Rome sweet Rome (Rerun: 22 Dec. 2005)

Rome sweet Rome (Rerun from 22 Dec. 2005) Pretext: During Christmas break last year. I was back in the States.

Hmm, my time before the break. Where do I begin? There's just so much to tell. As I sit here and listen to Italian Radio via Internet, I am missing the streets of Rome already, the sites, the sounds, the people. It is a city full of a certain lovable busyness that is difficult to display with words. Ever-so important Italian businessmen vested in tightly fit pin-striped suites fill the streets every morning, hair slicked-back, sporting the latest in fashionable, pointy footwear, which I maintian must surely be stolen from Santa's Elves, painted black, and given the fiting Italian stamp of phony authenticity (Warning! Do not think about that phrase before driving or the use of heavy machinery, may cause confusion and loss of limbs).

Everyday, day and night, both men and women of all persuasions are seen barrelling through the narrow streets on their vespas, which sound more to me like landscaping equipment than transportation. But, nevertheless, everything is always at least a little in retardo from the buses and trains to appointments and even the arrival of the check at restaraunts. It seems to me that things would actually get done and remain somewhat organized were it not for the 13 coffee/smoke breaks that they take every, oh let's say hour or so, and due to these countless pause throughout the day, I think everyone must come back to their work anew having forgotten where they left off nearly having to start over, hence the disorginization.

The efficiency and work ethic are mindblowing. They call Rome the Eternal City, which is a beautiful and fiting name, but I am here to tell you that I had no idea of what an eternity actually was until I tried to get some matters of business done in this city while in a hurry. Incredible! But not to fear, because here come the carabinieri, the local law enforcement, to set everyone straight with their rigur and discipline-led lives. I mean no one earns that military-style blue berets for nothng, right? Sadly not so, for said carabinieri, whose social sentament I would compare to the ROTC crowd in high school, are among the most lazy of the bunch, taking just as many breaks during the day and even passing their breaks and naps in marked cars as part of the day's work. Alas, like the others, they are seemingly too busy doing nothing all day to actually being doing anything useful.

This would all be overwealmingly sad for someone like myself to discover were it not for the other aspect of Italian daily life that breads the phrase dolce di fare niente, the sweetness of doing nothing. Instead of days spent at work at all times in both body, mind, and spirit in a somewhat mechanical way such as we see many times in the States, it is not a rare thing to walk down the street on any given day and peak into a shop or restaraunt only to see the workers, their customers, and managers conversing in a playful way with one another. We in the States have lost sight I think of eachother, we are so caught up in doing and making that we forget about people as they are, not slaves to some worklord, but as beautiful, life-giving creatures. We forget many times to experience the others around us, hence to experience life. Don't get me wrong, much of life in the US is dynamic and progressive. This is, however, my humble observance of two modes of approaching life everyday. I can only hope that the Italian way rubs off on me. As for Rome itself, it is a city that does sleep and even sleeps a little during the day, a city that sports cigarette-smoking, drunken priests and prostitues present at mass, a city that accepts all those who wish to pass through and changes all those who do so. I love it. Every second.

(p.s. awwwe. Look how cute I was, trying to be witty).