I spent my last night in Rome dining on caviar and private label champagne with some Italians and some Russians I’d only known for a few hours. Interesting things happen when you trust people. Sometimes you lose a few hundred bucks to a con artist, sometimes you end up with a bunch of strangers in a luxurious apartment, filled wall to wall and floor to ceiling with artwork and with a incredible top floor view of the Santa Maria Maggiore church.
My last day in Rome went well from the beginning. I woke up early, headed out to visit the catacombs of St. Sebastian (no mean feat, considering that it involved a metro ride and a bus ride on a limited service religious holiday and I’ve only been studying Italian for a week). The catacombs were fascinating, and I spent the hour afterwards wandering along the Appian way – a gorgeous, tree-lined cobblestone path that millennia ago was the main thoroughfare in and out of Rome. Following that, I wandered around the Castel San Angelo, which had a special May 1 entrance fee of only 1 euro.
That evening, I found myself outside the Santa Maria Maggiore church, waiting for a restaurant to open up. Turned out the guy next to me was also waiting around to meet a friend visiting from Russia. We chatted, him in broken English, me in broken Italian, until he invited me out to dinner with them that night. A few minutes later, a different friend of his showed up and we all went back for drinks. Going back to the apartment of someone I’d only known for 30 minutes – that could only end well, right?
The apartment was amazing. Every square inch of wall was covered with artwork, as well as most of the tables and shelves. I learned more about art in the half hour tour of his house than I did during the rest of my trip.
Eventually the Russian friend showed up with his new wife and the five of us – an Italian with no English, an American with little Italian, an Italian with little English, a Russian with great English, and a Russian with little English – settled down for dinner. The planned restaurant had closed, so my new friend went through his fridge to see what he had on hand.
And so we ended up beginning with caviar and champagne from a private vineyard, followed by pizza and homemade pasta matriciana. The pasta was amazing – I ended up so full I could barely get down any of the main course of fresh baby squid.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Wow sounds like you had an amazing day. My question is how can you trust and leave with someone you only met for 30mins? What if they were some kidnapper or psycho? That’s good that you’re able to trust others but for me I don’t think I could ever do that. Hope you continue to have a good time!