Amor romA

I had the most amazing time in Rome. Laura, Abe, and I got up really early Friday morning and took the 7:40 train from Florence and arrived in Rome at around 9:40. From the train we took the subway to the kosher bed and breakfast we were staying at. I think that graffitti may be legal here because it's literally everywhere including all over the outside of the subway cars (I'm not sure how they managed that) but it gave it a really cool look, much different from home. The bed and breakfast was in an apartment building and it may have only had three rooms, but it was really nice and comfortable. After we settled down we went down the block to the kosher bakery and had lunch and then walked around the area for a little and found the two shuls near by. From there we took the metro again down to the Vatican. We went to the museum there and saw a lot of Catholic artifacts we didn't really understand and saw the Sistine Chapel which was stunning. Photography wasn't allowed but I managed to take a couple before a guard came over and yelled at us, I'll post it on facebook. After the Vatican we went back to the bed and breakfast to get ready for Shabbos. Laura arranged for us to eat with a Bnei Akiva shabbaton meant to encourage people to study in Israel for the year. (There are five years of high school here so the people were 18 and 19). After shul we had an ice breaker where we had to say our name, age, favorite ice cream, and favorite movie. Some people said it in Italian and some in Hebrew. Since I'm terrible at both I just copied the girl before me only I changed the name and said my favorite movie is Slumdog Millionaire and they all stared at me like I was crazy so I changed it to Twilight (which I've never seen) to fit in. Three of the girls were Roman and they were the nicest and friendliest of the bunch. Then there were two Roman boys, and I think four Milan girls and a Milan boy who was also really sweet. One of the Milan girls actually went to Seneca and said she knows Ali Bernstein which was cool. After, there was a session where the Rabbi (who spoke only in Hebrew and the shaliach's wife translated into Italian) spread out different pictures of Israel and we all had to choose one and say how it depicts our personal connection to Israel. Laura quickly jumped in and grabbed a photo of the gay pride parade before realizing what it was. I said my piece in English expecting the girl who went to Seneca to translate, but apparently they all learned English in school and understood what I was saying. After the session we had a huge delicious dinner and then the Italians had another session and we left. At one point during dinner one of the boys tapped me and looked me square in the eye and asked "you sleep with him?" and pointed to the other boy sitting next to him. I looked over and both of them had very curious but very serious looks on their faces. I awkwardly giggled and asked him to repeat what he said, but this time I realized he wasn't pointing at his friend, he was pointing across the table at Laura and he just had his genders confused. The next morning we slept in and went late to shul and caught the end of shacharit. Then there was an enormous kiddush. After we hung out with the Rome girls for a while than had a Huge lunch. After, we went back to the room for an hour and a half before Maariv, but when we came back to shul the Rabbi was still giving a long dvar torah so we just went back to the Rome girl's hotel with Emanuel (the Milan boy) for like twenty minutes. We went back to shul again for havdalah and then left. They all had another session so we didn't really get to say goodbye or get any of their contact info so that was pretty sad. Saturday night we went to the Jewish Ghetto which was so beautiful and had an absolutely incredible dinner and then walked around for a bit. The ghetto is basically a a bunch of high end kosher restaurants and then all of the sudden in the middle there are a bunch of ruins and a commemorative plaque saying that this was the spot that the Roman Jews were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz. Sunday Morning we got up really early and took a guided tour of the Colosseum which was beautiful, then we walked around the Roman Forum which just looked like ruins, we didnt really know what we were looking at most of the time but we did recognize the Arch of Titus. LBK brought a guidebook which was pretty much useless so we had to fend for ourselves. After, we walked back to the ghetto for lunch and got Jumbo burgers, fries, and a coke and i swear it was heavenly. From lunch we walked to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and climbed the Spanish Steps.

The craziest thing about Rome is how one second you're walking through this crowded urban city and the next thing you know you're standing in front of the Colosseum or something thousands of years old that you've only seen before in textbooks. It was really such a meaningful amazing trip, I hope to make it back there before I leave.