Quando a Roma ...
I was asked to recount my experience in Rome, Italy, and I am
having quite the writer’s block. You
know when you get some phrase or tune stuck in your head and no matter what you
do you cannot get rid of it? Like the
other day as I walked through the grocery store, for whatever reason, I could
not get the alliteration, “she sells seashells by the seashore” out of my
head. I tried singing everything from
“twinkle twinkle little star” to the latest Lady GaGa song, “Telephone”! (Can you tell I have writer’s block
yet?) Well, tonight as I try to jot down
an outline of my vacation to Rome, I cannot get
the B-52’s song, “Roam”
out of my head. .. “Take it hip to hip rock it through the wilderness… around
the world the trip begins with a kiss. Roam if you want to…
roam around the
world.” Soon I am just going to make up something
about a young couple that fell in love while backpacking through Italy!
My husband decided to pitch in
and try to help. He set the mood with
everything Rome. He lit a candle on top of the bottle of
Chianti we sipped in the Piazza Navona while
overlooking the Fontana
del Nettuno.
How many times did we say “Scusi”
before our waiter came over? We laughed
for hours because after the 10th Scusi, we realized it was not
pronounced scuzi, more like scoozi. Hey,
I took 6 years of French, not Italian.
Till this day we don’t know if the waiter was just annoyed at our
terrible Italian or if he genuinely could not hear us. It was a bit strange that when we ordered Tartufo we got a Gnocchi!?!
“Take it hip to hip rock it
through the wilderness… around the world the trip begins with a kiss. Roam if you want to…
roam around the
world.” Seriously, how do I get this out
of my head???
Next to my chianti candleholder,
my husband placed a handful of pennies. What
the heck is this from? We were so broke
in Rome that we
had to use pennies to pay for more chianti?? Lol…
And he put a cup of water next
to the pennies… hhhmmm… That’s it, Trevi Fountain. The water at the bottom of the fountain is said to represent
the sea. Legend has it you will return to Rome if you throw a
coin into the water. You should toss it over your shoulder with your back to
the fountain. We were having such an
amazing time in Rome
that we must have thrown 50 pennies each into the fountain. We wanted to reassure ourselves that we would
return to Rome!
I
think my husband has broken through my writer’s block. I remember waking up that first morning from
the master bedroom of our vacation rental. When we arrived in Rome, it was dark
out. We had no idea what to expect when
we woke up. In plain English, my husband
scared the bejesus out of me. He threw
back the curtains to let the sun in and he fell over, pulled down the curtain
rod, and gasped. After I made sure he
was okay and laughed hysterically (nothing is funnier to me than people
falling. Falling = funny!) I looked out
the window to see what made him stumble.
We had a panoramic
view of the 2000 year old Colosseum! You cannot even imagine what it is like to
have such a view right outside your window, as if you could reach out and touch
it. Truly spectacular. I originally was against renting a private vacation rental and my
husband fought for it, so naturally, after he recovered from his accident, he
smiled with his pearly whites and said, “Told you so! Do you know how much this view would cost at
a hotel?” He was right, and make it
known, that was the one and only time he was ever right! Not just in Rome, but
everywhere! I think that is why he threw
a few extra pennies in the fountain when I was looking for our camera in my
genuine Italian leather handbag.
Naturally, he wants to return to the one and only place he was ever
right! (I digress for a moment… Question
for all the women – Does it matter what the functionality of a handbag is, as
long as it looks good on your arm, correct?
Please let my husband know that because if I had to hear one more time
about how many photo ops my handbag cost him as I tried to ruffle through the
chewing gum, receipts, tour guides, and sunglasses in that bag, I was going to
knock him over the head with it!)
See,
all our memories are starting to come back to me. Let’s see what else does the
old memory still have… I do
remember sitting outside on the terrace, overlooking Rome, while my
husband and the rest of Italy slept (I am a
bit of a night owl) and just watched the history rest before my eyes. It was so serene and tranquil. Don’t tell my husband, but was certainly not
something I would have gotten to experience at a hotel!
As I
was daydreaming about my moments on the terrace in Rome, my husband
placed what-used-to-be white sneakers with one lace missing and a heel worn
down more than the rest of it on my dining room table. Which by the way, made me upset that he would
a) put dirty sneakers on my antique barn-style table delivered from Ireland b) put
shoes period, on the table since it is very bad luck and c) why he would want
me to recount my time in those shoes! My
dear husband thought it would be nice on our vacation in Rome to follow some
of those walking tours in the guide books.
He mapped out three of them before we even confirmed our vacation rental
reservations! It sounded like a great
idea and it kept him busy while I spent my time trying to figure out how to
pack 15 days of clothes in a bag made for 3 days worth. The first walking tour was quite
amazing. Three and a half hours walking
the heart of Rome. We started out with an amazing view of the
city from Piazza del Quirinale, visited the Trevi Fountain, had tea at the
famous Babington’s Tea Rooms, walked along Via Condotti where all the latest
fashions were displayed in the windows, and from there, my husband started to
lose me. I think we ended the tour at a
cathedral. I felt great. Exercise, sightsee, and window shop all in
one day! The next day went a little
different. The walking tour turned out
to be over 7 hours! It should only have
been 5 ? but we got lost a bit and my husband refused to take a taxi or public
transportation. He swore that was the
direction the guide book was taking us in.
We visited the Basilica Aemilia, Lapis Niger, the Temple of Julius
Caesar, like 5 or 6 temples, way more temples than I ever planned, and we ended
at the Circus Maximus. There was much
more between the temples and churches, however, I decided to return to our rental, make myself some dinner, and
meet my husband towards the end. I could
not walk anymore. My sneakers, which
were brand new before our European vacation,
were now worn and looked like I left them outside in the rain one too many
times. And he had another walking tour
planned!
The
rest of our trip, needless to say, consisted of taxi rides and subway
tickets. I enjoyed lots of gelato, and
bought myself another fine Italian leather handbag! My feet hurt!
Something had to make them feel better.
As I
was about to wrap up this blog, my husband calls me into the kitchen. Now what, he cannot find the ice cubes?? The kitchen table was pushed aside and on the
floor was a blanket spread out with a thermos, glasses, fruit salad, and a note
atop some white bread that said “pretend I am focaccia and I have
tomato, eggplant, and mozzarella.” On
our last day in Rome,
we visited Borghese Gardens and had a traditional European picnic with paninis, dessert, and coffee. It was the perfect way to end our trip and a
say goodbye to Rome.
And, yes, if you are wondering, I asked all over Rome till I found
someone that could tell me where the old saying came from “when in Rome!” so here it
goes:
In 387 A.D., when St. Augustine arrived in Milan, he
observed that the Church did not fast on Saturday as did the Church at Rome. He consulted
St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who replied: "When I am at Rome, I fast on a
Saturday; when I am at Milan, I do not. Follow the custom of the Church where
you are." The comment was changed to "When they are at Rome, they do there
as they see done" by Robert Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy.
Eventually it became "When in Rome, do as the
Romans do."
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