"Flexibility is the cornerstone of mental health." Aimee-Sawyer Philpott-Greenspon
I used to work in the mental health field and one of the staff psychiatrists, upon hearing of my plan to move to Rome, gave me two pieces of advice: 1) (and this was very important) Have a plan; and 2) (even more important) Be flexible, especially if you're plan involves moving to Italy. It sounded a wee bit contradictory but also like good advice. I had no idea.
There's apparently a law on the Italian books forbidding a landlord from kicking someone out of an apartment, whether they're paying the rent or not, so when the previous tenants of my apartment-to-be hadn't got around to vacating just yet, it fell on me (my flatmate actually) to find a new spot. Now this new apartment is actually quite nice. High ceilings, well appointed living room, even a washer and dryer (in one, more on that later), but it's a couple blocks from train station and, well, it's noisy as hell. Sometimes it's a group of African drummers in the park across the street (at 11 pm), or the nightly dumpster clearing truck run, maybe that accordion player squeezing out The Final Countdown, or just some expressed Italian emotion. Ok it's loud, it's not ideal, but what is. Last night, at around 2:30 the neighborhood fell silent. Not for any particular reason and not for long, but it woke me up and it took me a moment or two to remember where I was. Oh, yeah, I'm in Rome, and then, as if to punctuate the realization, a scooter whined by the window, then some laughter and, I don't know, maybe a broken bottle and everything was back to normal. My neighborhood is noisy, I can live with that.
Rome has a lot of potential for frustration. There's lots of great art to be seen for free in the churches but most of them close in the afternoon. Some at 12:30, some at 1:00 and they re-open some time later, 3:30 or 4, or maybe not. I waited outside of San Luigi de Francesca for about 40 minutes yesterday, along with 25 or 30 other folks. San Luigi is the home of Carravaggio's trio of St. Matthew paintings, a must see, and they close until four every afternoon. Every afternoon, it turns out, except Thursday, which it was. On Thursdays they close up around noon and that's it. Disappointing, yes. Particularly for people who have a morning plane or train out of town. On the other hand, A block to the East is another Carravaggio at St Agostino and a couple of blocks south of that is a nifty bit of Boromini architecture. In other words, there's always something else to see.
One last bit on flexibility. On a typical sunny day Rome, there are hundreds of guys, middle-eastern mostly, selling sunglasses and an odd assortment of children's toys but, as soon as a few drops of rain come down (and it seems that can happen at any moment), those sunglasses and bubble blowing space guns disappear and, God knows from where, they are all suddenly hawking umbrellas. Now I know from experience that the umbrellas suck. One good wind and your holding a stick with a hunk of fabric flapping from some spoke on the top, but give the guys some credit for flexibility and a plan.