Finalmente a Casa!

We have an apartment! We, now, refers to me and Roisin, my new Irish roommate. She is fantastic, and we luckily have similar habits, which bodes well for the next month. Our apartment, or flat, or appartamento, depending on who you ask, is amazing. The landlord, Riccardo, is a very strange man of indeterminate age. Roisin thinks he is over 40, and I think that sounds believable. He talks to my neck. I can't complain, however, because I have a very serious crush on our new apartment. It is located in the heart of Trastevere, and the area around it is what the Italians call 'characteristic'. I heard this about a number of neighborhoods when I was searching for apartments, but I believe it about mine, since it is vibrant and bright and full of people. These people, amazingly, are actually Italian, and the tourist count is almost nil. We are surrounded by restaraunts and food shops, which are both delicious and inexpensive, as far as I have been able to determine, because there are very few tourists around.

The apartment itself is adorable, and, as Riccardo says, 'very fresh'. It is on the ground floor of a tall building, and opens on to a central courtyard, which is shady and perpetually full of drying laundry. I love seeing the laundry on the line, and plan to do some laundry in our washing machine just so I can participate in the laundry drying activities. The ceilings are whitewashed brick vaults, and are quite high. It gives the flat an old, authentic feeling (although authentic what I don't know) and the whole thing has real character. I have pictures, but I can't put them here, because I am actually using Riccardo's computer to type this post, since the internet in our apartment is not working yet. Trying to converse with Riccardo about the internet was an adventure, but I eventually managed to determine that the internet modem box 'non funzione', and that a new one will arrive... sometime soon.

After making a grocery list entirely in Italian, we stocked our frigorifero, which I fixed using my brute strength last night. For reference, the fridge is the same size as the washing machine, so we are being creative about what belongs in there. Last night, I cooked a gourmet dinner of pasta and tomato sauce with onions. While this may not sound all that special, cooking it in my own kitchen in my own apartment lent the dish a flavor of satisfaction that made a big difference. This is the first apartment that I have really ever lived in by myself, and I fear that no apartment I will live in subsequently will ever live up to it! The only down side is that I have to pay rent...