Of course the main reason for being there, apart from learning, was to soak up the atmosphere of the real Rome. I was no tourist, oh no! I had my own front door key and weekly travel pass, and I was determined to behave as if I was really living there. Which, for two short weeks, I was.
It was very pleasant to regress into student life. The flat I was staying at involved four fellow students as flatmates: 20 year old Marie from Belgium (blonde, beautiful and strangely hippyish, with a rampant Prison Break obsession. Smoked a lot); 23 year old Bernadette from Budapest (fun, friendly and also smoked a lot); Maureen, a 23 year old from Switzerland (very anal. It’s the first time in about 15 years that I’ve encountered storage cupboards and a fridge with people’s names stuck to their foodstuffs. Smoked a great deal), and Martin, a 20 year old from Barcelona who seemed to spend 3/4 of his time asleep and the other 1/4 smoking. I think you can probably guess that I started smoking again, partly to be sociable but also because it was just easier to actually control the intake of nicotine rather than just coming through the front door and breathing in.
I also thoroughly enjoyed doing a regular supermarket sweep of the local grocery store, buying various essentials such as cubed pancetta, grated Parmesan, and, of course, my favourite product, Wine In A Box (TM). WIAB cost between 97c and €1.50 and provided fantastic value for money. As well as being easier to drink than Ribena, it actually tasted a bit like Ribena, so there’s two wins right there.
