Alora

Ecco: Il mio blog.

At our graduation festa from Italian class, the rector of Santa Croce told us to remember why we were in Rome and far away from the familiar:

To pray. First and foremost. Everything else will follow.
To study. Naturally. What else would a rector say?
And, in the words of John Paul II, to learn Rome. To take in from its crooked cobblestone streets and myriad of churches, its processions of seminarians and its perfumed mass of fashionistas, a better understanding of what it means to be Catholic, what it means to live, and what it means to exist in this world.

Looking at the domes of Piazza Navona from the classroom window and surrounded by collars and veils from every continent on the globe, I thought that I had a running chance at doing all that.

But then again, if he had actually told us to give up already and go home because we’ll never understand what he’s saying in Italian, I would’ve still nodded with a huge smile on my face.

Alora. (The loose Italian equivalent of “yeeeeeeeah.” )

This blog will haphazardly chroniclize my bella vita in Rome.

It’s been a little more than two months since I got myself onto a plane and transplanted myself from Washington D.C., a political town, to Rome Italy, a Catholic and political entity. I thought I was crazy then and I still think I’m crazy now. But I’m loving the insanity.

The Beads are for the prayer. The Books are for discovering the truth and beauty, hidden and apparent, in this chaotic world of ours. And the Becherovka, fermented herb Czech goodness, is for that task of getting to know Rome and life and myself just a little bit better.

Welcome and comment back. To steal a line from the Queen of Useless Knowledge: be a giver, not a taker.