so all the museums were free and there were free music events all over the city at random platforms in different piazzas. Ben Harper was playing for free on one of the nights we were there, but we chose to do karaoke instead… we all decided that we were better singers than him, and would rather listen to ourselves in some obscure Irish bar with tons of other American tourists singing along to “Sweet Caroline” instead. I will never forget that song, never, but I want to. Oh, how I want to.










There was also an insane amount of PDA (public displays of affection). I was lucky enough to catch two couples making out at the same time!