Last year I spent a week in Rome visiting Italian Language Schools to find one that best met my needs. My time was well spent. I found Torre di Babele to be an outstanding school that surpassed my expectatons.

The morning of my first visit, I found the school in a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood of stately homes just off a major thoroughfare. Viola, a friendly secretary fluent in multiple languages including English, met me at the front desk. Monika, the director, gave me a tour and invited me to visit a classroom. Pasquale immediately made me feel a welcomed part of the class. An hour later, I was certain I’d found my place.

A year later, I returned for a two-month program and found a true “Torre di Babele” of international students of varying ages and backgrounds. Class-size is small. Teachers encourage student interaction. Every instructor understands the continuum of language development from beginner to advanced and adapts lessons appropriately. In addition, the school prepares Italian teachers. Assistants are available. The instructional materials, developed and refined in-house, are the best I’ve seen.

The excellent after-school and weekend programs and tours amazed me. The relationship the school has with the local community facilitates finding student housing, a wonderful advantage in a busy urban center. I can honestly say the school strives to make every aspect of Italian learning meaningful, fun, and well, really outstanding.

If you are serious about learning Italian and want to do it in an engaging, challenging environment, you won’t find a better place than Torre di Babele!

1. hang out with thousands of other Romans at the same time: CHECK
2. get lots of free stuff: CHECK
3. trot past the Coliseum with a bunch of other people: CHECK

Let's go!

This past Sunday, my roommate, her friend, and I took part in the 10th annual Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. Listening to thousands of people belting out “We are the champions, and we’ll keep on fighting ‘til the end” while waiting for the starting gun to go off was heart wrenching and incredibly inspirational. While my girly emotions were chucked out the window when I was gasping for air and all gross and sweaty twenty minutes later, it was still a great experience.

The registration process in itself was quite exciting as it felt surprisingly like Christmas. I handed over 10 euros and they just kept handing back random stuff in return. Apart from my race number, they gave me a free shirt, bag, and lots of samples of who-knows-what that I don’t really need but are always super fantastic when I get given them for free.

Race day was equally as exciting – double the amount of free things! While it was slightly amusing watching everyone elbowing their way through the throng in order to get something else that was free that they so desperately wanted and needed, I soon discovered that I actually also needed that free stuff. In the end, my pursuit was quite successful as I finished with another free shirt, couple of drinks, and a photo courtesy of Samsung.

Through Piazza Venezia next to Circo Massimo

The actual race was amazing. Running through Piazza Venezia and next to Circo Massimo with thousands of other people was awesome, to say the least. Everyone was there to have fun and the atmosphere was truly unique. While my time will not be revealed in this blog post (somewhat disgraceful, to be honest!), it was still great to cross that finish line. And obviously my hard work warranted a well earned trip to G. Fassi to eat one of those delicious mouth watering gelatos afterwards.

Let’s hope there are many more races – and gelatos – to come!

A presto,

J

Vadolin Player at Campo Dei Fiori

Every Friday and Saturday night this elderly mandolin player graces the restaurants and drinking establishments of Campo di Fiori. In Piazza Navona there’s a 5 piece jazz band that plays alternate weekends, adding to the romantic atmosphere. A mime artist visits centro storico at a predictable time each evening. If you sit on the Spanish Steps, within 2 minutes, like clockwork you will be presented with a bouquet of red flowers by a street trader.

After 6 months of living in central Rome we’ve seen everything before, know everything that’s going to happen – it’s like that movie ‘Groundhog Day’, or ‘The Truman Show’. It’s a slightly surreal experience: in that we know all the places to go, what’s going to happen, it’s passe. Whereas on the other hand everybody around us, all the tourists, the new people at school every two weeks, look at everything with the same wonderment, like when they see the Colloseum for the first time. For those that have just arrived in Rome, everything is new and spontaneous and exciting. It’s like the first time they’ve seen it, because IT IS the first time they’ve seen it. Everyone around us seems like they must be mad, crazy, and every morning I wake up I’m like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, everything is the same and predictable, but to everybody else it’s like the first time it happened, ever!

It was fate, chance, that that band started playing just at the right moment, that the restaurant we happened to pick was so spectacular, that the wine was just perfect….. OH!! I guess it was, uh, ‘meant to be’!

We used to joke that the Italian men, who are extremely forward and aggressive with the ladies, use this knowledge to their advantage to plan the perfect evening for a date, by taking their woman to the same restaurant, the same bar with the same band that just happened to be there, telling the barman to serve her strong drinks, while him non-alcoholic soft drinks, etc, etc.

Learning Italian after hours at "La Vineria"

13 euros for a bottle of vino, Campo di Fiori, oh many a night has been wiled away practicing my Italian here. It brings a tear to my eye, as I am now leaving Rome, and onto pastures new. My work here is now done, my friends, I will miss you all. The last cork has been popped, the last Italian conquest has been fought (JH: in what sense Dunks?), the last week at Torre di Babele has ended, and the last tearful photograph of the Colosseum has been snapped.

If I intended to take one I couldn’t take a more cheesy photograph than the one of the mandolin player at the Vineria. On the left is a Brazilian guy, and on the right is a Spaniard; oh those crazy latinos, they have more fun than anyone; it’s a real contrast between us English, the Germans, and other Anglo-Saxon descendant countries, and the Latinos, that I’ve discovered through being here. Such is the cultural diversity in Rome and at school that you encounter. Meeting all these nationalities and speaking another language also gives you a perspective on your own language and culture.