September 10, 2024

Day 8: Faith and Safety & Faith and Power

September 6, 2024

Bomboloni: Claire and Freya

Claire: I woke up this morning to the bright Rome sun, a clear sky after a few days of threatening rain clouds. I chose a long skirt and tank top with a scarf to cover my shoulders in case I chose to enter the St. Peter’s Basilica, a free-to-access church in Vatican city! Our first time visiting the city state within Italy this entire trip! After grumbling out of bed after staying up a little too late chatting and giggling with some new girl friends, a habit I sense I won’t kick easily through college, I take a quick shower and get ready. I knock on Emi’s door and we walk to a corner store that serves various quick sit and to go items, we both order a chocolate croissant and a cappuccino. Emi and I are paying at the same time with two adjacent cashiers, when I overhear as Emi pieces together the sentence “un cornetto e un cappuccino”, a simple order, but a big step, since usually the go to strategy has been to point, or to hope the cashier speaks English, this method has a pretty high success rate in the city. Before I could even try to replicate the sentence she had just said, I just look over at Emi and say to the cashier “…the same thing as her.” She giggles and has the receipt ready for me in an instant. I’ll get them next time! We meet up with Julianna and Shawn and Emi tells them about her success in speaking Italian, Shawn tells us to wait until it seeps into our psyche enough to have dreams in Italian. I hope that my brain is soaking up the Italian around me enough to form these dreams. The rest of the group trickles down to the meeting spot in front of the dorm. Then we are off! First stop, Trionfale Market, an intricate market with all you can imagine. Butcher shops, quick eats, produce and even a corner store where a man had his grocery items for sale in a very creative way- by stacking as much as possible on top of itself as possible, and having you order, and then he would look around and search for the item in one of his skyscrapers of snacks, bottles of water and sodas, books, and practically everything you’d find at a dollar tree in the US. The memories of Pike Place and my time with my grandmother and late grandfather, who had a boat right on Belle Harbor in Seattle, set in around the fish market corner. Although, the Romans were much less extravagant with their performance in presenting this fish, unlike Seattle which produced a show with the fish by throwing it from person to person, or, in one trip with a friend and her family when I was in middle school, a fisherman shook a dead fish while I was leaning over to look at it, making me think momentarily it was a zombie fish! Shawn enlightened us on the socialization this market creates, through the cultural practice of daily shopping and really engaging and getting to know the owners of the stores you are shopping from, a foreign concept to me, as I don’t often get to know anyone past a small talk conversation, even at the coffee shop I frequent fairly often in my hometown. The transition to University of Washington will create more opportunities to foster community in this way. Although there is lots of power, safety and faith in having a community, a more literal representation of power and safety is the corridor the Pope has used for many centuries to escape attack at the Vatican, where we visited the famous St. Peter’s Basilica. The path they escaped threat on led to the Castel Sant Angelo. This Castel was one of my favorite buildings so far this trip, it was used as a fortress and felt exactly like the castles I read about as a child. It screamed power and safety to me, the drawbridge, the view of Rome, and the fact that it stood as the tallest building at one point, all alluded to the strength held by the Pope and Roman Catholic people as a whole. The Castle was also used as a prison during the 15th century, and the inmates recalled fighting off enemy forces from the secret path between St. Peter’s Basilica and Castel Sant Angelo. I spoke of these facts in my presentation to the group, which we chose to do on a lower floor due to the high temperatures & humidity. To end the morning excursions, and separating from Shawn and Julianna, Emi, Katie and I chose to get food and go shopping in the novelty gift shops around the Vatican, and saw many silly trinkets and gag gifts, as well as some delightful jewelry pieces and rosary’s.

After exiting the basilica we decided to head towards lunch. Salina and I decided to go to a small sandwich shop slightly outside the Vatican, when we walked into the shop we could smell the delicious sandwiches which were being made and could hear Italian voices talking quickly. There were two nuns sat down across from us in the shop sipping orange juice and talking in quiet voices. Leaving the restaurant we began our journey back. Google maps directed us to a close by bus stop which we waited at for a good chunk of time until it became clear we had missed the bus. Tired and hot we resigned ourselves to a long walk home. In the middle of the walk we walked by a gelato shop and peering in we saw the fanciest gelato we had laid eyes upon. The gelato was getting churned in front of us and we could see the process of it being made. I ordered a strawberry and lemon cone with chocolate whipped cream on top. It was delicious.

We felt rejuvenated and continued our walk to the dorms. After a long day we went back to the dorms and rested. When dinner time came around I found myself craving a taste of home and me, Aly, and Salina decided to go to McDonald’s for a cheap and delicious dinner. The Mcdonald’s we went to had two floors and the inside was a bright yellow. All of us ordered happy meals with chicken McNuggets. The McNuggets hit the spot and we went back to the dorm very satisfied. Overall we had a long but fun day and I am excited for the rest of the trip!