Any single souvenir item you can think of, Rome has it with a “I <3 Roma” slapped on the front. Shirts and totes? Got it. Underwear and baby bibs? They got it. Mugs? They got it and it’s not always going to be safe to bring to work.
Souvenirs, what we take away to remember all the beauty and love of a trip abroad, can come in many forms besides the “I <3 Roma” branded collectibles. BUT, you have to remember whatever souvenirs you do end up taking have to fit in one suitcase under fifty pounds. If this wasn’t the case, you already know I’d be bringing home an entire travertine-marble table back with me.
How can we begin to hierarchize our keepsakes, what is worth less, what we can get rid of? What form of a memory matters more to us than the other? This is how I’m rationalizing what I can realistically take home as my semester abroad is coming to an end, in an escalating scale of necessity:
Trinkets: Trinkets, at least to me, have an inverse relationship of amount to value. The more I have, the easier it is to forget some. Having just a few makes them a lot more special.
Clothes: A little more practical, I know I’ll have to wear them and whenever I do I can remember the day I got them, where I was, who I was with.
Little treats: Not as long-lasting, but what I will actively miss and think about most when I’m back home. Italy’s granola, truffle, cheeses and peach iced tea are what I never want to part with.
Scrapbooks: Old receipts, business cards, and doodles on notebooks may just be throwaways, but nothing is more specific to a place than something from the actual site. I love collaging them on my walls or in my journal to express my thoughts and feelings from when I was actually there.
Photographs: Nothing hits harder than scrolling through my photo albums on the leaving flight, in a seemingly never-ending stream of tears, reliving my best memories. But it’s still not the best way to remember them.
Truthfully, anyone can buy the same clothes, chachkies, even photographs. They are more like a gateway into what we felt and what we thought, the intangible stuff that means so much to us and what these souvenirs try, and fail, to make fully tangible. Showing someone a postcard of Rome is much easier than having to put into words what that place means to us, which cannot be replicated in any souvenir shop. In no particular order, the true, yet intangible souvenirs I will take back are:
Memories: All the amazing things I experienced, from the museums I’ve been to that inspire me, the field trips and , the conversations that made me laugh so hard it felt like I set a new crunches world record, that made me feel at home.
Lessons: How to live in a city, to confront people, to not take things so personally yet still be sensitive to myself and other’s needs. What I learned from my time in Rome, of course about Rome itself, but places all around the world – from how light the snowfall has been in Pennsylvania to the revival of naive art in Croatia. Wikipedia deep dives have nothing on living, walking, and breathing in a culture and a history.
Beautiful souls: The incredibly kind, funny and adventurous people I’ve met through Temple are honestly the reason why I could make the memories and learn the lessons I did. They made me feel like I was in my favorite books from when I was a kid, when I wanted nothing more than to be with my band of adventurers who explore the unknown together.
Because, truly, nothing says “I <3 Roma” more than spending it with the people I loved in Rome. It will take me many airplane flights to process everything that being in Rome with them helped me to realize about myself, others, and all around the world. When you travel with Temple Rome, don’t diminish your experiences to fit inside a 20 in. by 15 in. suitcase. Let them hurt, shatter and explode, even if it does cast concerning glances from your airplane seat neighbors. The memories you will make in Rome, like the city itself, will still feel alive to you centuries after.