My new apartment

May 2, 2009

I'm sitting here in apartment #2 eating green olives (they're Castelvestrano, but here they just call them verde), drinking white wine while watching Edward Scissorhands (in Italian) with my laundry drying outside on the deck. Home in Rome on a Saturday night. But I'm glad to be staying in because I'm a bit under the weather. I think I've been overdoing it. I have to remind myself that I came to Rome to live like a Roman and I don't think they work this hard.

I was sad to leave my first apartment today. I really liked it other than the noise and no internet. My new apartment is in a more central location - but guess what? It's still noisy. And I'm supposed to have wireless, but guess what? It doesn't work. So I have to wait until Monday for my landlord's porter to come who is supposedly a computer genius, but he works as a porter. He works from 7:30 am to 7 pm with a two hour break mid-day. He is the hardest working Italian I know.

So the new apartment is fine, but has less character than the first. It's on the fourth floor (which really means the fifth) and has an itsy-bitsy elevator that I won't take for fear of getting stuck (I've always had a fear of elevators.) At this rate, I'm going to come home from Italy even skinnier. The neighborhood is great - lots of restaurants close by, which the other apartment didn't have. So I think I'll like it. But it will take a bit of getting used to.

Today I walked around my new neighborhood and stumbled on a nice shoe store selling secondhand shoes – the way I figured this out was they were displayed by size rather than style and the soles were scuffed. But otherwise they are in really good shape. Unfortunately, size 38 - my size - had the smallest selection and there wasn’t anything I was interested in. But I will try to go back, if I can remember where it is…

Finally settled on a place for lunch – Pierluigi. As soon as I sat down outside, a big thunderstorm whipped up from out of nowhere. It had been sunny and 75, but within a few minutes it was raining gatti e cani. But I was happy eating pasta with spada e melanzana (swordfish and eggplant.) They deep-fried the eggplant like French fries and added cherry tomatoes and basil. Delicioso! I even managed to impress the waiter with my Italian when I said “sono sazia” as he came to take my plate. I savored this as much as the meal.

The grocery is just across the street as well as a coffee bar and pizza place. So at least things are much more easily accessible here. But I think I like my first place better. Now I need to nurse a sore throat – my interview with the Monsignor is on Monday and I don’t want to have to reschedule due to a cold.

Buona notte Roma!