New Year?s Eve in Rome

Up until 6 years ago, I welcomed the New Year in the Philippines. It was loud and chaotic, with people throwing firecrackers. In larger places that can afford P5,000 a pop, there are fireworks displays. The idea is to make noise. And plenty of it. The next day, there would be a number of people wounded because of stray bullets or firecrackers jumping into people, some kids.

When I moved to the US, not having any friends and not knowing what, where and how to celebrate, NYE celebrations have been reduced to having wine and champagne, filling the dinner table with round fruits, and turning the TV on, watching Dick Clark’s show in New York City to wait for the ball to drop. When Chef and I started dating, this evolved to having dinner with the family, and dashing to the city, checking out the fireworks display on the Embarcadero. So it was such a thrill when Chef and I decided we’ll try to spend the New Year in a new place.

This year was when it began, and the new place was Rome. And it was not as how imagined to be. I thought it would be like New York, with everyone on the street, enjoying the concert, having fun in a wholesome way. My friend welcomed 2011 in NYC and he actually said, it probably looks better on TV because it was basically waiting for the ball to drop in the cold with a lot of people. So I would say, NYE in Rome is NYC meets Manila.

We had just come home from Naples and had our NYE dinner at the hotel. Then, they gave us a gift bag that contained those paper trumpet thingies, an orange hat, two plastic flutes and a bottle of champagne to “celebrate in the streets of Rome”. And it meant precisely that. When we went to Piazza del Popolo, the place where everyone told us to go because apparently it’s lively and the place to be, everyone on the street did indeed have a bottle of champagne (plus the plastic flutes). People are already drunk on the streets of course but they’re saving the champagne for later.

We went to the middle of the square, observing, dodging every firecracker that seems to come out of nowhere. And these are loud and big. And people didn’t care that these things jumped. They’d just throw it where there’s little space. Meanwhile, everything else that I witnessed was definitely not something that you would find in a plaza in the US. I am pretty sure the guy behind me was smoking weed, and a girl in the corner snorted something. This was next to the homeless guy who probably lived in the piazza. A couple has found a good place to dry hump. (Sorry kids). This whole spectacle seemed more of a form of anarchy that a mere celebration of a new year. A group of guys from California sat next to us equally confused, nonetheless ready to celebrate. We were talking about how all this was very interesting. A bit scary, but interesting. Soon after that, some 30 police cars just suddenly surrounded the place. We didn’t know why, perhaps to give some sort of “peace”. Then they lined up, execution style. And left after 15 minutes or so.

As the firecrackers are getting more erratic and people are getting more rowdy, Chef and I decided to go to Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II where we had seen a stage being set up earlier. We had thought of going to the Fori Imperiali where the famous Roman singer Claudio Baglioni was performing but we thought it was too far from where we were coming from and we really didn’t want to be in the metro when the clock ticked midnight. There were definitely just as many firecrackers, people shoving each other to the side to avoid getting hurt. We saw one girl crying because she got hit with something. Smoke everywhere. Chef was covering me because we were afraid the firecrackers would jump.

Finally, the huge display came out as midnight arrived. There was a display from a distance, and another one just above us. Everyone popped their champagne bottles and kissed their loved ones. That was the time when we were reminded of what we really came here for, to celebrate the New Year with each other, our most loved one.

That peace probably lasted for 10 minutes. Soon after that, after people had kissed whoever they wanted to kiss, they were throwing firecrackers again. And, in addition to that, they threw their empty bottles of champagne up in the air to break in the ground. There were soon just broken glass everywhere! As people were drunker, and as we had a train to Florence to catch the next day, we thought it was time for us to go back to the hotel.

It was delightful, but scary at the same time. Now I’ve been there and done that, I think I’m ready for something more mellow. Next time when they say “celebrate in the streets of Rome,” I’ll be sure to take that literally.