Learning to get lost

In a city like Rome

I’m standing in the middle of the street, buildings are towering over me, the locals are walking around knowing exactly where they need to go, while the tourists are wandering around their heads in their phones trying to figure out where they need to go.

Rome was my first ever trip. Believe it or not the first time I entered an airplane was at 19 years old, I was nervous of course but I was adamant with my boyfriend that I didn’t want to go with a tour and that I just wanted to get lost in the city. But as you do when you get excited about a vacation you start to research and slowly the itinerary starts to be built. Soon you’ll want to visit the 30+ places on the list and you’ll lose sight to what you actually wanted this vacation to be, at least that’s what happened to me. I started seeing google reviews and watching different Tiktoks trying to make out when to go, this vacation was turning out to be like the rest of my life, planning and controlling every single aspect of it, which wasn’t something I wanted.

The moment we stepped down from the airplane and into Rome I knew that, the itinerary was going to be thrown out the window. I started walking, wandering down cobble street, I wanted to live like the locals, for that week I wanted to be a local, like Anthony Bourdain once said "Travel isn't always pretty. It isn't always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that's okay. The journey changes you.”

In doing that I could actually do and see things I wouldn’t have experienced. As we wandered around we came up onto a cobble road, I can still picture it in my mind, there was a small arancini restaurant, it was in front of a piazza and in the middle of it there was a white van selling flowers, it was like stepping into the Eat, Pray, Love movie. Just a stone throw away there was a whole in the wall bar, a couple stood outside seated on the cobble stone wall a glass of red wines in their hands.

The sound of jazz music sounded through the air, a gentle breeze coming through as the sun began to set. Another woman danced around a glass of Aperol Spritz in her hand as her friends cheered on. This is what travelling is all about, slowing down and experiencing life. Being able to sit back, to listen and understand other people’s stories.

It’s wasn’t just that though it was being able to go into restaurants without doing a whole research. As we were walking we found another spot that sold tiny tacos, they were the best pulled pork tacos I’ve ever tried and if it wasn’t for just deciding there and there to go in we would have never tried it. Travelling like a local also means trusting yourself to make a decision on the spot not just decisions that are premeditated weeks if not months in advance. We also tried a bakery that we came across, I think I tried something with potato but I don’t remember how it tasted, what I do remember was that it was very oily.

But I can’t say all our vacation was made on a whim, there was of course some places that I definitely wanted to go and see, like the colosseum. There was also this osteria restaurant I wanted to try, we went on a rainy day. I don't know why, but standing in the rain in Rome, completely soaked while watching two women make homemade pasta, made the whole afternoon feel a little more magical (even though the pasta was a little bit more al dente for my liking).

It was moments like that that made the trip unforgettable, on one night during the trip we found a small Korean restaurant and instead of deciding to explore we preferred enjoying a cozy night in our hotel room eating korean take out, because trips like this isn’t just about spending every second trying to fit in everything you wanted to see. It’s about slowing down and enjoying the moment.

Somewhere along the cobble streets and the main streets filled with tourists, Rome stopped feeling like a city I needed to conquer and instead it became a place I simple wanted to wander through and create memories.

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