Bonjhola

EP 87: Aimee goes to Rome and Shatters Her Brain

• Rebecca West

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Welcome to Bon Jola, a podcast about two women, Amy and Rebecca, who each move from the United States to Europe to become expats. Amy to Spain and Rebecca to France. We're here to share the highs, the lows, and the logistics of this adventure. Encourage you to follow your own, move abroad dreams, and remind you that you're not alone when the going gets tough. Enjoy.

Rebecca

Ola, Amy,

Aimee

Bon Jola, Rebecca.

Rebecca

um, I'm going to ask you about your Christmas adventures, and I'm going to be listening deeply because I am recovering from the flu, so anything that comes out of my mouth may not be coherent. And with that.

Aimee

all the more reason to actually interview you,'cause it would be the most memorable, entertaining episode ever.

Rebecca

Well, from here forward listeners, I am not responsible for what happens during this episode. I am going to ask Amy an entry question and then she's in charge. So, Amy, you went to Rome for Christmas. How was it?

Aimee

I did. I did. We went to Rome. Not on my list, you know, I mean, Rome, why was Rome never on my list? I mean, in a vague sense, Italy was like, oh, that'd be a nice place to go. But maybe it's just that I didn't know enough to get excited about Italy and Rome. It's like, oh, Rome, it was once hot shit, you know, like 2,500 years ago. But. Now it's just another European city. I don't know. And

Rebecca

It was a cliche. Basically,

Aimee

possibly I wasn't expecting it to be actually. I feel like all big cities in Europe are cliche.'cause Venice wasn't really on my list either, probably in part because it was a cliche. Um, I did Paris in my twenties when it was romantic and cool to do, and so. Now Paris is like, well, and now I've been to Paris enough times too that it's like, been there, done that. Um, but I also don't know about the places that I don't know about, right? Like all the little hole in the wall places that are not on fucking TikTok or Instagram or whatever. Pardon my French listener. are the placeS that I think I wanna find. And I feel as though if I look it up on the internet and I find it on the internet, whether or not it's via social media that it's too popular already. You know, so I'm kind of at a place where, I don't know, I don't have anywhere that I'm excited to go to. I don't know where to go to. So there we are. But my kid was like, Rome, I wanna go to Rome. It's the number one place I wanna go to in Italy. So we're like, okay, let's go to Rome for Christmas. And uh, I feel like an idiot because I didn't know Rome was Rome.

Rebecca

Well, I mean, I think like stereotypes, cliches grow out of something, right.

Aimee

Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. And Rome was, for me, Rome was freaking amazing, and I think it was, in part because I didn't have an expectation. I was like, okay.

Rebecca

where my mind went immediately. When we have low expectations, they're much easier to exceed.

Aimee

You know, that is one of my life philosophies is to just basically not expect anything from anybody. And then you're like, wow, this is amazing.

Rebecca

There's something to be said for that. Right?

Aimee

Yeah. Yeah.

Rebecca

So what were the highlights? What blew you away in Rome?

Aimee

So the, the thing that's going to live with me forever and the thing that I think permanently changed my brain in a way that I don't understand. Like, I don't understand the ramifications of what has just happened, but I, well, yeah, and then there was the whole pope thing too. So. That was crazy. Okay. So Rome was crazy. Rome was crazy. So I had this idea, I love to do this. Whenever I'm in a new place, I map out a run. So I can see, I can see where I'm at, right? And when it is a place like Venice or Rome, I map it out so that I hit all of the. Sightseeing highlights that I can within my fitness parameters. It was originally gonna be a nine mile course, and then the morning I woke up, like my legs were so tired from all the walking that we were doing that I had done without resting from a long run the day beforehand. Right? So my legs had not had a chance to recover. So I was like, okay, let's do seven. Three quarters miles instead of nine, and then I ended up doing six and a half miles instead. But I covered, I think I covered everything that I had originally wanted to see in the shortened, the shortened version. And what I knew to go take a look at was the Spanish steps, although I don't know why those are so popular now that I've been there. I'm like, okay. Steps. I was expecting something a little more grand, uh, than what I saw. Uh, the Vatican, right? So I ran to the Vatican and then from there to, uh, Piazza that goes up towards a hill. And then you can see Rome. The view of Rome from this hill, which was fantastic. And I went along that hill and then down the Spanish steps. Um, and then from there ran over to the Colosseum. And on the way to the Colosseum, you run into the, the monument to Italy's first king. Um, I think his name is Viro Emmanuel ii, if I remember correctly, which is, you know, you say Monument and. This monument is bigger than some palaces. Like, it's just freaking huge. It's outrageously huge. It doesn't look like a monument. It looks like a, a museum. Uh, it's, it's fantastically big. And, and then from there to the Coliseum, what I did not realize, what I did not know is that next to the monument and before the coliseum is the Roman forum. The Roman forum is you don't know it's gonna be there. It just breaks you into a gazillion pieces. So the Roman, the Roman Forum is, is Roman ruins. And it was the center, I guess the center, it was Rome, it was the center of Rome. It was where I think all the government and stuff, everything happened. You know, hundreds and hundreds of years before the Christian era, right? Like super freaking old. And now it's this graveyard of columns and partial palaces littered with marble trash, uh, that's intricately carved like pieces of this, that and the other. And I'm running through the city. From the Spanish steps, I'm running through the city. It's like, oh, look at this fountain. Oh, look at this little,, thing to Madonna and, and the Christ child. And photo, photo, photo, uh, look at this old building photo, photo, photo. And then come up to the monument. Take some pictures of the monument turn, and I'm looking at this white marble, the bottom of a white marble pillar that is intricately carved in a floral motif. I was like, whoa, that's cool. And it's on a hill in amongst some trees and you can take steps to go up to it. So I walk up the steps to look at this white marble, and then I see all of what used to be ancient Rome, and I'm like, what the holy hell is this? What? Oh my God. Because again, I had no idea any of this was there. So I'm gobsmacked. And you know this, I did like an hour, an hour and 15 minutes running, but I was out for three hours because I kept running into, uh, well, I, I don't know how long I spent in this area because I kept, I kept having history hit me over the head with a hammer. so I was taking pictures of this, looking at this, and then at one point. I'm, I'm open up my camera to take a picture of, uh, some aspect of the Roman Forum and my camera had been set on selfie mode and so I opened up my camera and there's my face. And then behind me, which I didn't even notice, is like this gorgeous dome from this, I don't know, maybe 17th century building, and I'm like, what the holy hell. So I turn around and there's this whole other. Set of ruins on the other side of the street that I didn't even know about because I was so transfixed with the Roman forum next to the, to the monument. And I, you know, I don't know what happened to my brain, but every time I think about this and try and recall it, it sort of spasms a bit. And, it's just amazing. I, I have not ever seen. Multiple eras. Multiple epics. Epic, is that the word? I'm looking for? Multiple eras of time at the same time. And the closest that I can associate it with is the body's exhibit where you get to see the central nervous system for the very first time, and you've never actually seen that laid out. And then you see it laid out on top of the muscular system, which you kind of know about through books, but you've never seen the muscular system with the central nervous system. Layered on top of it and then the foundation of the bone underneath. And you live in a world where you're really only seeing the skin anyway, right? And so then to see all of these layers of the human body at once is super cool and amazing. And it gives you this sense of depth and appreciation for this like meat sack that we walk around in. And then being in a room and seeing these. Like literally seeing the last 2,500 years of history laid out visually in buildings, the fact it hasn't been destroyed by wars over the last 3000 years. Incredible. And it's all right there and it just, it's um, it's inconceivable to me, but somehow I've managed to witness it and therefore it is. Conceived.

Rebecca

Well, you're describing the experience of awe.

Aimee

Yes.

Rebecca

You know, we throw around the word awesome, but there are moments when we experience it. I have felt that looking up in the night sky.

Aimee

Mm.

Rebecca

And when it's truly clear and there's truly no light, and you keep trying to see past the last set of stars, and you can't, there's too many, there's too much. It's too far. And it's these moments that put ourselves back in scale. And by that I mean tiny insignificant dots in time and in space and in. Meaning, right.

Aimee

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Rebecca

religious experience and it can happen in a lot of different places. I love that you had that in Rome.

Aimee

Yeah, it was, it was fantastic and, and I remember thinking like in this tiny space, this tiny area of this city, there are so many stories and yet there are so many more hundreds of thousands of stories that have been lost to time that we will never know that have occurred in this, Tiny, like not even an acre of land, countless stories that are lost to time. But the, the ghost, the aroma, the lingering perfume scent of those stories is there. And I know it exists, but I don't know what it is.

Rebecca

Rome didn't strike me that way, but Italy did as a whole country, and for me that moment. That you're talking about right there, that ghost of memory, it always hit me strongest whenever I would be walking up a set, a set of marble stairs going up a bell tower or in a church, and they're carved. Into divots. Deep, deep divots just from footprint, after footprint after footprint. And every footprint is a story. Why was that person walking up those steps at some point in history, following in the footsteps of enough people to make divots in rock? Like that blows my mind, and that's something that I felt in Italy more than I have seen in any other country.

Aimee

Yeah.

Rebecca

Probably'cause the climate being so dry allows for a lot of preservation. That doesn't happen in the countries that I prefer.'cause I prefer lush, wet landscapes and wetness. Obliterates history erodes history.

Aimee

totally does. Yeah. Yeah, it does. It cracks rock. It molds, it disintegrates things, but gosh, it's gorgeous.

Rebecca

Yeah, one preserves and one helps you live. I'd rather be in the living place, but you know.

Aimee

Yeah. Eating gluten-free in Rome was very easy for me. It was not a problem. I did not strictly adhere to a gluten-free diet. But when, but you know, with trying things like pasta and stuff I did, we went on a food tour, which was a lot of fun and tried the um, Jewish fried artichokes. Which were cool there. So there's the Roman preparation of artichokes, and there's the Jewish preparation of artichokes and the Roman preparation of artichokes, they're steamed and it includes the stalk.

Rebecca

Okay.

Aimee

And in the Jewish preparation, it's just the, the flower, the artichoke flower. And it's like it's squashed flat and then deep fried, so the petals get really crispy, almost like potato chips. And then it served with a little bit of lemon. And so our food, uh, our food tour guide took us through the Jewish quarter, and I love this. I didn't know this. The, there's a group in Germany in, I think it was the nineties, that set out to memorialize, those who had died in the Holocaust by creating little gold. Tiles. They or not they're, but they're brass, they're not gold that say, you know, this person lived here. This is when they were born, this is when they were taken. And then, you know, if they know what happened to them when they died, where they died or if they survived or whatever. And

Rebecca

I haven't seen it, but I've wanted to.

Aimee

yeah. And they, well, there they are. There was, she brought us to this one house that had probably. There was like a family of eight and then another family of like four or five, like multiple families in this building, uh, because it was the Jewish corridor, right? So they were all rounded up and sent to Auschwitz. Um. I love it because it's, it's a wonderful way to make it very real because it is a name, it is a time of birth and death and where, and it's in the ground in front of where this person lived, so it doesn't take up space like a fancy artistic kind of. Representation or a motive thing that is often done for memorials. It's very tangible. It's very real, and it's put into, into the environment in a way where it's a gut punch and it doesn't, like it doesn't take up space, right? It doesn't take up space and

Rebecca

It just helps you be present. It helps you anchor yourself to their moment.

Aimee

Right, right. Exactly. Yeah. And that was really, that was really neat as well. Um, my son wanted to go to the Vatican because by going to the Vatican, he gets to claim that he's been to an additional country and so he can rack up the number of countries that he's been to. So we're like, cool, let's go to the Vatican. And we got a tour through the Vatican Museum, which I highly recommend if you're going to go to the Vatican, get a tour guide to go through the museum, because even during the slow season, that place is insanely busy, very crowded, and with a tour guide whipping us through the whole thing. It still took two and a half hours to get through the museum. We didn't really have time to stop and deeply ponder a lot of the art that we were seeing until we got to the Sistine Chapel, and then we were able to stay in there for about 20 minutes. But it's was really helpful to have a guide once so that you. Can see more and keep track of time and get some quality information about what you're seeing as you're going through. It would be really easy if we were just on our own to become exhausted and lose, like lose interest in seeing everything. By time we got to like the second room because there was just so much, so much

Rebecca

Well, it's like being at a buffet. You fill up on, on the first plate and you're like, oh, shoot, there's, there's four more tables of food I didn't get to try yet.

Aimee

Being at a buffet the size of the Smithsonian.

Rebecca

Yeah.

Aimee

Yeah, it was, it was intense, but it was great. So I, I do, and, and the great thing about having a guide too, if you book a tour with a guide, whether it's private or a group tour, you get to skip the line. You do not have to wait in line, which can be, in and of itself, exhausting to get into the Vatican. Museum. So from there we went to St. Peter's Basilica and climbed the steps up to the top to the dome to look down into the basilica, which was amazing. And then climbed back down, I think in total, going up and down. It was over a thousand steps. My legs were shaking by the time I got down, which was. Really surprising because that's the sort of thing that happens after a marathon. It's not the kind of thing that happens from climbing some stairs, even if it's 500 of them, but it was like the cumulative fatigue.

Rebecca

Well, and it's also that you're, you're having to go, it's, it's like trail riding horse, head to horse butt. You don't get to go at your own pace, so you're actually taking these. Incredibly slow measured steps, which takes a lot more muscle control than if you can just bound up like a bunny and then have it be a cardio workout, you know?

Aimee

Yeah, Yeah. for sure, for sure. While we were at the Basilica, we uh, found out that the Pope gives a mass on Christmas Eve. And, Pope Leo also is bringing back the Christmas Day mass, which I found out after the fact has not been done since 1994. The last two popes have not done a Christmas day mass, only the Christmas Eve Mass. Um, my guess is age. Like they, they were both old.

Rebecca

True.

Aimee

AF when they started and they probably didn't have the energy to do a midnight mass and then the next day at 10 o'clock in the morning do a Christmas day mass. That, that would be my guess. As logistically, it just wasn't gonna work. And also discovered that the Pope gives a blessing called I'm mixing my Italian and my Spanish, um, twice a year on Christmas day and an Easter. And then it's also done when a new Pope is elected. And this is like if you are a practicing Catholic, this is like the creme de la creme of OMG, where basically you are blessed by the Pope and it's not just that your sins are forgiven, it's like your record of sins is expunged completely like it never happened. It is like probably. The best thing that could ever happen to a Catholic and kind of makes me wish that I was still Catholic so that I could have some kind of like meaningful, um, experience from that. Suffice it to say yes, we did go to Orbe at Orbe because, um. My kid did was like, oh, we could see the Pope. I wanna see the Pope. And there was no way to get tickets. They're free, but there was no way to get tickets into the Christmas Eve mass or the Christmas day. At mass, you have to do that months and months in advance. Sometimes you have to put favors in, you know, beg the Vatican to like let you get tickets. It's a, yeah. So, but the is something that. Everyone is welcome to, you're outside in St. Peter Square. He comes out on his balcony and delivers this address. It takes about 30 minutes, you know, very focused on like peace and things of this nature. It was an Italian, so, and, and to war. It was a gist I got. And then there's this blessing that, you know, for you. If you listen live and you are a practicing Catholic where you are blessed. Um, so I was like, okay, well let me see how, let me see if this is possible. And I went and talked to somebody. She did not speak English. I did not speak Italian. It turned out we both spoke Spanish. So, so this volunteer and I had a conversation in Spanish about how we might get to see the Pope. And how early we would need to show up in order for my son to see, to see the Pope. And it was basically like, show up two hours early if you wanna get a good spot. And I was like, oh, that seems reasonable.'cause I figured it'd be like 6:00 AM you know, lines out the door sort of thing. No, not at all. Show up two hours early. I relayed the information to my son, he was like, yeah, let's do it. I want to do it. And I'm like, yeah, I kind of want to as well because it's the very first from the very first American Pope on his very first Christmas day. And that's a lot. And it's a jubilee year, which is like a super special Holy Year. Uh, in Catholicism that happens only every 25 years, right? So it's not gonna, there's not gonna be a jubilee year for another 25 years. And in 25 years time, I probably will not be wanting to go back to the Vatican. It's a much harder trip in your late sixties, early seventies. Um, so it's like, yeah, let's do it. Like so many firsts. It's a, it's a big deal even though I'm not Catholic. So we went It was awesome. He came out in his little Pope Mobile and waved to everybody after Christmas. So he had the Christmas morning mass and we arrived early enough that we were able to watch the Christmas morning mass on the screens, from outside. So we got to see the mass as well, which was awesome. Um, just to be able to see that it was all in Italian. And then there were people who read some things in various other languages like. Spanish, of course, was represented English, Mandarin, French, Portuguese. So it was a very, it had a very inclusive worldwide kind of feeling to it. And when he did, when the Pope. Did do his. He wished people like wished a Merry Christmas and blessings to you in your family in, I don't know, eight, eight or nine different languages including Arabic. It was Arabic and Portuguese and Mandarin, and like all of these different languages was really neat. So I feel like he's really made an effort to include all of the Catholic world, wherever they may be, and help them to feel part of. That he's aware of them right as they are aware of him. so after the mass and before he did the, he came out in his little popemobile and drove through. He wasn't driving, was driven through St. Peter's Square so that people who were not in the mask could see him and, you know, wave, he waved at everybody and. I kissed a baby because you know, a baby was shoved in his face as he was driving by, and that for some reason him coming out in the Pope me Popemobile. That was the most emotional moment for me, maybe it was because he. I think it was because he came out to us on our level. Right? And it was something that I wasn't expecting. I was expecting the mass inside the basilica, and then the view of him from the balcony, of St. Peter's. And so. And when he showed up, like the crowd was like, ah, Viva Papa Vi, Papa Viva papa. And cheering and waving and it was super cute. Everybody was so excited., So he drove around a bit and then, and covered all the bases, you know, all the areas he could drive, I think were driven, and then went back in and then showed up and delivered his address and, and that was that. And it was. It was cool. It was really neat. Um, really glad we did it. It was much easier than I would've imagined it would've been. You know, the volunteer had said, arrived two hours early. If you wanna get a good spot. We arrived two hours early and we got front row seats.

Rebecca

Nice.

Aimee

Yeah. Even when you're in the front row in the center looking straight on, which is where we were at Front Row Center, the Pope is so high up and so far away. He is so tiny from where you are able to be, If you're out in the square, but it was still like, we got the best seats in the house, so Kiddo and I were like high fiving each other for, you know, doing the thing. And it turned out really well for us. And that was, that was, I, it's a great memory that we get to have together. Yeah.

Rebecca

That's wonderful. How long total were you in Rome for?

Aimee

Six days.

Rebecca

Six days. It's a long time

Aimee

Seven days, actually. Seven, no, six days. Seven nights. Six days. Six, I dunno. We, yes, we arrived Saturday afternoon and we left Saturday morning the following week. So whatever that ends up being.

Rebecca

I will say to listeners who are not runners, like Amy and I am not a runner. one thing that we did in Rome was we did the segue tour and it was a really good way to do the same thing, to hit all the big highlights. And, the cool thing about being on a segue is you're lifted a whole foot above the heads of everybody around you, and so you can actually see, especially if you're a shorter person while touring and. Take in the whole city and then decide where you wanna go back to. So I, even though Segways are kind of dumb looking, they still are. It's a really good place to take a Segway tour. We did one there. We did one in Seve for the same reason. Covering all that ground, getting a sense of our orientation and bonus being a full head height above the crowd.

Aimee

Oh, as someone who is five foot two, that sounds pretty fantastic.

Rebecca

I know, right? Yeah.

Aimee

That's a great idea.

Rebecca

So would you go back or do you feel like you've done Rome?

Aimee

I was looking at flights back before we even left

Rebecca

Would you live there or do you feel like it's a place you want to visit?

Aimee

I don't think I would live there. My understanding is it's very, very hot in the summer. It was quite crowded at Christmas. Not as crowded as I thought it would be, but it was still fairly crowded. And I mean, gerona tourists bother the hell out of me. So I can't even imagine how grumpy I would be in Rome in the summer with hundreds of thousands of tourists coming in. I probably would not be a nice person. Um,

Rebecca

was the weather?

Aimee

the weather was, was pretty good. It rained. It rained I think four of the days that we were there. Four to five days that we were there. most of the time the rain was such that we didn't really feel we needed an umbrella The last two days of rain, it was nice to have an umbrella. We ended up buying one off the street. When there is rain, people will show up outta the woodwork very quickly. All of a sudden, it's like an apparition right in front of you. Boom. And they offer you an umbrella. Do not accept it for any more than five euros, and even five euros is too much. But in listening to other people who are just talking as they're walking around town, someone paid eight for a year for an umbrella. And someone had said that, oh, that's a real, and then the person's like, oh, that's a really good deal. I, you know, I heard they were going for 20. So

Rebecca

Oh yeah, I've dropped 20 on an umbrella.'cause you know it's supply and demand and do you wanna be 15 more Euros wet or not?

Aimee

I mean, yes, there is. There is that. There is that for sure. But let me tell you, these umbrellas, my son called them temu umbrellas because they're so poorly made. Um. So I opened up mine. It does open, it did open and close, but the little cap on the top of the umbrella was never properly attached. And so it, you know, you pull the umbrella out and that cap had already fallen off the first time I tried to close it, one of the little. Metal bits broke and you know, it served its purpose. I left it in the Airbnb. It was really nice to have it while waiting for the Pope and um, I don't regret it, but definitely do not spend eight Euros or more on a Tim umbrella.

Rebecca

Good advice.

Aimee

I feel like there's so much more I could say I didn't even discuss the shopping in Rome, which was fantastic. the street markets, are great and

Rebecca

You were there at Christmas time. Were there Christmas markets?

Aimee

not that we found.

Rebecca

Okay.

Aimee

Um. They have a flea market every Sunday in the really popular neighborhood that starts with tea that I don't remember, vete or something like that. Um, and that was fantastic. Great antiques, wonderful I 30 euro cashmere sweaters, like really wonderful things. I think that's sort of why I want to go back to Rome is because

Rebecca

I have a question now. First of all, did you buy one of the cashmere sweaters?

Aimee

I bought five

Rebecca

Okay, cool. follow up question. So you're at an outdoor market, right? It's sort of like gonna be sweaters on a rack, right? Or in

Aimee

no piles of sweaters on the table. Pick through them.

Rebecca

Were there mirrors? Did you feel free to try them on? I always feel so awkward at these outdoor markets. Where these, all this clothing, but I'm like, women's bodies don't work with a number. What, what, so what did you do? What did you do?

Aimee

So there was a mirror that the vendor had, and so, you had to get his attention. I tried them on over what I was wearing or held them up to see. Not all of them were for me. Some of them were gifts, but you know, you pay a hundred to$200 for a cashmere sweater in the states. For 30 euros. I'm gonna like, I'm gonna wing it and see, and if 30 euros is. Too much and you're crafty. There is a 10 euro cashmere sweater table, but that cashmere is damaged in some way. There's holes in it, you know, it's torn at the seams. Whatever. Um, for people who have the time and the skillset to do some repairs or who wanna take it, somebody for repairs, you can get 10 euro cashmere sweaters. Who cares if it fits or not?

Rebecca

Okay, so I see how you approached it in this situation, but you know, there's skirts and there's pants, and there's shoes for sale at these markets, and I don't, I don't get it. I've been living in Europe for two years and I still have not cracked the code on

Aimee

Ah,

Rebecca

am I allowed to? Just do, I just have to hope that the pants fit. There's

Aimee

no, you, you wear something, you wear something like leggings and you try'em on. You just pull'em up over your leggings. If they fit over your leggings, they're gonna fit without the leggings.

Rebecca

I've never seen anybody doing that here in France. I don't know how it's working.

Aimee

maybe you get to be the first,

Rebecca

Yeah.'cause we know I love being the first at.

Aimee

you could also ask, you could ask what the, like ask some of your French friends, you actually have French friends. You can ask them this. You can even ask them in English.

Rebecca

Yeah, that opens up a whole bunch of questions and curiosities in my head. And, and the thing is, I only have three more months to crack the code of things here in, in Paris, and then

Aimee

But you have who knows how long in France

Rebecca

Oh, that's, that's true. Yeah.

Aimee

and so chances are what works for Paris will work for other areas of France.

Rebecca

All right. I better start collecting my questions and asking my French friends.

Aimee

Yes, because you're gonna have to make a whole new set of French friends here shortly.

Rebecca

I know I do have to say that while, while I'm so excited about moving to Menton, I am really laughing at the fact that I feel like I've just gotten my feet underneath of me, and now I am voluntarily again pulling the rug out from underneath my own feet.

Aimee

Yeah. Shane and I

Rebecca

level of masochism to this.

Aimee

Yeah, Shane and I were talking about that last week, how we finally feel like really settled and into the groove of European life and now here we go.

Rebecca

Yeah. At least I'm staying in France and still

Aimee

I know.

Rebecca

the Europe thing.

Aimee

Yeah.

Rebecca

Yeah, so back to Rome, back to happy places.

Aimee

Back to happy places.

Rebecca

real quick question about logistics. Did you fly? Did you train? How did you travel?

Aimee

We did fly and it's a two hour flight. Am I remembering that correctly? I believe it's a two hour flight from Barcelona. Um, so we flew and then we took the train from the airport in Rome into the city. Very easy, very efficient, very affordable. Um. It's fantastic. Dropped us off most, we mostly walked in in Rome. We took the bus, which was also super easy. Just pay with your phone, your credit card on your phone. Just like everywhere in Europe, you just use your phone to pay for things so handy.

Rebecca

France, like in London, the trains work the same way. Amsterdam, same way. You can just pay with a swipe of your credit card. In France, they still make you use the Navigo system.

Aimee

Really,

Rebecca

Yeah, which

Aimee

but. you can put the Navigo on your phone, right?

Rebecca

Yes, but you're still loading this pass, right? Yeah. And it's, yeah, it's, it's, and whereas with, with, um, the systems that use your credit card, you can use your phone to pay or a credit card to pay, which means that if your phone dies, you can still pay.

Aimee

right.

Rebecca

I'm, I'm quite surprised that France is still using what I now consider an antiquated system on that.

Aimee

I'm sure, I'm sure it's some kind of like backdoor agreement deal thing as to why they're still doing that, or some contract they got into like a 50 year contract that they can't get out of.

Rebecca

Exactly, but okay, so you guys, you took the, you took a flight to get there. You took the train to get into Rome itself, and then you mostly walked, but you also took the bus. Any other, just what made it easy or things that you would recommend to somebody who was hopping over there? I.

Aimee

if you are comfortable in a taxi, the taxi to the airport is 55 Euro from the center of Rome. We took a taxi from our Airbnb to the Vatican the morning of, because the buses weren't running the way that they said they were supposed to.

Rebecca

I mean, that's a very Italian thing.

Aimee

Yeah, and it was, it was Christmas day, so we weren't even, you know, we weren't even sure the buses were gonna run at all. And, um. So we did take a taxi and that was only 12 euro. I was expecting holiday prices. I was expecting to shell out like 25, 30 euro to get to the Vatican. It was only 12. However, when we left the Vatican, we were trying to get back then it was 44. And I was like, yeah, yeah. So I was like, no, no thank you. And he is like, oh, I give you a special deal. 40. And it was like, no, no, it was only 12 to get here. I'm not paying 40 to go back. We'll walk. Thank you. Um, Yeah. Just let somebody else shell out that money who is not able to walk because they will get more value from that ride than we would.

Rebecca

Yeah.

Aimee

But yeah, Rome was fantastic. Totally would go back.

Rebecca

My, my final question would be any musts on food? And I wanna start with one that has nothing to do with Christmas time, but if somebody is there in summer, lemon gelato will save your life because it is hot like a furnace, and that cools you from the inside out. So that's my summer food tip in Rome. What would be your winter food tip?

Aimee

I think the thing that I enjoyed the most, which is not gluten-free, by the way, is the. And Matoso is a brioche pastry with an orange infusion, orange essence in it that is cut in half, split open and then filled. And when I mean filled, I mean, know, imagine a hot dog bun opened up, but it's much smaller. It's like half of that size or smaller. And then imagine that, you know, crevice where, where. It's been split. Is filled with a cup, maybe? Yeah. A cup of whipped cream. Whipped heavy cream. Lightly sweetened. Perfectly sweetened, not overly sweet. It's wonderful. They sell. They sell these in the bakeries. It is a Roman pastry. It's not Italian. It's very specific to Rome and the cream, the brioche, the orange. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Very, very well balanced. For as rich of a pastry as it is, it doesn't feel like. It doesn't feel like what you, what it sounds like it would feel like. Now mind you, I only ate it half at a time. I didn't eat the whole thing at once, but I wanted to. I just didn't because that felt irresponsible. So I broke it into two pieces, but it was, it wasn't heavy at all. And it means, I love this. So the story about the Matoso is, is it. It reportedly is something that husbands, or that, that men would make for, for, women that they wanted to marry. Like it was like a courtship kind of thing or something that husbands make for their wives. It's called basically, uh, fat Husband is what it, what it means because, um, Marito is, uh, Mari Marito. Yeah. Marito is, um. Like spouse is like husband, and then Ozo is like, you know, big. So it's like big husband. So I thought it was just too funny.

Rebecca

I love it.

Aimee

Yeah. Yeah. And that's,

Rebecca

you said Marito.

Aimee

yeah, Marito, and it was really easy for me to memorize that word. Word because in Spanish is husband, right? Or partner Marito. Um. And, and that, you know, the similarities between Spanish and Italian were noticeable for me on this. And also how closely Italian and Kalan are what tho those, those similarity in those two languages, I really now understood like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Kalon really is more like Italian than Spanish. Um, yeah.

Rebecca

Well, I will bring a fun fact to the table as we close this episode. Um, I learned that Portuguese is actually the closest living language to, um, everyday Roman as it as currently exists. Yeah, it was just like workman, like plebeian Roman is what is Portuguese? Is how I was now told this to be true. Of course. Fact, check me.'cause I haven't fact checked my sources yet, but I thought that was really, really interesting.

Aimee

Wow.

Rebecca

yeah. Now we understand when they say romance languages, it's not just something on paper, there is a life, there is a story and a thread behind all of these languages and they are one family.

Aimee

They very much are, and it's, it's really fun to be able to, to have that experience of it, of noticing, when, when you feel. Comfortable with at least hearing, if not understanding and speaking, a romance language, then hopping around other areas and noticing those similarities and how many words you can just understand by looking at them because they share a close enough root that you're like, oh, this must mean this. And you know, 90% of the time you're right.

Rebecca

And I think we should finish by celebrating the fact that you did have that 15 minute conversation in Spanish, just like I did with my French talking to that Portuguese lady. It is such a boost to the language self-esteem, and it deserves a moment of huge applause. So, yay, Amy.

Aimee

Thank you.

Rebecca

Is there anything you wanna leave our listeners with?

Aimee

Um, Roma's fantastic. I probably wouldn't go in this summer, but, but if that's the only time you can get over, you should still get over at least, at least spend three or four days in Rome as part of an overall Italian tour, you know, kind of Italian vacation if, um, if you're not, uh, going to spend the whole time there. Yeah, Rome is incredible. If you like history and if you like shopping, Rome is incredible.

Rebecca

And with that, dear friends.

Aimee

Aste Lugo.

Speaker 2

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Banla. If you did, the best thing you can do is share it with another person, brave enough to move abroad. See you next time.