Adjusting to nomad life in Rome means adjusting to the a timezone and, woohoo, I was feeling that jetlag this morning! (If you still aren’t sure what nomad life is, check out the Nomad Life Q&A post I wrote HERE!)
I slept in until 12:30 pm Italy time and caught up on my journals. There was so much to write about already and we have only been here for one day!
Steven woke up at 1 PM and did NOT believe me when I told him what time it was! Once he heard that information, we hopped out of bed so we could actually get a few things accomplished this morning!
Our First Grocery Shop in Rome
The grocery store was about a 7-minute walk away, so we went to get ourselves some food. I really had no idea what to expect, because I don’t think I had ever been to an international grocery story before. However, the one we found was SO cute and they had a lot of stuff!
It’s so funny, too, because you just walk down the streets in the city of Rome and the grocery stores are right there, within walking distance, plopped in right along the sidewalk like any other shop. I am so used to the States where you truly need a vehicle to just get to the grocery store because it’s so separated, (at least in the suburbs/country) so this was different for me!
Another really interesting thing about Italy is that it seems like everyone does small grocery runs frequently throughout the week, whereas Americans tend to stock up in fewer trips. The thing with the food in Italy is that it is fresher and there are fewer preservatives, so I think they are truly onto something here…
Anyways, this grocery store had a huge selection of pasta, both boxed and refrigerated. It was like something from a gluttonous Italian dream. Tortellini, Ravioli, Linguini… you name it, they had it.
We got a few other things – eggs, bacon, chicken, oat milk, Special K, Fage Yogurt (yes, they surprisingly had my favorite yogurt brand!), peanut butter, etc. We are learning as we go what our grocery “staples” are for nomad life, since we will be doing fresh grocery shops frequently as we move from place to place.
Something super fun was that they had huge Nutella jars with colorful labels that featured gorgeous pictures of Italy. I’ll have to get one of those soon for sure!
We checked out and carried our bags back. We did have to purchase plastic bags there, but once we bought them we were able to reuse them for the remainder of our stay! Once we arrived back at home, we put the groceries away and started our workday!
Our New Version of “Everyday Life”
The windows were open and we could hear the sounds of the neighborhood outside – passing cars, ambulances, people speaking Italian. The fresh air coming in was rejuvenating. This is life in Rome. And it was honestly one of my favorite afternoons of my entire life. It was so simple yet so fulfilling.
We were both just SOOOO happy and over the moon. Steven was kissing me so passionately in the kitchen. He was just like “I feel like we can do anything!” And it’s so true. There is something about taking a leap on something as big as this and trusting the journey… the sense of liberation and excitement is like nothing I’ve ever felt!
I’m just in love with him and in love with life. ♥
We worked our first afternoon to line up the time zone, and it was really strange because it felt so early but it was actually dark outside. It didn’t take long for us to get used to this new routine at all, but it definitely felt funny the first few days!
We had pesto ravioli with spinach and ricotta filling for dinner! Steven made it because I had so much work to get done, which was really kind of him. It was his first time ever making ravioli. (what better place to do it!?)
He did so great and the pasta tasted absolutely amazing! The fact that grocery store pasta can taste like that…!
We paired it with a bottle of delicious white wine which cost 3€ from the grocery store. Have I mentioned how much I love this country?!
After dinner, we pretty much went to bed! I watched Nailed It on Netflix, did some journals, updated Instagram (follow along – @JessicaFaye508), and tried to fall asleep whenever I could.
Make sure to sign up for email notifications for new posts about nomad life in Rome by putting your email in the box below. Until next time… 🙂
