WARNING: This was really stupid of me. Things could have gone terribly wrong and I was extremely lucky. I think I have learned my lesson, well I’ll at least promise not to do it again. I hope you can still enjoy this tale of my foolish adventures in the midst of your cringing.
Roma, amor backwards, the city of romance. I only had a couple of days to see it all during my midterm break. But I was stuck. I knew there was a lot to see in Rome, but after I visited the Colosseum, I didn’t know what to do next. I was sitting in the Campo de Fiori, having a gelato, when I was approached by a man. He was average height, in his late thirties, wearing a suit. He said something to me in Italian. “Sorry, I don’t understand.” I said, eager to get back to my gelato.
“You speak english?” He asked. He introduced himself as Claudio and began a conversation with me. He then offered to show me around the city. Hmm...I was not even remotely interested in this guy, he was kind of a creeper. But, it would be nice to have a guide to take me around the city...and it would be a great adventure! Isn’t that what is supposed to happen when a girl goes to Italy by herself? She meets some handsome Italian guy and they have a wonderful adventure. Claudio was not handsome, or young, or interesting, but perhaps I could still have an adventure. I agreed.
We walked up the hill, Gianiculo, and it was absolutely stunning. The sun filtered through the trees, dappling the cobblestoned street with light. The Ponentino breeze carried the scent of flowers and the sound of trickling water played in the distance. I was pulled out of my happy reverie when Claudio took my hand and kept trying to kiss me. Ugh. He picked a flower and put it in my hair. “Como si bella,” he said to me, “That means, how you are beautiful.” Wow, that was really cheesy. I rolled my eyes when he turned back around. If I was going to have to put up with this to see the city, maybe I was better off on my own. At the top of the hill, we could see all of Rome stretched out beneath us bathed in the light from the setting sun. He tried kissing me again. He came up behind me and I could here him breathing heavy in my ear. I pushed him away. This was really disgusting and uncomfortable, even now, I can hardly write this down.
“I’m going to go,” I said, walking away.
“Signorina, la mia soprano, aspeta! Maybe we could have a drink?” Oh, free stuff...maybe I could put up with this a little longer. I knew I should go, but I decided to have a drink with him. There was a restaurant at the top of the hill, we had Prosecco with olives and some other snack type things. It would have been lovely, if Claudio wasn’t there. I was eating an olive and pulled the pit out of my mouth. Next thing I knew, his mouth was around my fingers and he took the pit in his mouth.
“Gross!” I was repulsed.
“I wanted it because it was yours,” he smirked at me. What was wrong with this guy? He told me that he wanted to be an opera singer when he was younger. His favorite opera was Don Giovanni, of course it was. “La cidarem la mano...” he wheezed, taking my hand. The rape song, lovely.
After we finished our drinks, he took me to the Vatican and then out for another drink. This time we had Brachero (I’m not sure how to spell it or any of this italian stuff for that matter...). It was a sweet white wine. “Dame la mano, give me your hand,” he kept saying to me. He kissed each of my fingers, naming them in italian. I wrinkled my nose. “Don’t you feel the fire?” He asked me, urgently. I didn’t like where this was going, so I decided to mess with him.
“Fire? What fire?” I asked frantically, looking around.
“No, no, il focco, the fire inside,”
“You mean like being warm?”
“Well, uh, yes,” he looked at me very seriously, “are you warm?”
“Actually, I’m a bit cold,” I said, pulling my jacket closer to me. Claudio looked disappointed.
We walked to the Trevi fountain and then had dinner in the piazza outside the Pantheon. The whole day I had been carrying a shopping bag full of all my things. I had only brought a tiny bag and could not fit everything inside. Claudio noticed it, “This is no good!” he said. Ho took me to one of the street vendors and told me to pick a new bag. I protested weakly, and then happily took my pick. We then walked to the Spanish steps and the Via Veneto. When he wasn’t looking at me, I made faces at him. I crossed my eyes and stuck out my tongue. He took me to Harry’s Bar and we had martinis that were 15 euros each. He told me he wanted to marry me.
“Ok, where’s the ring?” I asked, tartly.
“Well, it would be weird if I already had it,” he said sheepishly. Not much weirder than anything that had already happened, I thought.
It was getting late, and I wanted to get away from him. I made up some story about having to meet a friend somewhere and he agreed to get me a taxi. My hostel was about an hour outside the city center, and Claudio came with me so he probably paid close to one hundred Euros round trip. I don’t know why this guy was spending so much on me. But I made it back to my room, safe and relieved.
The next day, I agreed to see him for dinner. Julia and Namesake warned me that I shouldn’t, I knew I shouldn’t as well. But for some reason, I couldn’t resist. Maybe i just wanted free dinner, maybe I liked the attention, or maybe I just liked the sense of danger. I told him I would meet him at the Spanish Steps. While I waited, I visited the church at the top of the stairs. I got down on my knees and prayed, “Jesus, I know I shouldn’t go, but I can’t say no. Please help me to resist, help me just run away.” But I failed to say no. I met him, and we went to dinner. I had spaghetti carbonara, it was really good. He took me to a bar afterwards and he told me about his family. His sister, Louisa, is a big name ballet choreographer, and his mother owns an art gallery. I told him about my family. As I spoke about them, I realized more and more that this was not what I wanted. This was not who I am.
Somehow, I lost track of the time and when I realized how late it was, the trains had stopped running. I didn’t have a way to get back home. Claudio offered to let me stay at his mom’s house. I refused. I hailed a taxi, I would pay for it myself. I shook his hand and walked away.
When I returned to London, I turned on the TV and Roman Holiday was on. It was strange to see all of the places I had just been, in black and white. Audrey Hepburn’s character wanted an adventure just like me. She left behind the confines of her everyday life to learn something about herself. I learned a lot about myself and the adult world in Rome. Let’s just hope I put it to use and avoid situations like this in the future...Ok, that’s enough, back to whatever I was doing before this!
