You hear a wood-on-metal click as the heavy door closes behind
\nVespas buzz by. A friendly nasone fountain flutters fluid to the surface
\nCold and rich with minerality from running through calcium-cluttered underground
\nGarbage collectors clink bottles from a whole neighborhood\u2019s night of drinking<\/p>\n
You pass the wall populated by painted eyes, reflecting the Roman skyline in each aperture
\nChildren scream and kick soccer balls as you approach the Piazza di San Cosimato
\nEach morning morphs the square, from movie screen for outdoor black and white films
\nTo sea of white cap tents, vendors motioning for you to Please come try, friend!<\/p>\n
An old Italian man and his immigrant assistant break open an apricot and hand it to you
\nThe apricot\u2019s putti skin kisses your palms, caresses your nose, whispers albicocca in aroma
\nYou ciao each other and fade away from the chatter down the narrow ochre street
\nFilled with cries of cut vegetables, restaurants prepping garlic, onion, olive oil scents for lunch<\/p>\n
The cobblestone too warmly embraces your blistering toes
\nBlister: a fitting name, as if they burst from the bliss of stirring your sole
\nThe sun is also blistering, as you enter the open, shadeless space of Ponte Sisto
\nSweat swelling in so many crevices you think it might intertwine with your DNA<\/p>\n
You pass Trapizzino, with its crunchy sourdough triangles stuffed with liquid heaven
\nWhere you left your fried rice ball heart, where you can always briefly reunite with it for two Euro
\nYou enter the Campo dei Fiori, a flurry of vendors, fresh with strawberry pineapple smoothies
\nGrab some caf\u00e9 corretto, cut the bitter nuttiness with spice and fire<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll know you\u2019re at home when you measure time in buongiorno, buon pomeriggio, buonasera
\nYour cheese-scented salumeria knows your order: un etto di prosciutto crudo
\nDays are doubled by siesta-sliced sleep, you know your neighborhood nasoni
\nYou greet the statues by name, defiant, silent Giordano Bruno, il ugly truth Babuino
\nYou leave behind the longest nights out, the brightest smiles, the ripest tomatoes
\nYou translate it all to American English and wonder how much you lost in the process<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You hear a wood-on-metal click as the heavy door closes behind Vespas buzz by. A friendly nasone fountain flutters fluid to the surface Cold and rich with minerality from running through calcium-cluttered underground Garbage collectors clink bottles from a whole neighborhood\u2019s night of drinking You pass the wall populated by painted eyes, reflecting the Roman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":681,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[115],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/chidint\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/chidint\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/chidint\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/chidint\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/681"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/chidint\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/chidint\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1646,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/chidint\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions\/1646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/chidint\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/chidint\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/chidint\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}