Al Casaletto

When you get to Rome, the place that you will be staying is basically a hotel ran by Italian nuns. The place is called Al Casaletto, and trust me, it is an experience to stay here. When we first pulled up to Al Casaletto and laid eyes on where we were going to be staying, I knew it was going to be an interesting four months. We got off the bus and were immediately serenated to by about ten Italain nuns, one playing guitar and one holding an Italian flag. This was the moment where my culture shock began. The fact that I was not in America anymore, let alone on the same continent, hit me like a brick wall. We walked into Al Casaletto and got our keys and room numbers as well as our roommates. My roommate and I walked to our room, still shaken up as to what just happened, and were expecting a descent hotel room like the ones you would see in America. Remember that humbling experience I was telling you about in my first blog post, well, this was apart of that. All that's in the rooms are two beds, two night stands, two desks and one closet. There is a bathroom with a shower in it, no bathtub. If you own a bathtub in Italy and it is operable, you are considered extremely lucky. I was astonished when I found out that there was no Wi-Fi in the rooms; I'm sure I almost started crying. Al Casaletto was the beginning of my very humbling and eye-opening experience in Roma.

Al Casaletto in general is a pretty large place. They have a laundry room with two washers, a hand washing station, and a few drying rack (Italians don't use dryers, you need to hang your clothes to dry.) Being the coffee addict that I am, the best part of Al Casaletto was knowing that there is coffee available in the morning, something I was really stressing out about before I left the States. They have a breakfast area, which includes Italy's famous hard crusted rolls and some jelly. Trust me, by the end of your stay there, you will be addicted to these precious little rolls of joy. You can then have your choice of "cafe," which is basically a really strong shot of espresso, "cappucino," a cappichino, "cioccolato," hot chocolate, or "cafe americana," which is stronger than American coffee but has less caffiene than ours.

When U-Mary made the agreement with Al Casaletto that allows us to stay there, the nuns let the university convert their old gardening storage section of the hotel into a classroom and an area for the students to relax. The lounge will become your sanctuary. It has plenty of chairs and a couch to hang out, and the best part, they installed Wi-Fi. This is where you'll be able to get on the internet and communicate with your family through Skype. The lounge also has a fridge so you can store anything that you get at Pim (the grocery store located down the hill from Al Casaletto.)

Unfortunatly, when U-Mary decided that this was the place to host their Rome campus, the nuns failed to tell them that Al Casaletto is conveniently located next to a farm. This farm just so happens to have appoximately nine roosters (I counted one day as they were walking underneat my window.) As you can about imagine, I got used to being woken up at five in the morning by roosters. You'll get used to it. Another thing this farm has going for them is the fact that they breed dogs. This sometimes makes for a noisy night if the dogs start barking. Again, you'll get used to it. However, of the sounds that I really don't like to hear at night, I also discovered some that I loved. Probably around three times a week while I was laying in bed, I would here singing and music in the streets. Italians love to party, I mean the sophisticated kind of partying. I would here music and people laughing and dancing, but I could never actually see them from my window. Most of the time along with the street festivals come fireworks. This gives you a front row seat to a sky full of red, white, and green fireworks. Once you see this event for the first time, the roosters and the dogs won't seem so bad.

This all may sound very unpleasant right now, but it's all apart of the experience. I wouldn't have had nearly as great of an experience in Rome if I was living in a five star hotel. Al Casaletto is something you have to experience in order for you to fully understand what Italy is like, and trust me, once you get back to the states, you'll miss those hard crusted rolls and the sight of those sweet Italian nuns everyday, just like I do.

(For more ideas about what Al Casaletto looks like, the U-Mary official website has pictures.)