As most people I guess, I’ve seen pictures, movies, news clips of Rome all my life. My daughter stayed in Rome three months during her senior year of college, becoming fluent in the language and falling in love with Rome and the Italian culture. That was in 1999. She reminded me each year that we should take a trip to Italy. Finally last year we did.
Most of the trip was in Tuscany, which we all loved! The last part was spent in Rome seeing the sights. Like the colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps, the Vatican. There are far too many historic sights to take in the first time in Rome, unless you move there. But we tried to walk the city and see as much as possible in the heat of the Roman summer. It was well above 90 everyday, and some even over 100, but we enjoyed the walking and sweating just the same.
The food is the best anywhere, fresh and cooked to perfection. We stopped for “fast food” one day and had one of the best pasta dishes in about 5 minutes. This could change the meaning of fast food. It may be served fast, but Romans know how to spend lots of time on their meals, enjoying and savoring the flavors and sipping red wine or white wine and then after 2 hours, some delicious dessert and an espresso, strong and hot.
Getting around Rome is best done on foot. Taxi’s can be taken, but may be costly and you miss everything in between while you’re riding around at super sonic speed! Italian drivers are fast and so crossing the street is a challenge and must be undertaken with the right attitude. Just step out and go without making eye contact. A local man told us that drivers avoid hitting people because they must pay the funeral costs! Not exactly reassuring but I thought it was amusing and probably a better detriment than jail time is at home.
At night we again walked to local restaurants and found one with a delightful waiter who spoke 6 languages! He was very entertaining and all in different languages. He also sang and told us of his adventures in the United States how happy he was to leave and return to Italy. He was living in California and offered a job in Arizona. He got off the plane, spent half an hour in Arizona, in the summer, and turned around and got back on the plane to California!
The time we spent in Rome convinced us that we would need to return to this delightful, historic, energetic city of love!
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