Last weekend we traveled out of London for our first weekend trip - to Rome! It was unbelievable, gorgeous, fun, delicious, basically everything I could ask for from my first trip to Italy!
We left late Friday afternoon and flew cheap-o airfare from London to Rome. On this airline each passenger is allowed to bring one carry-on bag, if you choose to check a bag they charge 20 pounds for it. What I didn't realize is that my purse was considered a carry-on bag (unlike in the States where you get a carry-on plus a personal item) and we were stopped while getting on the plane and had to shove it into Stephen's already-stuffed bag. So, traveling in Europe lesson #1! During our flight the captain made an announcement to say hello and whatnot, and he mentioned that we were currently flying over Geneva and the Swiss Alps. It was already completely dark so all we could see were city lights, which was a bit disappointing because the Alps is one of my favorite places! Next time we'll have to fly during the day.
Our hotel (Hotel Hassler) was at the very top of the Spanish Steps - which means we got to climb all 138 steps at least twice a day (not a bad thing after all the gelato and pasta!). The majority of the first day we spent just wandering around the city and taking it all in. We saw the Pantheon (originally built as a temple to all the gods of Rome). The building is in amazing shape, it is still fully formed as opposed to a ruin. It's really beautiful inside and out, and the concrete dome, although almost 2,000 years old, is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world! At the center of the dome is an open hole (oculus) that lets in sunlight - or rain if it's raining - and the sun spotlight arcs across the dome as the sun moves across the sky. It's kind of mesmerizing.
For dinner we stopped at a restaurant where I had the world's best pasta alla carbonara. Seriously, I think I said mmmmmm with every bite. For dessert I had lemon gelato - once again, one of the greatest things I've ever tasted. It was perfectly tart and creamy and sweet... I love lemon-flavored things. I have this memory from when I was very young, 3 maybe, standing in my great-grandmother's living room eating lemon drops out of the candy dish on her coffee table. I don't remember much of her, but my love of sweet lemon started then! Probably my love of candy, too. :) Oh! And they topped the meal off with a complimentary glass of limoncello! Amazing.
Our second day we visited the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We took a tour inside of the Colosseum, which was one of my favorite things of the trip. The size of it is a little overwhelming, and what we see today is not even the full size/height it was originally. There are certainly many stadiums in existence today that dwarf it (hello Jerry World), but there is something about all that space created by stone, not to mention being almost 2,000 years old, it's just one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.
After the Colosseum we walked up to Palatine Hill - one of the 7 hills of Rome and where Rome was founded - and then down into the Roman Forum. There are ruins everywhere, it's so easy to imagine what it was once like.
The last day we visited Vatican City, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. If the Colosseum impressed me, the Basilica stunned me completely. The size, the beauty, the intricacy, the holy space... it's difficult to describe or even capture with photographs. Sadly we weren't able to stay very long because they started closing it up about 20 minutes after we'd arrived. We'd spent so much time going through the museum and the Sistine Chapel!
Okay, so enough with the important historical stuff, I have had requests to describe the fashion styles of the places we visit. Italian people - what a show! I could sit and people-watch in a piazza all day long. Everything they do, they do with effortless flair, and they make the English look so... English. If you are an Italian man, you wear dark, form-fitting clothes, pants that don't pool around your ankles, are fond of black turtlenecks under blazers, and make it look really cool. You also have on sunglasses and a scarf thrown on in a way that shows the world that you don't have to try very hard to look this good. If you are an Italian woman, you wear beautiful tall boots or stiletto heels through cobblestone streets and don't twist an ankle as I would. You wear very tight pants or leggings and carry a large handbag of note. It was a tad cold in Rome, so you are often wearing a puffy jacket, shiny, in either black, eggplant, or navy, and you get extra points if it's belted. Seriously, I saw that jacket everywhere.
I'm going to upload some pictures, but it might take a little longer to get to that. We are moving to our new flat today - hooray! - and losing our free wireless. I will have to hunt around for a pub or coffee shop with wireless until we get everything set up in our new place.
So until then! Ciao!
