THE APARTMENT (la appartamento) The apartment I am living in is in the Quirinal area of Rome, which means it is near the President's Palace, Quirinale, and is pretty much dead center in the city. Equally nearby are the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Also very nearby are the Trevi Fountain, Termini Station (the train station) and Quattro Fontane (the corner with the four fountains). Everything else in the city is within easy walking distance from me, with only Trastevere and Vatican City really proving to be the longer walks. (Trastevere is the old Jewish quarter which makes it the cool hangout for young people [as the guide book says] and Vatican City is, of course, where they park the Pope-mobile, among other things.) I have this sublet from August 20 to December 20. Here's what it looks like: living room bedroom guest room garden kaizar in the kitchen As you can see, it really isn't that exciting - but it is larger than I expected and totally works. The garden is actually quite pretty in the day, as are the doors that open out to it. However since it is an open garden with some lower walls, I cannot let the cats out there unsupervised. If I did I'd be adding to the already abundant stray cat population of Rome - and my kitties certainly wouldn't know what to do with all those cats speaking Italian to them! There is a nice open gate from the living room to the garden and I'd like to leave that open (especially since it's pretty warm and the air can get stale in the nights here) but the spaces between the bars are just big enough for the kitties to step through. Today I tried to solve that problem by wrapping rows and rows of duct tape around the bars, but it took Mao all of 3 minutes to push them apart and slide his furry butt outside unsupervised. So, until I come up with a better idea, the gate and doors stay closed unless I am sitting right nearby to monitor the comings and goings of the furry ones. Want to know more? Well, I have television with cable, but all the channels are completely in Italian. MTV shows English language videos quite often, but otherwise is also completely in Italian. I have no BBC or CNN which means I have no idea what's going in the world unless someone calls me or unless I get online and check the headlines. As I said in a recent email, I heard I can listen to the radio to get news from Vatican Radio, but I fear that if my interpretation of life for the next 4 months only comes from Vatican Radio and Italian MTV, I could end up quite confused! I am also supposed to have DSL Internet access here, but I haven't been able to get that to work. The installation CD left for me is for Windows only and I'm a devoted Mac girl. The help guides and phone number for support are all in Italian. Plus I have no account name, number or anything else to refer to. I tried to download the drivers for the modem but they have been of no help. Granted, the little green lights go on when I plug into the network from here, but nothing actually works, so I've been sort of screwed Internet-wise since I arrived. Fortunately I signed up for free Internet access on Jumpy, the free Italian Internet provider. I just have to pay for phone charges apparently - which is better, by far, than walking up to the EasyInternetCafe on a daily basis. So now I am sort of online (as you can see!!) Otherwise, the bathroom is quite small and the shower is just barely a stall. It has no built in walls, just the corner and then the other corner is made up of a shower curtain, so it's sort of strange to use. I need to get a shower caddy for it because as it stands now I have all my shower goodies on the back of the toilet and I end up dripping everywhere when I go to reach for them. Unfortunately I cannot figure out where one buys a shower caddy in Rome. I also can't figure out where one buys a hair dryer which means after my showers I usually wander the apartment for an hour letting my hair dry before doing it up enough to go out in public. Good thing I'm unemployed here, right? One last thing that rules about the apartment: every single room has skylights! That means that despite being on a ground level apartment, I have a lot of natural light in here during the days. Combined with the white walls and white tile floors, the place is really nice to be in during the day, which is why I am planning to stay in during the afternoons and try to write from here. The down side is that old Roman apartments have thin walls and so I can hear all sorts of noises from the neighboring apartments. That makes it rather hard to sleep, especially as I am getting used to being here and all. The first night the kitties and I all woke up suddenly at 5:30am to the sounds of a vicious cat brawl outside! Scary! << back to where it all began... Content & Photos © 2004 Laura Laytham, laura@girlsaresmarter.com.