“Living in Rome, it seemed to me that the city was a waif in an extravagant gown. Its thing was luxury not exertion. Its greatest gift, all ambition exhausted, was beauty. Its streets were a labyrinth of delight…”1
After months of anticipation building towards this semester, I finally find myself here in the Eternal City. I’ve been living in Rome for about two weeks now (minus an impromptu 4-day excursion to Berlin) though it feels like it’s been much longer. The slow, leisurely pace of life eases one into the flow of daily activity—from trying my tongue at simple Italian phrases, sipping cappuccinos at the bar, to delving into the labyrinthine streets. Rome has been a gradual awakening to sights, smells and sounds that permeates throughout the city. There is richness to the textures, patterns and colors that saturates my field of vision. Surrounded by “butter, salmon, tangerine tinted buildings” (as a friend once described) and constant temptations of pizza and gelato in every alley, it’s no wonder that my mind is constantly on food.
Rome presents both the visual and literal manifestations of a feast. The bakeries are filled with a paralyzing display of concoctions, from Nutella filled cornettos (croissants) to decadent cannolis. Shopping in the local grocery store requires careful selection from every imaginable form of pasta and hue of wines and oils. Ordering at the restaurant becomes an art form of composing a sequence from the primo piatto (1st course) to the dolce (dessert). The results are always delicious.
Since I am living in an apartment of eight (food-enthusiasts to varying degrees of cooking ability), preparing dinner has been transformed into an elaborate system, executed with the tenacity of a studio project. Our kitchen houses an eccentric collection of utensils abandoned by past students throughout the years; milk foamers, rice cookers, peach sorbet powder, etc. We’ve already given up trying to match the lids to the countless pots and pans populating the shelves. But that hasn’t stopped us from attempting traditional Italian recipes of gnocchi, carbonara, fettuccine, etc. with plenty of good wine and company. With the luxury of free time, dinner is often a multiple hour, candle-lit affair that spills into late hours of the evening.
The upcoming four months this place is a splendid promise of exquisite food, architecture and art. I’m expectantly awaiting the palette of scents and flavors that will color my experience of Rome.