Having to deal with the media, caterers, security and bringing people from Canada for the party. Hoping the weather is good that day.
New colleagues at work are getting use to life in Rome, want things to be like in Canada, do not quite understand that you cannot have lunch in Rome in 25 minutes, minimum here is 90 minutes. Coffee is not that American stuff served in a bucket called a mug, but rather a well prepared drink in a china cup not a styrofoam or plastic one.
They are still running around when everyone else around them are walking. They will learn, it will take 6 months or like so many others will start hating this place and long to return to bleak suburban Northern climes. Rome is a difficult place to live, compact city, high density, noisy, dirty, poor infrastructures, no big shopping malls, lots of small shops open at odd hours for North Americans.
You either love Rome or you hate it, in fact this city is an excellent place to test if you are a flexible person, if you are adaptable. Can you rise above pre-conceptions, can you change your way of thinking in such a way as to adapt to your new surroundings, some can, others cannot, so stuck in their back home mentality. Can you stop thinking about how much things cost, this constant conversion of currency for every transaction. Wanting to take the bus instead of a taxi to save a few dollars when in the end taking the bus is a huge inconvenience and no savings at all. Being intimidated by a person or a place because of a title or because of what this place represent.
Not understanding where you are because you have not made the effort to inform yourself beforehand. Making silly assumptions, why do they not speak English here, could it be because it is not their language. They must be very devout Catholics because of the Pope being here in Rome. No, Romans have always had a difficult relationship with the Papacy and being close to a religious leader does not make people more religious. In fact in Rome the papacy is discredited because of its long association with the city and the many scandals through the ages.
They will learn eventually, or they will leave disillusioned, so is life in Rome. Like the movie la Dolce Vita which speaks of the disillusionment of so many people at the failed social and political promises in the aftermath of the Second World War between 1950-1960, a lost generation. People come to Rome with illusions, but it is all smoke and mirrors and in the end you find your place or you don't. We will see how this new group of colleagues will fare.
I recently took the history of the papacy. apparently the history of Rome is integral to the history of the papacy - and what exciting extraordinary history it is! Are Roman as emotional and hot headed as they were in the Renaissance? what the story!
ReplyDeleteUr-spo, Rome for Italians is ancient Rome from its foundations almost 2700 yrs ago by Romulus and Remus, then you have the Bishops of Rome from 320 ad to 730 ad then you get the title pope which is given to the Bishop of Rome by Charlemagne for political reasons. The popes leave Rome from 1305 to 1407 for Avignon in France and rebuilt a largely abandonned city with a new St-Peter's basilica from 1450. In 1861 the papacy looses out to the Republican Italian forces with Garibaldi. It is true that during the Renaissance certain popes built up the city, like Julius II and Alexander VII and the Barberini Pope and Family. I think that at the time of the Renaissance Rome was a fairly dangerous city and the Popes had to police the city with ferocious consequences. The practice was to put heads on spike and display them to warn others. Italians and Romans are very emotional, they invented Opera.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine it can be annoying and frustrating, but it also sounds so enchanting. I spent 24 hours in Rome when I was 5 years old and it was one of the best days of my life. I'd love to go back someday.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, you should come and live here for a few months, I think you would loose the enchanting part. Visiting Rome is always a dream.
ReplyDeleteFor the opera, I am most grateful !
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