Many people have asked me to describe Rome in one word. Noisy. There is a constant noise or soundtrack to the city. While some have mistakenly compared it to New York City in America I disagree somewhat. You see there is a lull in the noise level in New York. There does not ever seem to be any lull in noise in Rome however. This can be quite upsetting to someone who lives in a quiet neighborhood. In fact I could not get much sleep while i was living there because there was a constant noise of car alarms, garbage trucks, people arguing outside and the ever present ambulance sirens that seem to pervade every corner of the city.
Now some students could easily adapt to the noise level. I found it kind of hard to do so. I guess even though I grew up in a suburb in America I was not ready for the drone of the city noise. I am sure after time i would have adapted to the noise after more time in the city but just one month was not enough.
So if you are going to Rome and are going to actually live in an apartment then I would highly recommend buying ear plugs or some sort of white noise machine to make it easier for you to sleep. Some found that using their iPods with speakers a great way to fall asleep. I would recommend using this technique as you can more easily fall asleep to something that you are familiar with then these other distractions.
As I said I like Rome but it is not all wonderful. There are points of contention i have with the city and the noise level is by far the biggest one.
