When in Rome

Early Friday morning (7:30, way too early for a group of college kids) we all boarded two charter buses and headed off to the Ancient City! It was about a two hour drive from Orvieto including one stop. For as long as I can remember, I have heard how “Americanized” Europe is these days. Well, Orvieto is definitely not Americanized as the only American-type business we have here is Mail Boxes, Etc. But the first thing I noticed on the way to Rome was that Americanization was definitely way more prevalent in the cities. On the highway on the way, I saw several “On the Go” marts at gas stations and also a few McDonald’s. Once we got to Rome, I saw many more American-influenced industries such as Burger King. Another observation about Rome is that people do NOT know how to drive. This is true in Orvieto too, but in a busy city like Rome it is much more obvious. I witnessed a woman who was backing out of her parallel parking spot ram into the front of another vehicle not once, not twice, but three times. Rome is a beautiful city, it is crowded with tall apartment buildings with shops on the bottom, but it is still very cool and much different than any American city I have been to.

Our first stop in Rome was Cinecitta’ Studios. This is the major film studio in Rome (and Italy for that matter) and where big productions shoot in Italy. Gangs of New York, Cleopatra, La Dolce Vita, and Roman Holiday were shot there, just to name a few. Cinecitta’ covers 99 acres and has 25 sound stages, but we only saw part of that and I’m not entirely sure the rest exists as the studios sit smack dab in the middle of a busy area. Like many Hollywood studios, Cinecitta’ has a “college campus” feel and is a pretty place to walk around. We toured their back lots and also saw the outside of their main sound stage, Teatro 5. The studios overall look a lot different from Hollywood studios like Warner Bros. and Universal. They are a bit more worn down and unlike Hollywood studios that use the same streetscape (i.e., “New York Street” or “Midwest Street”), they build new sets for each production. The sets that they do preserve are for display and not for reuse. The New York set used for Gangs of New York still sits as it was used in the 1999 production, and the Cleopatra Egyptian set is still on display. The one exception is the “Ancient Rome” set that has been used for various productions over the years, most recently the HBO series Rome (Michelle was really excited about that).

Me in front of the Coliseum!

After Cinecitta’ our bus took us to The Coliseum/Roman Forum area where we had a break for lunch. A group of us found a nice little pizzeria where we were greeted by two exuberant, stereotypical Italians who were more or less pressuring us to eat at their restaurant. But since it advertised a “quick lunch” and looked relatively inexpensive, it seemed like a good place to go. Another thing you should know before I go on is that free water in restaurants, which is the norm in the US, is not custom in Italy. You have to order water and pay 1-2 euros for a bottle. At the restaurant in Rome, our waiter asked if we wanted anything to drink and all except me and Michelle passed (we were dying of thirst and didn’t care if we had to pay) after everyone else sadly refused a drink the waiter figured out what was going on and said, “Don’t worry, it’s free!” We were all very excited and enjoyed our first, and probably last, free drink of water in Italy.

Next up was a tour of the Roman Forum. This is where all the ruins from Ancient Rome exist and are on display. It was very cool to see and think about how long these structures have been around (thousands and thousands of years), but there’s really not much more I can say about it other than that it was cool and pretty. The classics professor that is teaching here in Orvieto gave the tour and he knew what every structure was and how it fit into Ancient Roman life. Our group somehow broke up halfway through and the part I was with got a tour by Claudio, who is an Italian somehow involved in our program. Claudio is very gruff and well, Italian but humorous in a subtle way. I think we got the cliff notes version of the Roman Forum tour but after walking around in the heat for six hours, I was very happy with that.

I was sad I didn’t get to go inside the Coliseum or see the Vatican or Trevi Fountain, but I will just have to go back someday to see the rest of Rome. The majority of our group stayed in Rome for the weekend to explore more (party), but I didn’t make those arrangements before leaving for Italy since I’m already spending a lot of (my parent’s) money. Plus the idea of doing extra traveling after the time we had getting here did not appeal to me at all. We headed back to Orvieto and I fell asleep as soon as our bus left Rome. Overall, it was a very fun day and I definitely want to go back and spend more time in Rome some day.