British journalist, H.V Morton stated, Rome is both "exhilirating and oppressive for the traveler." I could not agree more with his statement. Before coming to Rome I had many opinions and expectations for the city. Rome has exceeded some of my expectations yet made me feel uncomfortable or "oppressed" in many ways too. Lets see, Rome as a whole has been very beneficial to me. From all of the ancient history such as a Prostestant Cemetery , learning a different language, and beautiful fashion such as Gucci and Burberry everywhere I look has made me less ignorant of the city as a whole.
Because Rome is an "open-air" museum almost everything around is an artifact or treasure of some kind of history. Whether it be the 17th, 18th or 19th century Rome is filled with "open air" museums. What us Americans' think of as a museum is not how most museums are at all here. Statues, monuments and buildings that are ancient are all around the city, not confined in one building with four walls and a roof.
The Protestant Cemetary is a perfect example of an "open-air" museum. Because it was the first cemetary actually inside of Rome that accepted non-catholics it is a huge deal. Looking around and seeing graves such as John Keats dated back to the early 18th century was a real eye-opener of how ancient Rome really is. Even though it may sound weird, roaming old cemetaries has always brought me excitment and grief in the same way. Being excited because I am visiting so many people whom I did not even know and thinking how beautiful the place is. However, grieving because of death in general. Both exhiliration and oppression could have described the feelings I got from the cemetary.
Hearing Italian everywhere has made me a lot more interested in the Italian culture. Once again, I now realize that as a world traveler, it is nessecary to learn the language of other cultures in order to respect them and gain more knowledge of the culture as a whole. Once again, I feel both oppresive and exhilirating feelings of learning Italian. I get frusterated that learning Italian does not come easy to me. However, I realize that with practice and hard-work I can master some of the basic means of communication. The frusteration captures my emotion most of the time but learning another language can only make me a well-rounded educated traveler.
The only way i can describe the fashion in Rome is unbelievable. It is wonderful that I can wear my clothes from home and feel 100% comfortable. At home I could be considered a "hippie" because I love big comfy clothes with huge bracelets and necklaces and designer sunglasses. However my funky style goes right along with the culture here. On the other hand, Rome is kind of depressing in the fashion sense. It is hard to walk down streets with stores such as Gucci, Burberry, Prada and Chanel without being able to buy anything. In reality, it is evident as a 19 year old girl I shouldn't be able to buy such expensive things. Well at least without the help of my parents wealth. I do not think I would complain if I could though. Once again, fashion is definitly an "open air" museum. Clothing on any person can be considered a personal fashion. Whether it is in or out of style it is still fashion maybe just not fashionable :).
Being in Rome brings all sorts of mixed feelings to me personally. I feel like there are ups and downs to every situation. However, I try to focus more on the ups than the downs. Sure, there have been things such as expensive fashion, feeling bad at walking through a cemetary of noone I know and struggling with learning Italian can only make me a stronger person in the end. After all life is full of ups and downs....what is there to really complain about when I spend every day in such a beautiful ancient city?
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