The fourth week of my trip was a very unusual one. Classes at the beginning of the week went as planned, and we scheduled a day trip to Naples for that Saturday to have a taste of the best pizza in the world. We were all hearing rumors about flurries that weekend, but since most of us are from New England, we weren't too worried. We realized on Thursday afternoon that we were in for a real treat. Now, usually we don't have classes on Fridays, but two Fridays during the semester we have "make up days" to make up for Easter Monday and an Italian holiday in April. Seems a little ridiculous to me, but whatever. This Friday, February 3rd, was to be one of those make up days. It was early evening on Thursday when we got the email...SNOW DAY! The email carefully outlined dozens of precautions and suggestions for how to brave the storm. It warned us to not leave the apartment unless we had to, and stock up on food and warm clothes. What we soon learned is that it hadn't snowed in Rome for 26 years...26 YEARS. One of the staff members was a 3rd grader when she last saw snow. At this point, we were nervous--no class, precautionary emails...would we survive?!
Friday morning we woke up and sure enough, it was snowing. Large, wet flakes filled the air. We decided to do a little exploring and get a nice lunch. By the time we got into the city, the snow had pretty much turned into a light rain. We got burgers for lunch (missed them) and walked around for awhile longer. I learned quickly that my "waterproof" boots were not as waterproof as I thought, and the snow soaked through 3 pairs of socks. The total accumulation was approximately 1 inch, and the city COMPLETELY shut down. Buses, metro, taxi, etc, all stopped running. We had to walk about a mile to find a metro stop that was actually open. After that excursion, it was definitely good to get back to the apartment.
On Saturday we woke up early only to find that our Naples trip had been cancelled. We were disappointed, but it gave us more time to explore in the snow. It had stopped falling by then, and the sun was out, so we tried exploring again. The night before, in preparation for the Naples trip, I spent 45 minutes blow-drying my boots, so they were good to go. Shannon and I wanted to see the Trevi Fountain covered in snow, but somehow we never made it there. We took a wrong turn and ended up at Maria Maggiore Basilica, which is one of the four Papal basilicas (St. Peter's, St Paul's and John Lateran are the other three). The church was gorgeous and the reflection on the snow made it pretty too. We continued to walk and found ourselves at the Spanish Steps, so we climbed those and enjoyed a snowy view. It was so cool to just wander the streets of Rome because you stumble upon so many awesome things. After another long day of exploring, we headed home and got ready for the night. Saturday night, we took a cab out because none of the public transportation was working. My roommate Hannah asked the cab driver how much experience he had driving in snow, to which he replied "I have been driving in snow since 3PM today"...really made us feel safe.
Sunday was awesome because we got to SLEEP IN. Sleep is very hard to come by while studying abroad, so I usually take full advantage of these opportunities. This particular day I got out of bed at 4PM (woops). BUT, I was glad that I got so much sleep because that night was the Superbowl! Also, that afternoon we had gotten an email announcing that we would have ANOTHER snow day on Monday!! Due to the time difference, the Superbowl in Italy started at 12:30, so the fact that I didn't have to drag myself out of bed for a 10am class the next day was sweet! I got to Scholar's, the Irish Pub, around 9:30, figuring we would get a table and could get some nachos in preparation for the game. We were wrong. The bar was PACKED. I saw my friend from Sundae School, Meg, at Scholar's, and she had arrived at 6PM for her table. Aggressive. Anyway, I snagged a seat at the bar and got ready for what became a very disappointing night. Patriots fans were seriously outnumbered, but I did meet a couple of boys from Marblehead who I'm pretty sure were crying at the end of the night. We got home around 4, and slept in again on Monday. Monday afternoon I went to the grocery store, and the place was empty. They did not have a single carton of eggs or loaf of bread. The Italians really took this one inch of snow thing seriously. Definitely different than what I am used to back home.
Orange tree in the backyard!
Not as good as Five Guys, but pretty darn close
Santa Maria Maggiore
Piazza del Popolo
Snowy view from the Spanish Steps
That's it for now, but I will be updating all week in an attempt to catch up before spring break, which starts on Thursday. Thanks for reading and keep checking back!!
Love,
Julie
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