Tag: Living Abroad

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Corona Virus in Rome

People are reaching out to me multiple times a day concerned about me here in Italy. So I just need to say, I’m fine. It’s not anything like the media has been describing. Though it might become that way soon; that’s actually changing while I’m writing this, so I’ll tack that on the end.

Italy is doing a pretty damn good job, IMO. There is honestly no other country I would rather be living in during this.

Tuesday all of Italy entered a “Lockdown” — as multiple English language headlines called it. A misleading term to say the least. It implies we’re all quarantined, and in fact Colbert and others started calling it a nation-wide quarantine shortly after. This is not the case, though as I mentioned, a new law today might change that.

As of yesterday, we’re just supposed to stay in our “community” and be able to justify travel between regions. Work is a justification, for example. Additionally, some “common sense” rules. School closures have been extended. Clubs are closed. Businesses are to minimize crowds.

For a while here the virus has been a major topic of conversation. Not panicked, just everyone was very aware. Though we were also still saying goodbye with a kiss on each cheek at the end of those conversations.

Now everyone is actually making adjustments to their lives. But I have to say– it’s not that bad! These “inconveniences” are things I would put up with if they even saved one life. At this point all we can do is slow the spread; doing so will save lives.

Businesses minimizing crowds

This means people wait outside the grocery store so it’s not crowded inside. Quite the visual, but then you don’t wait at the cashier, so it’s not that bad. And appointment businesses are to stagger appointments to avoid crowds in waiting rooms.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I was at the dentist. I was the only one there (plus the dentist and hygienist). Normally there are a few people in the large waiting room. Tomorrow I had a chiropractor appointment at 9. He moved me to 10:30 for the new staggered schedule. Frankly, he is always running very behind so this is a positive for me, haha. I also have a consultation Friday; that one looks like it will move to Skype. I had my nails done Tuesday. Most people’s arms are not long enough to keep the recommended 2 meters apart. So they gave everyone a mask at the door and no one inside ever lowered or removed their mask.

Still imagining me locked in my apartment? We also went on a picnic Monday. We are not under quarantine. But I’ve still never been within 2 meters of any human outside my family without them wearing a mask (I can hardly wear a mask myself at the dentist).

School closures

The change that affects me most (by a mile) is the schools being closed. I now have two small children to entertain all day. And I have to feed them all their meals! Che palle! I miss the hours I could expect them to be under their teachers care and plan non-mom tasks. And I miss knowing they were eating healthy 4-course lunches that I didn’t have to cook. I miss how much easier they were to entertain at home when they hadn’t already been home all day (for days in a row).

Still, as my kids are 1 and 4, this just puts me on level with every American mom who is stuck with their little angels until they can go to kindergarten at age 5.

Corona virus in Italy

My husband, an ICU nurse, has been following every minute update for months. He’s normally not one to be particularly glued to his phone, but he is these days. As such, I’m about as informed as any non-virologist out there. He’ll tell me about new studies published the day before over breakfast. Then I see the same thing on Twitter that night. I. Am. Informed. If information is more that 24hrs old, don’t bother sending it to me, I’ve seen it.

A summary of the outbreak in Italy

In January, we had 3 cases. A couple from China on a bus tour and one of the passengers on the government flight evacuating Italian Nationals from China. Later an additional single case on a second evacuation flight. The evacuees are not interesting because they got it in China and were quarantined the second they set foot back in Italy.

The bus tour couple was cared for here in Rome. The rest of the bus was quarantined in an out-of-use hospital that was converted for them; no others got sick; they’re all home now. The couple are still recovering here but doing well.

Yes, it takes that long. If you think it would be better to get it now before the peak, you’re wrong. Get it now and you will still be sick at the peak.

Back to the history summary. We went a month with just that one couple. During that time anyone who even sneezed and had any connection to them (e.g. was in the same hotel, even a different floor) was tested. Anyone with cold symptoms and an Asian face was tested. Anyone with cold symptoms that could claim any connection to Asia was tested.

Then everything changed the weekend of February 22. In a day we went from 4 to 11 cases. By Monday, 124.

These were all in small towns in the north. One town at the center of the outbreak is Vo’ Euganeo, a small town of 3k people in Veneto near Venice. The other is Codogno in Lombardia near Milan. These new cases didn’t have any connection to China. In Vo’ Euganeo none of the 3k residents had any connection to China. It was obvious the virus had been circulating and was estimated to be the 3rd or so generation.

The government reacted quickly. Venice carnevale (a big deal, possibly the most famous carnevale celebration after Rio) was cancelled. Fat Tuesday was February 25, so we’re talking very short notice. Schools all over the north closed — including for my poor pregnant sister in-law with her not-one-to-sit-still-at-home toddler.

Experts continue to try to track infection for the sake of understanding this new virus. For example, in that little town of 3k people they tested every soul to understand it better (89 were positive, that number has stayed stable). But now the focus has shifted from following the chain to slowing the spread.

Since that carnevale weekend, things have basically been growing at the expected exponential rate. Anyone who is calls Italy a “failure” is not particularly informed. Here you can see a table of cases in Italy compared to Germany, offset by 8 days. The missing numbers for Germany since that table was made are: March 9: 1224, March 10: 1565, March 11: 1966. They are exactly following our numbers.

Source: https://twitter.com/henrikenderlein/status/1236748772455170049?s=19

Someone also made it a chart and included more countries. You can see every western country is basically doing the same.

Source article: https://www.ft.com/content/a26fbf7e-48f8-11ea-aeb3-955839e06441
Source image: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ES31or1UYAEY3Ih.jpg

Note, the growth is exponential while the lines are straight because the y-axis of that chart is on a logarithmic scale. That means it is increasing by a multiple (in this case 10) rather than a number. The bottom of the chart is 100, halfway is 1,000, the top is 10,000. If your rusty on logarithmic and exponential growth and how they graph, this video is a nice refresher. And even if you’re not rusty, it’s a lovely visualization that makes a satisfying watch.

https://kottke.org/20/03/exponential-growth-and-epidemics

Back to the summary of what has been happening in Italy.

For a while the outbreak kept itself largely to the north. And the situation sounds much more dire there. We had a few cases here in Rome. On March 4th the city announced that all schools would be closed starting March 5th until at least the 15th.

Then Tuesday (March 10th), the so-called “Lockdown” went into effect nation wide. It was partially leaked and there was some panicking Monday night from people who thought it was going to be an actual quarantine.

There have also been prison riots. I confess I have not been following those stories. I believe the first ones were protesting limits to visits. I assume now it’s the opposite, that the prisoners are afraid they are primed for an outbreak and won’t get access to care.

Wednesday (between me starting this and uploading it) a new law went into effect which is much closer to a nation-wide quarantine. We’re really supposed to stay home now — except for work, medical reasons, or to buy necessities. Businesses are closed except those selling said necessities: supermarkets, pharmacies, Tabacchi, and some others. And only one person from the household is supposed to do that shopping. There are various restrictions on cars designed to limit travel.

I just got my nails done in the nick of time! My chiropractor appointment was cancelled. We’re not supposed to go outside for non necessities. It’s not clear if airing out children qualifies. We’re going to keep bringing them outside once a day at least to the building courtyard or roof or linger for a bit on the way to their Nonni. Places where there isn’t another soul anywhere near.

For our family, I believe our biggest risk factor is the same as it was before: getting it from Daniele. At the start, about 10% of infected in Italy were healthcare workers. Now it’s 13%. Maybe that number is inflated because it’s more clear when they’ve been exposed and they are tested. But either way.

As for us infecting other people… The vast majority of people that the girls and I interact with are from school. For them, their classmates. For us, their teachers or the other parents for a coffee after drop off. So that’s stopped. I stoped going to my co-working space a little while back. I normally would see my chiropractor twice a month, my manicurist once a month, and most weeks some other appointment (dentist, electrician, etc) — that’s all on pause and (stiff neck aside) I won’t miss those. Daniele normally does the shopping and I mostly keep in touch with friends on Slack, WhatsApp, Skype, and Hangouts for years now. I don’t interact with a lot of people in my normal life, and these small changes have effectively made it 0 outside Daniele, the girls, and Daniele’s parents. The x-factor here is my in-laws who could more-or-less be considered part of our nuclear family. I believe they are being more careful now for the sake of the girls, but I don’t know everything they do.

These changes from yesterday are pretty “drastic”. But it’s still not that big a deal. It’s not that different from when we keep the kids home for a cold normally. Frankly, its easier than being snowed in after a blizzard (we have power, we can go to the store). And it’s much easier than the extended power outages and fuel shortages in NJ after Sandy (what I time for me to go home for a visit!).

The Italian health care system

Switching gears back to Italy. Italy has a very good health care system. I’ve been living here 10 years — through surgeries and baby deliveries and plenty of preventative care. I get better care here than I did back in California with my fancy Adobe health insurance that even paid for massages in full (if done at my chiropractor’s office).

When people say Italy has one of the best health care systems in the world, it’s actually true. The best jobs in Italy are government jobs. And the best position for a doctor (or nurse) is a contract with the public healthcare system. So by having the best doctors, the public system keeps from being a system for the poor. There is a parallel private system. We sometimes use it because it’s not that expensive and the experience is what I imagine celebrities get in the US. Some public hospital doctors keep a private office one day a week (my gynecologist does this). But if the richest man in Italy needed bypass surgery, he’s having it done at a hospital (every hospital is public even the Catholic ones).

The situation in Italy

I’m pretty aware of the situation in Rome because of Daniele. For what’s happening in the North, I only have the same news and doctor Facebook posts that everyone else does.

Rome is nothing like what the doctors are describing up North. Just like NJ is not like Seattle (yet). Every US news story that describes the situation “in Italy” based on the doctors up north are misrepresenting us, IMO.

How is it possible to be fine here and a “war” up there?

Supplies are owned by the regions. I’m in Lazio (central Italy), Tuscany is directly north of here (where Florence is). Lombardi (Milan) and Veneto (Venice) are way up North. So while we’re sharing… Rome’s not about to give them everything just like the rest of the US isn’t offering everything to Seattle.

Couldn’t we at least move them to our empty hospitals? Nope. The pneumonia you get from corona is serious enough that patients can not be moved 5hrs away.

The response in Rome

Here in Rome the plan is to dedicate entire hospitals as either corona hospitals or clean hospitals. The first corona dedicated hospital has already been completely evacuated and has about 100 corona virus patients. This is almost all of Lazio’s infected; a few can not be transported. The second corona hospital is currently in the process of completely evacuating the normal patients.

Daniele works in the ICU of Ospedale San Giovanni, which for now is dedicated clean. There is a plan for converting more clean hospitals as needed.

If you come to the San Giovanni ER as a potential corona patient, you are sent to a temporary structure that’s tented and all the staff are in full gear. There you will be screened (temperature, chest x-ray, etc) and probably tested. If you’re in critical condition, you’ll be treated in an isolated area.

For non critical patients, the tests can take a day to come back. If you are not in critical condition and you live alone, you’ll optionally be sent home on quarantine. They add your info to an app where you check in every day. You can stay home using the app while “healthy” even after testing positive. If that’s not practical for you, you get a bed in that temporary structure. If positive, you’ll go to a dedicated corona hospital.

If you come to San Giovanni with something like a broken leg, you are sent to the regular old ER. The staff here are still in full protective gear. You’re screened just the same. Assuming no fever or anything, you proceed through the process as normal (just getting you temperature taken more). If you need surgery, there will be more screening than normal, specifically a CT scan.

Staff outside the ER like Daniele, who works in a sub-department of the ICU for post-surgery patients, wear more protective hear than they used to (masks and goggles) but not the whole suit that the ER wears.

That’s where we are now.

However, exponential growth means things aren’t just changing quickly, the rate of change itself is increasing. Before February 22, our only cases were still just that one Chinese couple. Our schools closed March 5th. The first official nation-wide restrictions were put into law March 10. Then March 12 every non-essential business was closed.

There is nothing unique about Italy. There has been no particular failure of the government here. Granted, that’s cheeky of me to say when people have died. But I think there would have been riots if they had tried to close everything down sooner (or it would have just been ignored).

So to reiterate, we have actually had to make some drastic changes in the past few days. But other than getting less kid-free time, my life has not actually changed much.

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Rome in a Day, a Week, or a Lifetime

The Colosseum

Everyone should visit Italy at some point in their lives. As the capital, with all its sites and major airport, Rome is very likely going to be a part of that visit. Whether you can give the Eternal City just a few hour excursion from your cruise or (like in my case) several years, here is an idea of how to prioritize that time.

Rome in a Day

While it’s hard to give a major capital city justice in just a day, something is better than nothing. I imagine most day trippers are just trying to squeeze in another city between trains, flights, or they are on a cruise excursion. For such a short visit, your priority should be the Colosseum and the Vatican. If you have a night here as well, then there are a few others you might also try to see after hours.

The Colosseum and Roman Forum

Roman Forum
Roman Forum

The Colosseum and the Roman Forum are a joint ticket. If you want to enter both, it makes sense to go to the Roman Forum first because the line is always shorter. Here you buy the joint ticket, enjoy the Forum, and then exit near the Colosseum. The Colosseum itself always has a long line, but you have already bought your ticket, so you walk right past all the other people waiting to the turn-style and go right inside.

Inside the Colosseum, Rome
Inside the Colosseum, Rome

If you are rushed, don’t want to buy the ticket, or just are not very excited about Ancient Roman ruins, then you can enjoy half of the experience of visiting these sites from outside. You wont get to see the inside, but you will have “seen the Colosseum”. It is more stunning from the outside anyway. The Roman Forum is easy to see into from Via dei Fori Imperiali or from Capitoline Hill. You wont get to walk on the paving stones that Caesar once walked on, or see every aspect of the ruins, but you will see a lot of them.

If you can avoid it, don’t buy anything from the food trucks in this area. Their food is about the most expensive that you can find in all of Italy; even Michelin Star restaurants don’t charge that much for water. And worse, it is so, so horrible. I think their monopoly on the area must be mafia enforced; that is the only explanation I can come up with on why no one offers anything better to eat in such a heavily trafficked area.

The Pantheon

Walking between the Vatican and Colosseum, you should try to stop at the Pantheon. The Pantheon is important because it was built by the Ancient Romans, but rather than fall out of use and into disrepair with the rise of Christianity, this temple was converted into a church dedicated to martyrs. So it doesn’t look like a ruin, it looks amazing. Its domed roof was built about 1,500 years earlier than the famous architectural masterpiece that is Florence’s dome and served as its inspiration. You can also visit the tombs of two out of Italy’s three kings, Queen Margarita (the namesake of margarita pizza), and the Renaissance artist Raphael. It is free, so there are no lines, people just walk in and out. Though it does close at sunset.

The Pantheon
The Pantheon

You may be ready for a snack by now. There is a great Gelateria right near the Pantheon, Della Palma (like a palm tree). With the Pantheon behind you, walk straight across the square, slightly to your right, and down about two blocks. You can also get an iced espresso at Tazza d’Oro. With the pantheon behind you, go a bit to the right, it is just on the outside of the square. From Tazza d’Oro, if you keep going straight (or as straight as you can) on that street, you will arrive at the Trevi Fountain, but I recommend saving that for night time, after the other sites are closed.

Della Palma Gelateria
Della Palma Gelateria

Vatican City

Vatican City, for our purposes, consists of St. Peter’s Cathedral, which is located in St. Peter’s Square, Castle St. Angelo, and the Vatican Museums. The Vatican Museums are where you would see the Sistine Chapel, or you will, anyway. On your next visit when you have more time.

St. Peter's Cathedral
St. Peter’s Cathedral

You will normally have to wait in a quick-moving line to enter St. Peter’s because everyone must pass through a metal detector. This line will be longer on Sundays and Wednesdays, when the Pope makes an appearance. He generally takes summers off and goes on lots of trips. For more accurate information on Pope Frank’s activities, it’s better to check here.

The cathedral itself is breathtaking. It was designed to feel both impressive and intimate; things farther up are larger to confuse your perception of distance. And everywhere you turn is famous art like the Pietà (immediately to your right when you enter). If you are Catholic, the importance of this place as the center of the Catholic world and the resting place of St. Peter will add a wonderful spiritual element to your experience. If you are not, you will still be able to appreciate the architectural and artistic accomplishment that is all around you.

View of St. Peter's Square and surrounding Rome
View of St. Peter’s Square and surrounding Rome from the top of St. Peter’s dome

With a little extra time and a donation, you can go down to the catacombs or up to the roof. I like the roof better. You can pay a little more to take an elevator to the level of the main roof. Everyone has to take the stairs from the main roof to the top of the dome. Climbing these stairs, you are between the inside and outside walls of the dome. The walls quickly become slanted, soon you are in a tiny passageway, then finally an improbable spiral staircase before coming out on the very top of the dome. It is a beautiful view and a memorable experience. Though, I would not recommend it for anyone who suffers from claustrophobia.

Castel St. Angelo and the Angel Bridge
Castel St. Angelo and the Angel Bridge

If you are somehow ahead of schedule, leave St. Peter’s Square via the central opening and continue down that street until you reach the river. Here you will find Castle St. Angelo and the angel bridge just across from it.

Rome at Night

The Trevi Fountain at night
The Trevi Fountain at night

Having been a diligent tourist all day, and assuming you don’t have to rush to a train, you can now enjoy the Eternal City at night. Take a breath and take in the city itself. The fast pace of the capital clashing with the slower Italian pace of life. The Italians, always wearing one more layer than the foreigners. The immigrant street vendors. The police and carabinieri (military police). The street performers– who are actually quite good. The crazy car traffic. Everything that is the city itself, beyond the list of sites.

Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona

There are a few open-air, always-open, free sites that are good places for this reflection. Primarily these are the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and Piazza Navona. Each of which are stunning Renaissance works that were designed by their makers to be in these very places. So rather than seeing them in a museum, you are seeing their work exactly as the artist intended.

The Spanish Steps
The Spanish Steps

Done in this order, you will have started your day in Ancient Rome (Colosseum, Roman Forum), transitioned (Pantheon) to the dawn of Christianity (Vatican), and ended in the Renaissance (Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona). Witnessing about 25-hundred-years of civilization develop in a single day.

Rome in a Week

If you have just a little more time, I would separate the Ancient Roman stuff from the Vatican and consider buying a Roma Pass. This card includes the Colosseum, Forum, and a handful of other sites. It also functions as an unlimited Metro Pass and lets you skip all the lines for the sites that it includes (not the Vatican).

Ancient Rome

If you have the Roma Pass, you don’t need to worry about lines and it may make more sense to go to the Colosseum first (there is a Metro stop right there) and the Forum afterwords. Since you have a little time, and there is nothing good to eat in the area anyway, have a packed lunch ready and enjoy it in Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill is simply a section of the Roman Forum, which is a bit more spread out and park-like. It is in the same enclosure as the Forum.

Palatine Hill, Rome
Palatine Hill, Rome

Continuing in the same direction down Via dei Fori Imperiali (from the Colosseum, through the Roman Forum), you will arrive at Piazza Venezia and the white marble monument to Italian patriarchy. Go ahead inside and take a look at the view from the steps. You can also go inside and get a higher vantage point.

Altare della Patria in Piazza Venezia, Roma.
Altare della Patria in Piazza Venezia, Roma.

If you walk all the way around the monument you will arrive at Capitoline Hill (the monument is built into the backside of the hill). The square at the top here, Campidoglio, was designed by Michelangelo. Straight ahead of you is Rome’s city hall and the mayor’s office. Go around the back of that building and there is a great view down into the Roman Forum. On the two sides of Campidoglio square are the two buildings of the Capitoline Museums, which are included in the Roma Pass and worth a walk through. The museum buildings are lovely Renaissance palaces, with remains of older churches underneath; a nice setting for all the art inside.

RomanForum from Capitonine Hill
RomanForum from Capitonine Hill

Vatican City – St. Peter’s

My advice for Vatican City is pretty similar to that for day-trippers. Though you might have time to go both up to the roof and down to the catacombs. You may also want to visit Castle St. Angelo, featured in Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons,” and the bridge across from it, which is famous for the Angel statues that decorate it.

View of St. Peter's Basilica and Castle St. Angelo from St. Angelo Bridge, The Vatican
View of St. Peter’s Basilica and Castle St. Angelo from St. Angelo Bridge, The Vatican

You have the luxury of choosing which day you go to St. Perter’s, so do it wisely. If you want to see the Pope, you probably want to go on a Wednesday or Sunday, although he isn’t always home, so check. If you want to avoid the Pope and the crowds he attracts, avoid those days.

St. Peter's Square for Pope Frances's coronation
St. Peter’s Square for Pope Francesco’s coronation

Vatican City – The Vatican Museum

The Vatican Museum is a very big and amazing museum. It is comparable to the Louvre, Met, Smithsonian. I mean, it’s really big! Most people rush through it just to see the Sistine Chapel, like they rush to the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. I think this is such a shame, to walk right by rooms with works by the great masters without sparing a glance. In fact, for short visits, I recommend skipping the Vatican Museum all together and spending a little more time enjoying the art inside St. Peter’s Basilica or just not being so rushed overall. However, it is a great museum, so if you can give it a little time to do it right, then you should go! It will take you a full day to walk through every exhibit, so it makes sense to look at their website and prioritize rooms based on your time and interests. Go in with a game plan.

Vincent van Gogh, Pietà hanging in a large gallery room with no one besides me inside.
Vincent van Gogh, Pietà hanging in a large gallery room with no one besides me inside.

The last rooms of the Vatican Museums are the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel. The Raphael Rooms are frescoes, and my favorite part of the museum. They are so beautiful and realistic, and thinking that he had to finish them racing against the plaster drying blows my mind away. The Sistine Chapel’s ceiling was painted by Michelangelo and, of course, features the Creation of Adam. This is also a functioning chapel. This is the room where the Cardinals get locked in for conclave, where they choose the next pope.

"The School of Athens" in the Raphael Rooms, the Vatican Museum
“The School of Athens” in the Raphael Rooms, the Vatican Museum

The Vatican Museum always has an incredibly long line. Always. There is no beating it, by coming early or late. But luckily they have recently started accepting online ticket orders. There is a fee, but this will likely save you hours waiting in line. Buy your tickets online. Everyone that I give this advice to is always hesitant to pay extra, then they are so glad they did when they see how horrifyingly long the lines really are. Here is the real website for buying tickets to the Vatican Museum.

The Main Streets of Rome

Rome’s closest thing to a main street is Via Del Corso. This partially-pedestrian street runs from Piazza del Popolo (and the park Villa Borghese) to Piazza Venezia (and the alter to patriarchy). Along the way it comes close to the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, Rome’s modern Senate, and the Spanish Steps.

Piazza del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo

From Piazza del Popolo, you can go one way up the steps to Villa Borghese or the other across the river on Via Cola di Rienzo. Villa Borghese was once a noble “country estate” and is now the main park in Rome. The gardens are full of ponds, fountains, and even a horse racing track. The Borghese family came from Siena where they are very into horse racing. You can rent group bicycles here if you wish. You can also visit the Borghese Gallery, but this museum requires an advance reservation. On the other side, Via Cola di Rienzo will take you over the river and to Vatican City. This is a good street for shopping (so is Via del Corso). If you want a delicious snack or meal, from Cola di Rienzo turn right on Via Marcantonio Colonna (near Metro Lepanto) and get an Arancini (fried risotto ball) from Mondo Arancina, then a gelato or canoli from the gelateria Gelarmony one door down. Not the healthiest lunch, but delicious!

Villa Borghese
Villa Borghese

Circo Massimo

Just south of the Coloseum is Circo Massimo. There is not much still standing now, but once it was a race track (for chariot racing) and field grounds (for events that became the model for circuses).

On the side of Circo Massimo closer to the river is the church that holds the Mouth of Truth (Bocca del Verita), for any “Roman Holiday” fans. It is outside the church, but inside a gate. So you can see it anytime, but to take a picture with your hand in its mouth, get there before sunset.

Kait and Daniele at the Mouth of Truth
Kait and Daniele at the Mouth of Truth

From here you can walk up Palatino Hill. On top of which are the Orange Gardens, with a nice view over the city of Rome and the Vatican. Continue a little and there is a building where you might see a line of people waiting to look through the key hole. Look through and you’ll see the gardens inside leading to a balcony and the dome of St. Peter’s right in front of you. If you continue you will get to the Rose Gardens, open only April 21 to June 15, 8:30 to 19:30. Then end up back down at Circo Massimo again.

View of St. Peter's
View of St. Peter’s

From here, if you’re a good walker, you could get dinner at La Villetta dal 1940 (Viale della Piràmide Cèstia, 53, Rome). This restaurant serves authentic Roman food at reasonable prices. It is also frequented by celebrities. I saw the captain of A.S. Roma, Francesco Totti there once.

Trastevere

Trastevere literally means across the river. I could spend every evening here, walking the narrow winding streets and trying new restaurants and gelaterias. This is where Italians go when they come to the city center for an evening out. Since restaurants are kept in business by regulars, rather than one-time tourists, you will eat much better for much more reasonable prices in this area. Making it the perfect place to head after the museums close to find dinner and enjoy a “passeggiata” (stroll). There is also a wide selection of pubs and nightlife. To get started, find Ponte Sisto (Sisto Bridge) or Isola Tiberina (Tiber Island) and just get lost wandering the little streets on the “Vatican” side of the Tiber River. If you are visiting in the summer, there is an Expo of temporary bars, market vendors, and restaurants specializing in happy hour all set up along the river banks by Tiber Island. The Expo is the place to be at night in the summer.

Porta Portese

If Rome is your last stop, you might be looking to get some souvenirs or other shopping. Consider Rome’s largest market, Porta Portese. It is held every Sunday morning at the Porta Portese, the ancient door that once lead to the city of Portus. It is a 15 minute walk from Metro stop Piramide. This very large open market sells everything: shoes, t-shirts, used clothing, jewelry, scarves, electronics, photo frames, food specialties, books, kitchen supplies, furniture, you name it and there is a booth selling it.

Excursions

Rome has a lot to see, but there are also lots of nice places nearby for the traveler with a few extra days. Rome prides itself on being the only capital in Europe with a beach and there are also lakes and medieval hill towns nearby. These are conveniently connected by commuter train lines.

Ostia is the western edge of the municipality of Rome, right on the sea. You get here by taking the Metro to Piramide, then go above ground to board a train to Ostia. This is like a transfer, and you don’t need a new ticket. The trains leave every 20-minutes and it takes about 40-minutes. You can get off at either Lido Nord or Lido Centro and you are in Ostia. Under 2km/25-minutes walking (or you can take a bus) will get you to Faber Beach, a free beach were you can rent an umbrella and bed if you want or just use your own for free. Alternatively, you can walk just 9-minutes straight to the water from Lido Centro and pay a small fee to enter. These are city beaches, so they can be crowded. But they are crowded with Italians and provide great people watching. If you are going to Cinque Terre or the Almalfi Coast during your trip, those mountain-side beaches are much more picturesque.

Ostia
Ostia

There is also Lake Bracciano. The two prettiest towns on the lake are Anguillara and Bracciano. Bracciano is up on the hillside from the lake. It features a castle and sweeping views of the countryside. You can take a hike down to the lake below; you’ll pass olive orchards and small farms along the way. Anguillara is a little cuter, in my opinion. The old city center is built along the slope that leads down to the lake. It also features a lovely path along the lake edge with views across to Bracciano or up along the side of the city and its layers of stone houses. There is a little beach area where those who want can sun bathe, but this isn’t a popular swimming spot.

city of angular on lake bracciano
City of Anguillara on Lake Bracciano

To get to Lake Bracciano, you take the Metro to Piramide, just like for Ostia. This time walk over to the attached train station, Stazione Ostiense. You will need to buy a ticket from either a machine or counter (biglietteria). Board a FM3 train in direction Viterbo. Get off at either Bracciano or Anguillara. Both stations are slightly outside the historical centers. You should take a bus to the center, than another to see the other city. At the end of the day, take the only train there is back to Roma Ostiense.

Rome in a Lifetime

You may be lucky enough to be spending an extended period in Rome, whether a semester abroad, part of a gap year, a sabbatical, summer off, you just moved here, or whatever your situation.

In this case, in terms of site-seeing you will probably be interested in mostly the same sites a visitor for a week would see. You can enjoy them more slowly and take advantage of special free days and limited exhibits. These can be found in the Tourism and Culture sections of the city of Rome’s website. You can also look into sights off of the beaten path that meet you own personal interests. For example, I enjoy learning about the history of the aristocracy in Europe, so I really enjoyed the Museum at Palazzo Doria Pamphilj.

That little black speck in the bottom-center is me
That little black speck in the bottom-center is me in the Roman Forum

You also have the chance to use Rome as your base city to see more of Italy or Europe. Train tickets are cheaper bought in advance, considerably cheaper. Compare both Trenitalia and Italo, the new private company. Plane tickets with low-cost European airlines, like Easyjet or Ryanair, also offer great deals when you buy in advance.

Since you are spending a longer time, you may be worried about housing, working, meeting people, and speaking Italian. Enrolling in Italian language classes can solve nearly all of these problems. Being a student is the easiest way to make friends. Enroll in a larger school to increase your chances of finding people around your age who share your interests, also they will be able to provide classes at more specific skill levels. Schools can also set you up with a place to stay (it won’t come cheap, but this is by far the easiest way). And of course, you’ll be improving your Italian, which will improve your overall experience in Italy.

For working, the easiest gig for a native-English speaker is to teach English classes. You can find these jobs easily, both above and “under the table” situations. Just be prepared to have to brush up on your grammar and to have to spend time preparing for classes. You will also likely make friends with your fellow teachers.

Hostels sometimes hire travelers for temporarily work, often for a small salary and free stay. This will take care of your pocket money and housing in one shot. You will have ready access to people to go out sight seeing with, though less potential long-term friends.

There are plenty of sites with help wanted listings. Wanted In Rome is one of these. You can look for English teaching jobs here as well as nanny, business, and other types of work aimed at English speakers.

If you want to keep working in your chosen field when in Rome, and your current company isn’t able to offer you that option, then it can be more difficult. I think the best way is to use LinkedIn to look for companies hiring in your field. Even better, use it to find connections you already have to people at companies with offices in Rome.

It can be very difficult to meet people when living abroad. The language barrier may keep you from making a strong connection with locals. The expats and travelers are often just staying temporarily. Meetup is one way to find people who share you interests, from something specific like photography to general topic groups like wine lovers. Personally, I go to the happy hours hosted every Tuesday by Expats Living in Rome, who also organize language lessons.

Finding a place to stay can be a real challenge. You probably can’t read the listings because of the jargon and abbreviations not even recognized by Google Translate. You don’t know where any of these neighborhoods are. And everyone wants a 2-year lease.

It’s overwhelming. One thing to keep in mind is that short-term rentals (less than 1-2 years) are mostly handled under the table, so they are not listed online. You need to go to the bulletin boards at universities, read the fliers, and call people.

Airbnb, and similar sites like HouseTrip and 9 Flats are great places to find a place to stay for a medium-length of time. They can also be great places to stay when you first arrive, while you try to find that long term apartment. If you are in the spare room of a local, that person can be a great asset to getting your bearings in a new city.

Europeans use Trip Advisor and Booking almost exclusively when looking for hotels, and you should too. Whether planing a weekend trip outside Rome or looking for a place to stay when your first arrive. Hostel aggregators like Hostels.com and HostelWorld are also good resources for finding a short-term place to stay. You will notice these two sites have a very high overlap of listings. All four of these sites are powered by user reviews, allowing you to make the best choice. You can even stay with me.

If you want something legal and longer-term you can try these sites:

  • Porta Portese – Rome want ad’s
  • Subito – Italian want ads
  • Immobilare.it – Everything to do with real estate, including renting and buying houses
  • Kijiji– Want ads powered by Ebay

In terms of neighborhoods. Your first choice is probably the historical center, anything inside the Aurelian Wall. Beyond that, you will get around easier if you are close to a Metro stop. The cool places to live are Trastevere and San Lorenzo. You will need to learn the Tram and Bus systems if you live here (no easy metro), but you can stay in your neighborhood for great food and nightlife.

On a positive note, rentals are always furnished in Italy, so that is one less thing to worry about.

In closing…

Rome is an amazing city. Its central location and airport make it easy to fit into your vacation or strategic to make your base city for a longer time abroad. It is such an important city with so many iconic sites that you will want to see it, even for just a day, at some point in your life. Its endless list of things to do and places to see also make it a good choice for a longer stay; I’ve been here 4-years and still have sites that I want to visit.

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Trying out AirBnb

This past September (2013), Daniele and I moved from the condo he owns to one his father owns. Daniele’s is located in Monterotondo, which is still in the Providence of Rome, but just outside the City of Rome. We could have walked to the boarder from the condo, but we were definitely in the ‘burbs. The boundaries of Rome have spread out over the years as the city has grown to reach out and touch any already established city, such as Monterotondo.

Our new home is inside Rome, though just outside the walls of the ancient city. We are 7-minutes as-the-google-walks from two Metro stops on the A/Red Line, which I like better than the B/Blue Line. One of those stops is Re di Roma, a busy traffic-circle / piazza featuring many notable establishments. From here you can see, and easily walk to the ancient wall holding in Rome’s historical center, and enter at Basilica San Giovanni, which is the “duomo” of Rome (St. Peters is in the Vatican, which technically is not Rome). We are also sandwiched between the busy shopping streets of Appia Nuova, Taranto, and Tuscolana (Tuscolana Station is not a Metro stop, but it’s a great way to get straight to the airport). We have all this nearby, but magically live in a little microcosm of a quiet neighborhood composed of old people and a hand full of families where the only noise disturbance is church bells.

Similar to our old place, our apartment is made up of an open kitchen/living room, a bathroom, a master bedroom, and a small bedroom (though the last place had more outside space including a garden, two large balconies, and parking). Where as our last place was newer and designed with this layout, our home now was built in 1942 with a different design. Our place was the doorman’s apartment and we believe it is (by quite a bit) the smallest apartment in the building. Originally, you walked into the spacious living room with a door separating visitors from the rest of the home. The door leds to a little space with doors to each: the large bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen. The kitchen in turn leads to the balcony. When my father-in-law bought the place 10 years ago, he moved the kitchen to the living room and converted that space to a second (small) bedroom. This is a pretty common renovation now that society has accepted the kitchen as a gathering place, not something that should be hidden away. Fun fact, Italian Real Estate listings count “number of rooms”, but there is no uniform method of counting rooms. Some will only count rooms intended to be bedrooms, most will also count a living room, a few count every space including the kitchen and even bathroom.

Given our new, more central location and spare room we thought we would try out renting the extra space on AirBnb– just as an experiment to see how it does. If it went well, maybe we could do it for an entire apartment. The spare room was the last to get the renovation treatment, acting as our safe/clean room while the rest of house underwent the spackleing/sanding/more sanding/and even more sanding that the place needed to recover from the 10 years of being rented to students and the *72* years of general chipping and decay. I fought to maintain and restore all of the original wood and brass rather than replace everything with plastic and aluminum like my husband and in-laws would have done.

Daniele found several other airbnb-like sites. I didn’t want so much of our personal information spread out so wide, so I limited him to HouseTrip, which is very popular in Europe and particularly the UK, I believe. We did well with them, however, they just recently took down our listing and everyone else’s who was renting just a single room in order to concentrate on just listing full apartments/homes. We still have guests coming (and even right now are hosting two) who booked from HouseTrip. So, we still haven’t felt whatever effect losing their referrals will have.

We started last November and I had a few rules. First off, AirBnb is not like a hotel, where anyone can book a night, unless you want to set it up that way. Potential guests send a request for a stay that we have to pre-approve or deny. Only with a pre-approval can they then book. We do not sublet while away, many people use AirBnb this way, we do the exact opposite and will not take guests if we are not home. Similarly, Daniele works nights sometimes and I will not accept a booking where their first night here I will be home alone with them. It doesn’t take too long to get a feel for someone, and if we got someone sketchy, this would give me time to realize something was up and make Daniele call in sick. I also turn people down who seem sketchy online. A horror story I read a long time ago about a women who Airbnb’ed out her NYC apartment while away, and whose home was destroyed by the renters/robbers later noticed how the guest’s name was misspelled (something like Johgnson) and a few other indicators. I look for more complete profiles, with more methods of verification, and not accounts just opened today. Recently I’ve started asking people who request to stay and have new, blank accounts, if they could add some verifications and then ask again. After all, while we have a few reviews now, we were new once, too, and people gave us a chance.

It’s easy for me to deny requests because we are not trying to keep the room full 100% of the time. Who would want house guests all of the time? I’ve priced the room out according to this idea. We’re not the cheapest room you can book in the area. First off, do I want the people who look for the cheapest rooms staying with me and having my key? Not really. Second, there is enough demand that my pricing keeps the room full enough. It has to be worth what we’re getting (the money) to clean out the room, wash and change the bedding and towels, wait around to greet them when they arrive, and share my bathroom and kitchen with them while they are here (and in some cases, deal with their strange requests). That’s not nothing, if it was just a little bit of money I would be annoyed to do all that and never think it worth it when getting a request. But for the bit more that we charge, it feels like free money. It feels like getting $400 for just doing a load of laundry!

Everyone who has stayed with us has been really interesting and fun to meet. We had a brother and sister from San Paulo, a couple from Russia, a mother and son from Iowa, two gentlemen friends from India, three BU students studying abroad in Spain, two Italian girls here for a concert, two kids from Austria we housed in coordination with their Italian school, a father and son from Holland, an American couple living in Asia, and a bunch more. Each of these was the type of well-rounded, friendly, likes-to-travel person that you might meet in a hostel while traveling yourself. We got to live through their experiences and learn a bit about their worlds without even leaving the house. Not to say we become besties with everyone who stays. There is a wide spectrum of those who like to chat and those who prefer to keep to themselves. I have just been very presently surprised by how fun most guests can be.

There is also the consideration that Rome has lots to see and most of our guests spend morning to night out trying to seeing it all. Some have cooked meals at home, in general the older guests and the ones who stay longer have been more prone to do so. Many others we barely see, often just a quick exchange of greetings while they are coming or going.

We’ve been pretty successful, despite not exactly living across from the Coliseum or above the Spanish Steps. It seems there are plenty of people who would just as happily take the Metro a few stops or walk a bit further. We started off pretty slow in the end of fall and dead of winter. But then we got into spring-break season, and Easter, some big Rome/Vatican events like the Canonization, and now just the high tourist season of spring and summer. Right now we could easily book back to back if we wanted. Which, if you think about it is very impressive, that there are enough potential guests to match up with any weird opening, since we only have one room available. It happens enough now that we bought a second full set of sheets and towels, so we can turn over the room in the same day, while the linens hang dry.

I attribute a few things to our success. Besides entering tourist season, we have reviews now, which is going to make us more attractive to guests and send more requests our way. I also wrote a really, really clear description about our place (in my own mother-tongue English, which not all Italian listings can boast). I know I tend to avoid situations where I don’t know what to expect, particularly when traveling. Personally, I would even pay more for a place where I felt confident in what I was going to find, than a place that is perhaps nicer but I’m unsure about a few things– but maybe that is just nerdy me trying to avoid awkward situations. For example, if there are towels in the picture but it doesn’t say if they are included, or I’m not sure if the address given is where I’m staying or their office where I pick up my key, how many others will be staying here, which areas are common areas, things like that. Our aforementioned mother and son guests complemented our place on exceeding their expectations and said that at their last room, there had been a couch in the picture (mother and son did not want to share a bed) but on arrival were told the couch is now in a different and more expensive room. My description highlights how close we are to the metro, that it’s the metro line with most attractions, the grocery stores/restaurants/cafes nearby, that I work from home and will be able to let guests in just about any time (a known issue for Airbnb guests), and that Daniele has lived here 30 years and can help you figure out what to do during your stay. I also clearly state that it is a small room and what the shared bathroom and kitchen are all about, to manage expectations.

We have squeezed both a single bed and a full bed into that little room. This makes it a good layout for either couples or friends traveling together And while it would be cramped (and I always warn groups of three), three could fit in there and it’s a bit harder finding rooms for three in Europe. We recently added a small extra fee for the third person, after we started turning down most of the groups of three, once again restoring the “worth it” balance. Though really, the few we have hosted have not been much different that the groups of two. It’s just that 5 people sharing a bathroom has the potential to be too much.

We make an effort to keep the place immaculately clean. Which is the natural state of the apartment anyway, since Daniele and I have different pet-peeve things we like spotless (he likes clean floors, I could care less about floors but hate surfaces to have any dust or grime). Obviously this is good to do for reviews, but I have my own secret reason for it, too. People tend to clean up after themselves more when they are surrounded by cleanliness. All our guests have been pretty clean, one even commenting on not wanting to mess up our pristine apartment. So by doing the cleaning more often, we actually have to clean less by not having to clean up so much after them.

In summery, huge success. April was our best month to date, bringing in about $1500. All for a tiny room that we wouldn’t even be using otherwise. The space could have been an office for me, but we have space in our large bedroom for an office-area and that kind of money is like a salary in itself. Most likely winters will always be more bleak (though I think having reviews will help next year), but that’s fine because it is nice to not have guests, too. Someday we will have to shut down when it is time to expand our family and convert the room into a nursery. In the meantime, it is awesome money for just doing some extra laundry and a fun experience in itself.

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Our Home

I’ve been asked a few times to take pictures of our home in Monterotondo (Rome), Italy. It is a pretty new apartment building with a garage on the ground floor and four apartments on each of the three floors above.

We’re on the “first” floor, that’s a European first one floor up. We have a kitchen that opens to the living room, bathroom, a master bedroom, and a smaller second bedroom that functions as my office and a guest room. We also have a skinny balcony that goes along the whole North-West wall and wraps shortly along the North-East wall. The two bedrooms open onto that balcony. The kitchen opens to a larger balcony where we have a dinning table, clothes drying rack, and stairs to the garden below. All the windows in the apartment are doors to balconies except for the one in the bathroom. The window/doors are really interesting, they are made of double glass doors (window/air protection), a screen that slides to the side (bug protection), a plastic shade that rolls up into the wall above when not in use and could keep a vampire safe from sun when it is in use (for privacy), and an iron gate each with a unique lock (for security, everyone in Italy has these).

The aforementioned garden is the width of the apartment and right outside and below our kitchen. The building is surrounded by a ring of garden space minus the side where everyone enters the parking space under the building. The ring is sectioned into six pieces. We own one and seem to be the only ones who use ours, most the others are just overrun. It’s not a huge space but it’s very nice for a city. We have a patio covered with a kinda tent, a stone barbeque in the corner, some paving stones to navigate watering the plants, and another entrance in the fence from the garage. Normally it is very green with herbs, peppers, flowers, and Daniele’s tomatoes, but I just took these photos now in January so it’s pretty barren.

It’s only 11 photos, so I will just link to the album rather than re-placing them here. Most of them are rough cut panoramas because I couldn’t get much even on my wide angle lens in the space.

https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5836701962471254273?authkey=CLHzp77w4_bBcw

I’ve started to make the place my own, but most of the décor was chosen by Daniele, his mother, or was just handed down when he first bought the place two years before we met. So don’t expect it to really scream “me”.

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Changing Device Timezones

I spend months at a time in different timezones. However, I often won’t change my clocks. Sometimes someone will see my computer clock is wrong and point it out as if I don’t know how easy it is to change. The problem is it totally messes up my calendar.

I view my calendar on my Android phones, tablet, and laptop. My phones change their clock on their own. I also have cameras and a wrist watch with clocks– but those I always change since there is no calendar issue.

I use Google Calendar, here is how they handle timezones:
http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2367918

The meat and potatoes of that link:
“Whenever you create an event, Calendar converts it from your time zone to UTC time, using currently known conversion rules. By using one universal time for all events, Calendar can keep all of your guests’ calendars consistent regardless of which time zones they’re in. When we display the event on your calendar, it is converted from UTC to appear in your own time zone.

If you have a recurring meeting that spans across different time zones, then its time always remains constant for the organizer, and will shift for guests whenever their time difference with the organizer changes. That’s why if you’re in London and attending a weekly meeting that was created by your New York colleagues at 10am NY time, it will always be at 10am for NY, almost always at 3pm for you, but at 2pm during that particular week in early November.” [“particular week”, reference to US and GB change their clocks for Daylight Savings Time on different dates]

Indeed, Google is trying to solve a complex problem here. That’s cool for the people who work at Google, who use Google Calendar a bit different from people like me. Personally, I don’t have many recurring international meetings. Actually, pretty much all my events are just for myself. But hey, that’s me.

Here is the type of use case I run into. I have a Nexus 7 tablet. This device currently is what plays my morning alarm, because unlike my phone which can get forgotten in a purse on the other side of the room, he lives by my bed so I can read him in the morning. I actually was getting a bit annoyed looking at the time three hours off (I just came from NJ to San Francisco) so I changed his clock from EST to PST. The next morning, I woke up before my alarm and was reading news in bed waiting for my alarm to go off before I got up to get breakfast. I wanted to dismiss it and not wake anyone else up. It never went off, but I had forgotten about changing the clock the day before so just wrote it off and moved on with my day. About three hours later I started hearing chimes. My tablet had changed the time of my alarm from 8:30 to 11:30 (or rather to 8:30 EST, 11:30 PST the same UTC time). Does this seem like it should be the default behavior? Do most people set alarms to notify themselves of some world-wide event (perhaps an space-shuttle launch), so they would need that time to adjust to their local time? Or are most people just looking to wake up around the same time every morning?

Those are alarms, it behaves the same for calendar events. So, if while in Italy, I make a doctors appointment for 3 PM on a Wednesday for when I’m going to be in NJ, I can put it in my calendar while still in Italy and my computer clock is set to Italian time. Then when I come to NJ and change my clock, that 3 PM appointment will jump to 9 AM on my calendar. Confusing, no?

I could have put the event in at 9PM when I was in Italy, as 9PM in Italy is 3PM in NJ, my target time for this event. The problem with this work around is I have to look at it on my calendar with that weird time up until I change the computer clock. That is really confusing for scheduling other events around it.

Fear of this behavior (and that I will not see something scrolled down on my smaller laptop screen) encourages me to put important events in my Calendar as all day events, with the time in the details. But unless this has been fixed since I last saw it, and this behavior I definitely consider a bug, an all day event I create in one time zone will actually change to a 3 AM to 3 AM (for example) event when I change timezones. If an event is July 8th all day, then it is July 8th all day in any timezone, IMHO.

I wish there was a way to opt-out of the time-zone syncing behavior, for my whole calendar, or for non-shared events, or for anything. As far as I can see, it’s not an option. Until then, I just keep everything on EST.

UPDATE 10/24/12
The very smart Marc D responded to this post with

Marc Dougherty ‏@muncus
@kait3210 not sure if it is any better, but “use home time zone” in calendar settings that will always show the same time zone. Maybe?

It took me several days to figure what on earth he was talking about because I manage my Calendar 90% from my laptop and use my devices (phone, tablet) to make sure I’m not forgetting anything. I’m not normally playing with Calendar settings on these Android devices. I use Android because it syncs so easily with my calendar and I don’t have to work to make it work– like setting up Exchange in my iPhone days.

But sure enough, In an ANDROID Calendar, you can go to the three-dot-menu-button, Settings, General settings. Once there, I found a little check box to “Use home time zone” as well as one right below it to set your “Home time zone”. As soon as I did this on my Nexus 7, all my appointments (remember, I changed this device to PST) jumped back to the correct time. Awesome solution.

This is an Android feature, the web version has no such check box. However, looking closer, I can set my Calendar timezone independently from my laptop time zone. It is in gear-shaped-button, Settings, General-tab, “Your current time zone” setting. Here I can set it to always be EST, or even add both EST and PST and both times display in two columns, but no non-US timezones. I can’t believe I missed this feature! I only had to dismiss Google asking me if I wanted it to change my Calendar timezone when I changed my laptop timezone just now– which I’ve never seen before, so maybe this is a newer feature.

It’s nice to have my laptop clock on the right time. Just in time for me to blow out of town in another week.

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Websites in Italian

I can’t really say how frustrating it is to use my browser when I’m in Italy sometimes. My browser, the application that runs the most on my computer. My computer, my dear friend. It’s a betrayal and an example of what you can versus what you should do in terms of applying technology.

The technology I’m talking about is determining a browser user’s location. In my two-years as an expat I feel like more and more website I go to open up in Italian on me. Often with no way of turning it off or switching back to English.

Just now I went to Macy’s website. Granted, I googled it first, though I could have guessed the URL. So I deserved to be sent to the .IT version of the site, with blown up “WE SHIP TO ITALY NOW” covering the whole site. I quickly changed the URL to the standard www.macys.com and saw the normal american-aimed site that I wanted. From there, found a link to the info I sought. Only to be hit again the moment I clicked it “WE SHIP TO ITALY NOW”. Give it up, Macys, I’m so not interested.

Even earlier today, I went to my AdWords account to see why the ads are gone from my blog (robbing my of those potential pennies in case anyone were to click them!). I log in and it’s in Italian. I’m logged in! Google knows me. Google probably knows me better than my mother. So I google (ha) how to change your language preference in AdWords Dashboard and navigate through the Italian to find the setting, but it is already English. It mush be a setting for the language of the Ads, but looking at the “Inglese” sure felt ironic. Yes, I get by in Italian, but these are setting panels, it brings me to the level of a 70-year old blind women.

Speaking of Google. I have tried everything to get my browser search bar to default to google.com, rather than google.it. If I put google.com in the navigation bar while in Italy, it forwards to google.it. The only way to get to google.com is to use iGoogle– somehow that knows I’m me, American, and not to give me all Italian language search results. Just the normal wikipedia first then everything else, that I expect. But iGoogle is being phased out by Google and will be turned off November 2013. So I guess I’ll have to get better at reading Italian and wean off wikipedia.

Now I’m not saying all websites should always be in English, I’m saying that if you are going to offer multiple language versions of your website, which is great, you should do that, let the user choose to change it after you maybe pick the default based on location. Don’t assume every person in any location prefers one language. Like half the people in Italy at any given time are tourists (I think I read that in a Rick Steves once, I can’t back up those numbers), so it’s not that safe a bet as you might think that a person here wants to speak Italian. Plus we already can’t get to Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, NBC.com, or even the pirate bay. Also the fastest internet you can get is DSL but most people use “internet keys” which is cell phone tethering. And no, there is no 4G, lots of places have Edge or even no data coverage. So, don’t kick dirt in the wound by making inaccessible websites. It’s just mean.

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International cell phone forwarding

While traveling internationally I make calls back to the US. Even more important I want to receive calls made to my US number. It is a little complicated, so for my own memory and anyone else who may be interested, here is how I do it. Or if someone knows a better way– even better!

In the US I have a dataplan with Verizon. It happens that I have a Android Droid 2 on a family plan. That is my normal setup for when I am in the US.
When I leave the US for an extended period, I get a SIM card for the county I’m staying in most of the time. I stick that in a Nexux One. Being in the two-phone club makes me feel cool and them both being Android based keeps all my contacts and everything important all synced together.
I also deactivate my Verizon dataplan. With Verizon, you have to port your number to a non-smartphone to have a plan without data. In other words, numbers on smartphones must have a dataplan, and numbers on dumbphones cannot ever have dataplans. So to deactivate my dataplan, right after I leave the US, my mom enters the following on an old Motorola Razr. This ports my number to the Razr and deactivates my dataplan. It’s the same as if the Razr was a new phone I was activating.
Activate a phone on Verizon:
Turn off the old phone
Turn on the new phone and enter the following
* 228 [SEND]
(Call connects)
Select option 1
Enter my phone number
Enter account password/PIN
(Phone programs itself)
If there is a problem, will be connected to customer service.
If there is a big problem, Verizon customer service is 1-800-933-0204
I also want my calls forwarded to a place where I can get them. What I do is forward my Verizon calls to a Skype number. I have purchased a Skype Incoming number which I guess works out to be $6/month. That is a phone number I own from Skype where I can receive calls.
Verizon will forward calls to a US number for free, mostly. It just uses one ‘minute’ for each call forwarded and SMS can not be forwarded. All the SMS from the time away will be piled up on the dumbphone. I forward my Verizon phone number to my US Skype number (interesting, this is the number people see on their caller IDs when I call them). This can also be done from the phone.
*Note, activating a new phone / dataplan can not be done while call forwarding is active. So change phones first, then set up forwarding.
Activating Call Forwarding on Verizon:
Dial *72 [Number want to forward to AKA Skype number] [SEND]
(Want for beeps)
Done.
Interesting pitfall I found out first time through this. When my phone is off, it goes straight to voicemail. When it goes straight to voicemail, it does not “ring” which seems to be a critical part of the call-forwarding-process. So the dedicated dumbphone has to be left plugged-in and turned-on in the US. I don’t think it ever actually “rings” but it needs to be on or calls will just be sent to your US phone voicemail.
Now I have all my calls going to Skype. I have a US Subscription that covers all my US originated forwarded calls and any US calls I make for $6/mo.
Once my calls are in Skype I pretty good control over them. I can answer them in the Skype application (either on my computer or my phone) for free (no more than the monthly fees I already mentioned). Or I can have them forwarded on to my local cell phone number for the Skype rate in that country. In Italy, Skype charges $0.30/min to call cell phones. It is free to receive calls on cell phones in most of Europe, so there is no double paying.
I don’t always keep the Skype application running on my phone because it drains the battery. I always load it up to make a call to the US. If I don’t have it running, I will still get my calls, just at that 30 cents per minute more.
Setting up call forwarding in Skype:
From the Skype application
In the Tools menu, open the Options dialog
Under the Calls section on the left menu, find Call Forwarding
All the options to configure are there.
This gets me set up to receive calls sent to my US number right from my local cell phone and a fixed monthly rate. Now, fixing it all for when I want to come home.
I mentioned before, a new phone can not be activated when call forwarding is active. So before I arrive home, my mom enters the following code into the dumbphone that is currently hosting my US number.
Deactivating Call Forwarding on Verizon:
Dial * 73 [SEND]
(Wait for beeps)
(There will be a message on the screen)
Done.
Now in theory, the moment my plane touches down I can reactivate my smartphone with the same code used to change phones just after my departure and it will reactivate my dataplan. Every Verizon person I talked with always promised it would. Except the last person I talked to, when I said it never has, he admitted it probably never would. So I call them up from a land line when I get home and get things working again. Still trying to fill in this missing piece to get my phone working right from the tarmac.
Skype will still be forwarding to the international number. No rush to reset that, since I only use this number for this setup. But I change it to forward to my US number when I think of it, just in case someone has saved the number when they saw it in their caller ID and tries to reach me using it.
In summary, I deactivate my dataplan and forward my US number to Skype and then to my local cell when overseas. I don’t pay for my dataplan when I’m gone, but I pay for credit on my local cell, Skype Subscription and Number. This makes it possible for me to pick up my phone and call home and for anyone to call up my regular old US number and I can answer the call in Italy on my Italian cell phone without either of us paying more for the call than if I was still in the US. I just don’t get text messages until I come back to the US. Also if someone is brave enough to leave a voicemail with my Italian cell phone carrier, I am often unable to retrieve it– but hey its 2011, why are you leaving me a voicemail?
It is a little complicated and not super cheep, but it is important to me to be able to get my calls as someone who is self employed and traveling long-term. I’ll be heading back overseas again soon, so any suggestions for improvements are welcome!
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Back to Rome

In Costa Rica I decided for sure I wanted to go back to Italy as soon as possible. The police in Rome had explained to me I had to wait six-months to come back with another tourist visa (i.e. just come back and get a passport stamp on arrival). Or if I wanted to come back sooner, I would need a work or student visa. At the time I was a little annoyed to find this out, because this is for the whole EU. I don’t know if a work visa is even possible for someone self-employed, so I went off researching student visas.

Last time I went on a tourist visa, but the San Francisco Italian Culture Institute, who gave me my scholarship to study Italian in Rome, had encouraged me to get a student visa. They told me that the rules had changed and now student visas are even for people taking language classes not just for university students like it was before. Unfortunately I knew less than I do know and when the paperwork didn’t come threw in time I just blew it off.

Based on these experiences, I figured I would find a language school in Rome, enroll in part-time classes, secure a student visa, and stay in Rome for a spell. The first thing to do was to contact the Italian Consulate to make sure I was on track.

Immigration is handled by the Italian General Consulate in New York City (Newark does not do visas). They insisted I made an appointment (I had to call at $2.50 per minute) and come in person to ask my questions. The women I talked with fortunately fell into the portion of Italians who think it is just adorable that I try to speak their language. “Americana” she called over to the woman at the next window gesturing at me and smiling. It was a little discouraging at first, as she gave me the impression I would have to be a university student to get a student visa. Then we realized I had an incorrect understanding of the six-month rule. It is not that I have to wait in the US for six-months after exhausting my time in the EU; it is that I can stay in Italy/the EU for three-months in any six-month period. That means the six-months started when I arrived in the EU, not when I left. It actually makes much more sense this way. And even better, this means I would be clear for arrival as of February 25th instead of May 23rd. I was pretty excited.

I wanted to go immediately. The only real commitment I have is my cousin Corrine’s wedding May 7th as well as any bridesmaid events beforehand and a few family parties. The family parties I have been missing for years, so that was not much of a problem. I did however, feel terrible for missing the bridesmaid stuff. But there was nothing to be done for it. I wanted to go and the only alternative was to sit and wait at my parent’s house in New Jersey for two months, and surly something else would come up in that time. So it was decided, I would leave immediately and come back just in time for the wedding; that works out to just over two months in Italy.

I bought my ticket with Continental points. There is no markup for buying last minute and I don’t really want them laying around with the United merger happening. After that the major things to do were pack, die my roots, and file my taxes. My appointment with the Italians was February 17th, I flew out 7 days later on the 24th. It was a busy week.

And now here I am, exactly six-months after I arrived in Le Cinque Terre this past summer. I’m living just north of Rome in a beautiful two-bedroom condo with two balconies and a garden and my Romano. Daniele made one of my favorite things for lunch, gnocchi with pesto. We also had fresh ricotta and salad and wine. It was only a little weird that it felt like 6 AM for me. Then I had a nap and he went to work, but he left me a tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad in case I got hungry. So far pretty good.

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Scabies

I’ve had an itchy rash developing over the last two weeks. Fillipa and Daniele called it an allergy, but I was pretty paranoid it was something like bed bugs. Especially since Daniele already had an “allergy” and that seemed like an odd coincidence. But it didn’t really make sense that I would have bed bugs now, after living in the same apartment for over a month. It wasn’t until I complained about my itching over twitter that my friend Jared gave me the answer: Scabies.

I got the idea that I probably had Scabies on Monday night but I had to wait until Wednesday to go to the dermatologist. My experiences with the Italian health system have been pretty good. I went to the ER/Clinic first, where the doctor wasn’t 100% sure what it was and told me to go upstairs to the dermatologist. She knew immediately that it was scabies. Apparently there is an epidemic. I was the third person she had seen that day with the same problem. The cure is intense but quick. It only takes four days. There is a surfer soap I use at the start and end, an oil I put on every night, a pill I take at night, and another lotion I can use for dry skin. The clinic is free, but I had to pay to see the dermatologist, something like 15 or 20 euros.

I already had plans to see Daniele that same night. I wasn’t dreading the “Hon, I have scabies” conversation too much since I was pretty sure he had started it. But he maintained that his was just an allergy. He gets a sort of eczema every winter with the dry air and the hospital soap. But on closer examination, his “allergy” had spread past his arms. There was no arguing we should split the soap and oil.

My original theory was he got them at the hospital and gave them to me. How else? But now that I’ve been paying attention I see all the different places I could have gotten them first; like trying on cloths, or sitting in public fabric-lined chairs. But I maintain that he gave them to me. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

That night I met and had dinner with Daniele’s family for the first time. I ate possibly the best meal ever, and got to know his parents and younger brother. Not to go off on a tangent on the meal. But we had gnocchi with pesto (the pesto they made with Daniele’s basil), Eggplant parmigiana (not like in the US, it was layered and baked like lasagna), Grilled vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers covered with bread crumbs), buffalo mozzarella, spinach and broccoli, roasted chestnuts, little pastries, limoncello, and coffee. So many courses! So good! I loved his family, too, of course :)

Later that night I developed a really bad fever. And the smoker’s cough I’ve just learned to live with from living with Filippa got noticeably worse. I think I might have bronchitis or a flu or something. Like scabies isn’t enough!

I’m actually not as grossed out as I would expect myself to be. The rash was unbelievably itchy. Unbearably so. It woke me up in the night on Monday. It’s actually a bit of a relief that what I have is something that can be cured so quickly. If all I had was a reaction to an unknown allergen, that could take months to go away. I may have ripped my skin off. Yesterday I was on the Metro, trying not to touch anything, since public transit is so gross. Then it occurred to me that it is a pretty safe bet I am the sickest person on the Metro between my cough, fever, and scabies. Isn’t that something!

Here is what scabies looks like, if you want to see. Not as gross as you would probably think.
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20101001Roma#5550645294719667826

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Visa Issues

Today I had to visit the police in Rome. As procedure, I gave my passport to Filippa to show them as soon as I moved in. At a hotel or hostel they send all the passport numbers everyday. At a private residence, the owner has to bring the physical passport. Only they did not like it and I had to go there in person.

I came to Italy / the EU with a tourism visa. Americans can travel to the EU (and lots of places) with this type of visa very easily. We just get a stamp when we arrive, nothing has to be applied for in advance. In the case of the EU, we can stay for up to three months before we are supposed to return to the US for six months. But keep in mind we only get stamps when we arrive. It is virtually impossible to know when we leave or how long we stayed after the fact. It is extra confusing considering the visa is for the whole EU. Thousands of backpackers travel Europe for years at a time, and no one really knows or cares because they are never in one place very long.

When I came out here I took the cheapest flight possible, a very long flight from SAS that stopped in Stockholm and eventually dropped me in Milan. No, I did not get to see Stockholm. Since I first touched down in Europe in Sweden, that is where my visa is from. I had all but forgotten about this, it seemed so unimportant.

In Italy, if you are staying for more than one week, apparently they want you to have an “Italy” EU visa. I was unaware. I only even ran into this after being in Italy a month. I had never stayed at the same hostel for more than one week. Also, they were hostels, so only my passport number was being sent, the police could not see that my visa was from a country other than Italy.

So at the police station it was not a very big deal, I had not done anything wrong (and I knew it). We went right in, because of course Filippa knew them all. They just needed me to fill out a form, since I am here for more than one week and my EU visa is not from Italy. So why am I so upset? This form that will stay with the Italy police says when I arrived in the EU, and when I plan on leaving, more than my passport says. Now the Italian police know that I have used up my tourism visa until May 23th (six months after I leave). They said I could still go to Spain (for example) or I could come back to Italy with a work or student visa. But I’m bummed that I can’t just drop in to Italy for a visit until May 23rd.