What is the best way to end a month in Rome? To stand above the city. To end my trip I climbed to the top of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. I saw the entire city from up there, and it was probably the best way to say my goodbye. Now, what I have learned recently, after climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa and this dome is that I am deathly afraid of heights, or I may be afraid of falling down the stairs, not really sure yet. But I do know that I am panicked as I walk to the top, and there are no railings, so I am gripping the walls, taking each step extremely slowly, as the people behind me are probably getting annoyed. But I found myself standing outside on the dome, with 800 tourists, unable to start finding my way back down. I just wanted one more minute and then another, I am not sure what it was but it is always hard to say goodbye, I just didn't think that after a month I would feel like this. I am happy to go home but I feel like I am not quite finished with my time here. But I am, tonight is my last night, I leave at 5am tomorrow to catch my flight home, and I have to say goodbye to Rome. I said goodbye to St. Peters, the Pantheon, and my favorite monument the Trevi Fountain. I even hugged that one goodbye. I guess you really don't realize how much something means to you until you have to leave it.
I can guarantee that when I get home I will start asking for acqua naturale, and say grazie and ciao. Have to figure out how to say something in Italian before I ask someone for help, and probably think that I will have to walk everywhere. I will just assume my meal choices are pizza and pasta and try to find food places that will take my food vouchers. I will expect to be constantly sweating all the time and think that I am able to just walk by the Colosseum, the Pantheon and ancient ruins. But I won't. These things don't make sense in New York or Worcester. I won't be able to turn the tv on and watch American shows in Italian, they will be in English. I also won't have to subtract 6 hours to see if it is a safe hour to call home.
These are all of the things that I have done while I was here, and so much more. Like I said in my last post, a month doesn't seem like a really long time, but it is. It can seem like a lifetime to some people and when you are constantly moving you cannot believe it went by so fast.
I ended my time in Rome the same way I started, by going to mass at St. Peter's. The difference was that I understood so much more of what they were saying than the first time I went a few weeks ago. I think that the most important thing that I learned about myself while I was here, was that if I set a goal for myself, even a simple goal, I can accomplish it. I set that goal when I climbed Mt. Vesuvius, when I climbed the Leaning Tower, when I climbed the dome (they all have to heights don't they?), I set a goal, I told myself that I was going to make it to the top, no matter what, I went to that place for a reason and I will reach my goal. They all had different motives but I accomplished them every time.
So that is my new goal when I get home, set small goals for myself, they don't have to be huge, but just small steps to get to the bigger picture, and keep trying until I reach it.
"What if we just acted like everything was easy?" -Mary Ann Robinson
No comments:
Post a Comment