Halloween in Roma to Saturday Nights in Sorrento

Rome & the Amalfi Coast: November 7, 2014

Ciao Friends!

MI DISPIACE for the blog post delay, but with Halloween, the morning after Halloween move to a new semi-permanent apartment, AND an impromptu trip to the Amalfi Coast, my blogging took a back seat while I simultaneously experienced things to now write about…

School has also kept me VERY busy and our schedules continue to fill up. Today it did rain in Rome and so naturally school was CANCELED. Not a joke. On the plus side, the day off did give me time to write and relax, but I just can’t get over that a rainy forecast allows the city government to preemptively cancel school. It gives you a little taste of just how this country works.

And while I thought a get-out-of-school-because-it-rained-day was absurd (in New Orleans the scholastic year would be cut in half), the Italians have similar feelings towards American ‘holidays’ or days in general we deem important enough to dress up in costume. As Halloween crept upon us last week, I asked people what they were dressing up as!? My question was usually met with, Italians don’t celebrate Halloween like Americans. One of my students told me - do not try and be creative- NO ONE will get it. IF you must dress up, just be scary…

So you’re telling me Italians won’t get that I am Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress and self-proclaimed ‘fang-banger’ from the HBO TV series, True Blood, about Vampires in small-town Louisiana!?!? Fair.

Long explanation made shorter, Italians do not celebrate Halloween like we do, and if anything it felt like I just kept reminding my students another weekday was upon us… EXCITING! It was nearly impossible finding Halloween themed anything. There is literally one hair/makeup studio in the center of town that a few days before the (apparently American) holiday sells a few ‘scary’ costume staples- devil horns, witches hats, and pirate eye-patches. Many Italians warned me the costumes could be very expensive at this place. PERFECT!

It was clear to me at this point that ALL I had to do to horrify Italians for Halloween was reveal the amount of money I've spent over the years to come up with the most creative costumes to out-do the next.

Pietro is going to be "Maestra Mallory's Apple Computer" - protective keyboard covers doubling as Halloween costumes...

Nevertheless, Ellie and I were very excited to have a set plan for Halloween night thanks to our friend, Anna-Maria, who invited us to her friend/coworker’s birthday party (doubling as a Halloween party). The party was going to be our first ‘house’ party here in Roma (or apartment party rather). And to be honest, I thought it was going to be a fairly small, low-key group gathering with some wine, apertivos, and candy (to at least acknowledge the holiday dedicated to sweets). We even brought one of our close Italian friends, Dario, to the party since obviously he wouldn’t have had any Halloween themed parties to go to.

I decided to dress up as a ‘regular’ vampire… all black, a little blood, and some sticky bites. Actually, just a one-fanged bite as the other adhesive apparently didn’t make it to the party. Ellie bought a mask fit for Mardi Gras (and one she probably has hundreds of at home) and we arrived ready to not be told how awesome and creative our costumes were.

Needless to say, my expectations for the party were completely wrong. The Birthday/Halloween party was an absolute RAGER. I should have realized when I found out the host herself was not Italian, but from the UK, that it would be. There were fog machines, strobe lights, a GREAT playlist and Halloween themed decorations along with candy, a fully stocked bar, wine everywhere and body to body zombies, vampires and witches. You KNOW the party is a good time when all you can think about is where to find the best late-night food after the festa comes to a close…CUE DARIO!

Ellie and I were treated to homemade pasta from Dario using his nonna’s homemade tomato sauce… If anyone reading this decides to move over to Italia, it is KEY to make an Italian best friend, preferably one who cooks and uses homemade ingredients at all hours of the night. In hindsight, a smaller, low-key party may have made our 7 am wake-up call to move into our new apartment and subsequent train to Sorrento WAY easier, but WHEN IN ROME do as the Romans apparently do not do on Halloween and have a lot of fun.

Dario making his nonna proud! And us FULL!

First thing Saturday morning, with our stomachs full of pasta, Ellie and I threw a few necessities in a bag and hopped on the train to Sorrento to visit a friend of hers from the states, Morgan. I cannot rave enough about our time in Sorrento and the Almalfi Coast. This weekend getaway was a MUCH needed change from Roma and big city living we are becoming accustomed to. It was a plus that Morgan had an actual Italian boyfriend with a car, who kindly chauffeured us to Positano and was sympathetic to the fact that he had motion-sickess prone passengers in the backseat. He spoke NO English BUT did speak Spanish very well. He studied at the University of Granada through ERASMUS (the Euro version of study abroad) so I got to really practice my SpItalian or my SpNeapolitan (the Italian dialect of Naples and the surrounding regions is very different from the Roman dialect). Giacomo is currently studying Natural Sciences in school and was kind enough to guide and impart his knowledge on us as we hiked down the cliffs of Positano before driving back to Sorrento for the evening.

The nightlife in Sorrento is also very different from Rome in that it is just a much smaller town. There is only one discoteca, Fauno Bar that doubles as a restaurant/cafe by day before transforming into a packed dance hall by night.

Naturally we went to the one and only happening spot Saturday night with Morgan and a bunch of locals. The place was PACKED and they charged a pretty hefty cover. Luckily Ellie and I were born ragazze (female), so we did not have worry about paying an overpriced entrance fee. Even though I did not see Tony Soprano himself inside the nightclub, it is well known that the mafia still has major influence in the southern part of Italy. The ONE nightclub in Sorrento was SO packed and so overpriced, I mentioned to one of the Italians why he or someone else didn’t just open up another fun bar or disco in the area? Another brilliant business venture I thought I had! He looked at me like I was nuts and with his limited vocabulary and broken English said, “because they will come mess it up.”

It was definitely NOT easy getting back to work this week, but it also makes me feel better to know that the Amalfi Coast really is only a short train ride away (assuming it doesn’t rain and all public transportation comes to a standstill).