In my time in Rome, I have had he opportunity to meet many local residents through sites such as Couchsurfing and Twitter. Just by posting that I was in Rome and was interested in grabbing coffee, lunch or dinner with some locals has opened up a wide array of options as far as touring the city, learning the language, seeing parts of Rome most visitors would never visit, and getting free food!Within a day of posting on social media sites that I was arriving in Rome, I had numerous responses from people wanting to meet up. Many of them wanted to grab a drink or just talk about each others experiences. Two responses though have led to what I see as long-lasting friendships.
My first meet up was with an Italian Engineer named... C. Because of privacy, names won't be listed. Sorry creepy people. C studied engineering in Rome and was gracious enough to tour me around the Coliseum and take me out to one of his favorite restaurants. While he toured me around, he wanted me to correct his English grammar. We eventually met up with some Russian couchsurfers who were visiting the city. Together, we all walked to Castle Sant' Angelo to tour it.
Afterwards we spent time talking about each others lives, education, home countries, and goals. It was a big step forward for me personally, being able to open to three strangers, but I learned so much about Russia and Italy from it.
The second person that's impacted me that I've met through social media is R. R has been incredibly kind. For about 45 minutes of assistance with her English (which was already superb compared to the average Italian) she cooked (and taught me the recipe) a traditional Italian lunch and dinner. Throughout the process we also had an apéritif called Belini, which is a traditional Italian drink, either alcoholic or nonalcoholic, which is consumed before a meal. After dinner, R was gracious enough to make homemade crepes. With the crepes we had a cocoa and cheese spread that was mixed with Baley's. Altogether it was an amazing experience that lasted unit the early morning. Going into the experience I was quite nervous. Here's me a 21 year old American going grocery shopping and hanging out with an adult Italian. Needless to say as the night passed on, I began to relax, which is when the fun really started to happen!
Thanks to R and her numerous connections through social media, she introduced me to another Italian who was hosting an American at his apartment. We spent the whole night talking about each others lives and experiences. The conversation went deep enough to talk about socio-economics, lucid dreaming and so much more. I went into my second couchsurfing meet up a nervous mess but left with a new and fantastic experience under my belt.
As I wrote this post, R texted me asking if I wanted to do dinner with her and some others tomorrow. I can't wait!
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