Springtime for Lucy and Italy...

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Jason finally arrived in Rome (just in time for Valentine's day) and life is now, officially, perfect: No longer must I walk the streets alone! No longer must I endure the strange (yet charming) men following/talking to/bothering me! No longer must I worry about catching the last bus home, for now I can walk in complete safety! But, most importantly, no longer must I go without gelato, for now I have a constant companion with whom to eat and drink in every gelateria and cafe across the city! Its spring-time, and I am in love. Completely head-over-heels in love... with Rome. Could this city be any more wonderful? Finally I have found a place where I belong: you can buy ice cream on every (and any) street corner, eating pasta every day (even twice a day) is not greeted with a lecture on dietary balance and nutrition values, there is even a bar that serves tiramisu at two in the morning (and I will be eternally grateful to Jennifer for enlightening me on this fact), the latte machiata is a recognised (and delicious) coffee, Romans cross roads in a manner remarkably similar to my own, and, most importantly, "Roman time" means that my favourite of phrases, "I'm so sorry I'm late..." has almost been retired. My Italian is slowly, ever so slowly, improving. Ok, that was a lie, but at least now I know a large enough variety of random words to communicate with those around me. It's a little bit like walking in the fog and finding, as the fog clears, that you're on the edge of a cliff with absolutely no way down. Still, even without language, Rome is a wonderful place to be. Jason and I are settling in well; we moved into a new apartment that we share with an Argentinian woman. It's a little strange only in that she speaks Spanish to Jason and Italian to me, and when the three of us converse together Jason and I are completely separated by several language barriers. Jason's found a park to run in, and by park I mean extensive fields that seem to be connected to Appia Antica and the ancient Appian way, complete with sheep and several shepherds. Every morning when he returns from his run he has new stories of the castles and monuments he has found. Since Jason's arrival, I've completely turned into a tourist, and we've been kept very busy seeing all the famous sights I avoided going to see while I was here alone. In this vein we've seen the forum, St Peter's, the Santa Maria Basilica, the catacombs below San Sebastiano, part of the Appia Antica, Ostia Antica, twice, (an aside To My Mother: I can't believe in all those trips to Italy you never brought us here; it's absolutely amazing!), we took the elevator to the top of the Vittorio Emanuelle monument, and many other famous tourist spots. However, we have also had time to explore those less well known parts of town; we have found endless parks, piazzas and churches on our travels to find the best ice cream/bakery/fresh fruit stall/video store/internet cafe/wine bar/basilica in whichever part of town we find ourselves. However, the part of Roman (and, I believe, Italian) life I have had most fun exploring has to be the discovery of the *aperitivo*... otherwise known as free food. Haley found us a list of the bars in Rome that provide the most extensive aperitivo platters and together with Ilse, the four of us have ventured out into bars near and far in search of the greatest amount of free food and the cheapest drink (one glass of something is obligatory before the free food eating frenzy can commence). Let it be said that the four of us always think of the starving children in Africa at these events and make sure not a single scrap goes to waste. At times, I have almost been embarrassed at the amount of food we have consumed. Almost. It is definitely something I feel should be introduced to bars in England, and I'm definitely enjoying the healthy attitude to food and alcohol it has inspired in all of us. School finished yesterday, so now Jason and I are free to travel as we please, and are looking forward to venturing further abroad (than the city walls) over the next few weeks.

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