Rome is My Home.

With only a few days left here in Rome, I have noticed myself reminiscing on all of the things I love about this beautiful city. In between the reminiscing are the tears. When arriving in Rome, I knew that I would fall in love with the city, but I never realized it would be at the level that it is. Rome is officially my second home, and I never want to leave.

There are so many things about this magical city that I am going to miss, that the list I am about to make could never cover everything, but I’ll try.

• The beautiful skylines.

Seeing the Vatican in the distance is always spectacular.

The view from Villa Medici.

• The history.
• The art.
• The gelato (specifically Frigidarium).

The most beautiful sight, chocolate covered gelato.

• The FOOD.

Bufala pizza from Dar Poeta.

Delicious pizza from Pizzeria del Teatro.

• The colors.

Colorful laundry.

The best car in Rome.

• The churches.

One of my favorite parts of the churches is seeing all candles lit.

• My roommates.
• The friends I have made.

I have definitely made a ton of lifelong friends.

• My professors.
• The mornings.
• The afternoons.
• The nights.

I’m pretty sure every monument in Rome is more beautiful at night.

Perfection.

• The wine.

A necessary part of every day.

• The atmosphere.
• The museums.

One of my favorite museums in Rome, the Centrale Montemartini.

• The piazzas.
• Apperitivos.
• Walking past historical monuments on my way to school.
• THE COFFEE.

Even homemade coffee tastes better here.

• Standing at the bar to drink said coffee.

Even though I will miss pretty much everything, there are a few things that I will not miss.

• Paying for water at restaurants.
• Paying a fee for sitting at a restaurant.
• The vendors all over the streets.
• The cobblestones.

The murderer of my ankles and shoes.

• The public transportation.
• The pickpocketers (which I luckily have only encountered once, and I was able to stop it).

As you can see, my lists of misses is much longer than my list of things I will not miss, and I know as soon as I submit this blog I will think of a million things that I forgot to add to my list of things that I will miss. I have never felt more connected to a city than I do to Rome. Everything here always feels so alive, and so happy. I never thought leaving would be this hard, and the idea of it makes me so sad. But as my insightful roommate quoted Dr. Suess, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened,” and I know that I will come back to my favorite city soon.

Here’s to hoping that my three wishes into the Trevi will guarantee my return.