Pillar #5: Romans find snow even more foreign than Georgians

Before leaving for Rome, people who knew better assured me that it NEVER snows in Rome, that it will be much more moderate than a South Bend winter, etc. etc. So it never crossed my mind that I would be writing a post about snow in Rome until it actually happened last Friday. It was one of the coolest things I have seen in my life.

According to our original schedule, we were not even supposed to be in Rome because we were supposed to leave Thursday for a weekend in Naples and surroundings. The trip had to be shortened because we were supposed to deal with the Italian bureaucracy Friday in order to get permission to stay in and re-enter the country during the time our student visa is valid. Thankfully, that appointment was canceled due to the snow. More to come on Naples in a few days.

As I've mentioned before, I live on top of the Janiculum Hill, so it was snowing pretty hard when we were leaving the apartment to head to our appointment. By the time we made it down the hill it had let up, and by the time we were to school it had stopped. I sat down to work at my desk, and after a while I looked out the balcony doors and noticed that it was snowing just as hard as before, and my first thought was "Pantheon," which, if you don't know, is an ancient Roman temple converted to a Catholic church with a giant hole (or oculus) in the center of the dome. It's been pretty cool to see it raining in there a few times before, but there is nothing like seeing snow flakes swirling around in the sky above the dome and then slowly falling the 142 feet to the ground. There was already a decent crowd by the time we got there, but after a while the whole piazza was suddenly filled with curious Romans watching the snow fall for at least 45 minutes. Then as quickly as it came the snow was gone, and by lunch time it was mostly melted from the streets and rooftops.


According to our office manager, the last time that it snowed in Rome was 1986. Interestingly enough, Huaxia, the Chinese member of our group, pointed out that 1986 was the year of the Tiger (and her zodiac year), as is 2010. (Side notes: according to Chinese legend, the animals in the Chinese zodiac raced across a river to see what order they would be listed. The tiger was third, and the rat--my Chinese zodiac animal--was first because he rode across the river on the ox's back. There's no year of the cat because the rat knocked him off on the way over, possibly explaining my aversion to cats. And, if you know the book, the the Year of the Boar is when Jackie Robinson first played baseball for Brooklyn.) We also have a Korean girl in our group, JiYeon, who mentioned that snow in Asian cultures traditionally means a plentiful harvest and good luck in general. I guess we will all be very lucky this year (or at the very least, have excellent tomatoes and peaches this summer when I'm back in Georgia).