Midnight Marvels

 I started my Italian visit in the city of Rome to spend a few days visiting some of my friends there. If you have read any of my past blogs about Rome, you are certainly aware that it’s not exactly my favorite city in Italy. After only a few minutes there, I’m already overwhelmed by traffic, congestion, and tourists everywhere. However, a few adventures on my trip this time around may just have redeemed a small bit of my slight hostility towards the city.

The first thing I learned is that Rome is an entirely different city at night. When it's dark and everyone is safely tucked away inside their homes, there are no tourists walking out in the town, no cars driving all over the streets, no mopeds zipping past, and definitely no African men yelling at you trying to sell something. It's quiet, and all the city's ancient beauty that is drowned out by the congestion and noise of the daytime comes alive and shines in the magic of the moonlight.

I got to experience Rome in this magical way, sitting atop a balcony overlooking a classical piano concert below that was being held in the shadow of a 2000-year-old building. This building, the Teatro di Marcello, had once served as an amphitheater during the time of Emperor Augustus and was now, once again, providing a majestic stage for the resplendent notes coming from one single woman on a grand piano.

The concert was short, only an hour, but the enchantment of the night was only just beginning to unfold. As the evening wore on and darkness enveloped the majestic remains of the ancient world, a thunderstorm began to brew above. For a first row seat, I accompanied a friend of mine on a midnight moped ride through the prohibited gardens of the Villa Borghese to sit, perched on a ledge, overlooking the twinkling Piazza del Popolo below. Clouds enshrouded the moon, leaving the city lights below to illuminate the night sky in between flashes of colossal lightening. Thunder boomed above our heads and the cool of the night filled the air. Everything was still, except the violent call of nature expressing itself in grandeur all around us. 

Without the cars, without the people, without the noise, the ancient splendor of the eternal city gleamed brightly in the magnificence of the brewing storm.

But of course, with any thunderstorm, rain is sure to come at some point. Unfortunately, this thought had escaped our minds in the midst of the city’s beauty until it was already too late. The drops started to slowly fall. And so began the adventure.

Before I knew it, the empty streets of Rome were suddenly filled – with rain drops, water, and puddles, showering down upon us as we cautiously and quickly steered the moped through the rivers that were forming on the cobblestone streets. All hope was lost for staying dry. The downpour engulfed us, with nothing but the helmets on our heads as protection from the wet.

At that moment, the compartment on the back of the moped (that happened to be holding my purse and, consequently, camera) flew off the back and landed with a thud in the middle of the wet road. I watched from the back of the moped as the compartment popped open and my purse rolled out onto the ground, growing ever smaller as the distance between us and it continued to increase while we hurriedly tried to slow down.

A man was standing on the road nearby where it fell, and looked at us incredulously as we rode back, picked up our things from the middle of the road, and assessed the damage. He yelled something in Italian and while I have no idea what, I had no problem interpreting his astonishment at our helpless and slightly ludicrous situation.

All I could do was laugh.  My camera was a little banged up, but it survived and was fine. Ultimately I just found myself laughing at the situation and thinking, “What in the world were we thinking taking a moped ride in the pouring rain in the middle of the night in Rome?” But oh the adventures you find when you’re willing to do something crazy!

The rain continued to pour down on us the rest of our journey towards shelter, but I didn’t mind at all. We whizzed through the streets as the Colosseum, ancient walls, and ruins loomed prominently in the night sky, amidst torrents of water. It may have been the most beautiful Rome has ever looked.

By the time I got home, I was soaked from head to toe. And I absolutely loved it. :)

Surprises

After a late night out with my friends on Saturday night, I woke up with a start early on Sunday morning when my door burst open. Before I had time to squint and try to figure out who it was, two little arms flung around my neck and I heard a tiny voice cry out, "Sarah!!" It was Cesare, prancing into my room either to look for his toys, or just out of sheer excitement... I can't remember very clearly considering the sleepy state I was in. Either way, I really didn't mind so much. Zoila ended up shooing him out of the room so I could get a few more hours of sleep (which I ended up being very thankful for later), and I woke up a little later to Zoila telling me lunch would be ready soon :) 

It was a lazy Sunday morning - the whole family was still in our pajamas at noon - but we had exciting plans for lunch. For weeks we have been trying to plan a chili day (some good all-American food) and today was finally the day. The grandparents came over, the cousins and aunt and uncle joined, and we all sat down to plates of steamy, spicy, red-hot chili and cornbread. This was true American chili - not Italian style chili (we can leave out the fact that there was a little olive oil included), and everyone loved it. I squeezed the last few bites from my bowl into my overstuffed stomach, pushed away my plate, and thought, "I am quite satisfied." As everyone else finished their second helpings and I started on the dishes, I was summoned back to the table. "There's more!" they told me.

I sat back in my chair wondering how I would fit anymore food in my stomach and a plate with a quiche-like tart was placed in front of me. It looked delicious and was cooked by Zoila's mom with artichoke, cheese, and prosciutto, so there was no way I could pass it up. I kept wondering how I could it more food in me, but I just kept piling it in. I followed up the tart with a nice big piece of Italian style cheesecake.

In the afternoon I really took it easy, because it's been a busy week and I just wanted to rest. I spent some time in my room, watched a movie with the kids, and danced with Maria Vittoria. I also had a nice conversation with Shaila on Skype, but she got off in a hurry when she realized she still had to do some cleaning her mom had asked her to do. At one point in the afternoon, Zoila asked me for Andrea's phone number because he was having lunch with Patrizia who didn't have her phone on her, and Zoila needed to get something to Patrizia. I gave it to her and went back to doing whatever I was doing. 

Zoila told me I didn't have to eat dinner later, but she called me up to join the kids and hang out as they ate. I wanted to eat, but my stomach still felt so full that I just couldn't even fit a snack in. I decided I would wait until 9:30 or 10 to eat because I would probably start feeling hungry around then. In the meantime, we all hung out together and laughed and played. Zoila mentioned that she heard a strange sound and thought my cell phone may have rung, but I was too lazy to go check. A few minutes later, I saw that Aurelio had brought my cell phone upstairs to the kitchen from my room. As I was looking at it, the doorbell rang. I glanced over at Zoila and Aurelio to see if they knew who would be knocking on our door at 8:30 at night, but they looked just as surprised as I was and they asked me to go check and see who it could be.

When I went to go look at the monitor to see who was waiting outside (we have a video camera to see who is outside the apartment building), I was shocked to see all of my friends standing there, looking up at me and smiling. A huge smile then spread across my own face, and I excitedly asked them what they were all doing over at my house. When I looked over at Zoila to see if it was okay if they came in, it finally all clicked. They had all been planning this the whole day, and everyone had been in on the secret except me.

Andrea, Shaila, Martina, and Martina's cousin Eleonora came up into the house and patiently waited while I hurriedly got ready to go out to a surprise location. Luckily I hadn't gotten ready for bed yet, even though earlier in the evening I had decided I was too tired to try to plan anything for that evening. I knew I should have taken advantage of my last weekend night in Foligno, but I hadn't communicated with any of my friends so I figured it was too late to try to make something happen. It was a good thing I didn't plan anything, because they all got together and planned it for me!

As I got ready, I got a chance to talk to Martina and catch up with her. We haven't seen each other in about a month, because she went to New York with her dad for 10 days and when she got back my family was in town, so I was really really happy to finally get to see her again and hear about her trip. When I was ready, I asked everyone where we were going but all they would tell me is that it was a surprise.

They ended up taking me to a nice restaurant in town, and right as we walked in, I got hungry. Everything had worked out perfectly. Complete success in surprising me and perfect timing for everything! We had a really nice dinner (although of course I ate way too much), tried lots of different food, and laughed a ton. I kept smiling the whole night because I was so touched by all the planning and organizing that had gone into a special night just for me. Throughout the evening I kept having lightbulb moments realizing all the suspicious things that had happened during the day that I never picked up on. Maybe I'm a little clueless for falling for everything... or maybe they were all just that good! Sometime during the meal, the guys got up and went outside for a minute. Once again, I thought nothing of it, but sure enough they came back with another suprise... a big package just for me. I excitedly opened the gift to find a big cardboard cutout of a man holding a book. A few weeks ago, I told Andrea that one of my lifelong goals is to learn how to play piano. Therefore, they got me a teach-yourself piano book (in Italian of course) presented to me by Jim Brickman himself. I asked Andrea how I was supposed to learn if it was all in Italian, and he said, "You can learn two things with this book: piano and Italian." Looks like I have some work to do ;-)

 

The sweet night left me beaming and feeling quite blessed when I got home, but the contentment and joy were slightly overshadowed by an unfortunate fact: the last days have begun.