Sept-Dec 2022: Italy Roma, Pisa
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Discover Italy: Roma & Pisa
"Finché c'è vita c'è speranza"
(As long as there is life, there is hope)
Hardships, joys, changes. Being in Rome reminds us of the rise and fall that humanity has endured over the centuries. As long as there is life, there is hope. The chaos in the world today is just one more hurdle for mankind to conquer. Evil will implode. Good will prevail. Hope will endure.
Landing in the Roma Airport is a sampler of what lies ahead. Gourmet food can be enjoyed while a random traveler is playing fine classical music on a grand piano. Slim fashionable women parade by; surrounded by men who shouldn’t be allowed in public because they are just too handsome. Gone are the togas, gone are the gladiators in the Coliseum, gone are the orators amongst the Roman columns, but the hope and spirit of Italy shall remain forever!
Quite remarkably, from our Aug 15th landing in Milan, until now, we have only had 3 days of rain. One step ahead of winter, we arrived in Rome with clouds. Part of traveling, plan as you may you can’t ensure good weather. This didn’t dampen our spirits as we settled into our classy, well positioned apartment in Vatican City. Stepping outside was the Piazza di Unita Market. A colorful splash of flowers, fruits and vegetables led through to a main thoroughfare alive with the mood and excitement of Italy. La Dolce Vita. Arms swing and voices rise in chorus, describing the latest drama or telling a colorful story! This is prime people watching. After all it is not so much what is said as how it is being said!
Giotto di Bondone wrote: “Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning.” Delicious smells waft from cafes, ancient ruins stand next to skyscrapers, gelato shops lure you in, and little puffs of dogs trot alongside smartly dressed women. Rome is fashion central. Sporting a new little ‘muffin top’ I asked, “How can you eat all this ice cream and rich Italian food and not get fat?” Baffling. A cute little Italian bombshell responded, “We keep busy and walk everywhere; plus we want to be able to wear all our new fashions. It’s a conscious effort to look good and feel good. Take note America!!
Normally I’m not excited about shopping but in Italy it is mandatory, especially with the chill in the air and a suitcase full of summer clothes. Shops laden with the latest fashions line the boulevard clothing $200-$500 and matching shoes also mandatory, at $100-$300 a pair. Here is the magic piece of the puzzle. With women and men so into looking good, society has solved the problem. Tucked in between the exclusive stores and dotting the side alleys are wonderful little shops with authentic made in Italy designer knock offs. Now for fewer than 50 euros I was able to put together a fashionable Italian chic look to welcome the impending change of weather.
Trying to soak in more of Italy we explored Naples, Genoa, Pisa, and places in between. Modern pizza evolved from similar flatbread dishes in Naples, Italy, between the 16th and mid-18th century. The poor classes of Naples were the first to eat pizza. While flatbread was a known commodity, the tomatoes brought to Europe from Peru by explorers were thought to be poisonous. That is, until poor mariners and other tradesmen began topping their flatbread with these imported red gems. Just think how these explorers from Peru changed our world cuisine?! Take one guess what the first thing was we did in Naples?? Liking thicker, crispy crusts we were surprised to learn that different regions of Italy make pizza differently. Sicilian pizza rules, but shockingly Naples likes a soft crust and the flaccid piece of pizza is folded in half and gobbled like a sandwich. Sacrilegious! We visited interesting piazzas and cathedrals in the port of Genoa. A bit of drizzle kept the crowds away from Pisa.
Perfectionists squirm when trying to take photos of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, all the while secretly trying to straighten that darn tower up! It became apparent that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was leaning in the late 1170s, after completion of the first three of the tower’s planned eight stories. The leaning was caused by the uneven settling of the building’s foundations in the soft ground. In 1566, Vasari, writing about the tower’s troubled beginnings, blamed the architect, Bonanno Pisano, for not knowing how to make solid foundations. Works were started again in 1275 with a new architect, Giovanni di Simone. In an effort to correct the lean he built the next few floors angled in the opposite direction. Try as they may the tower continued to lean more and more through the centuries until in 1990 the Italian government appointed a ‘committee of 13 experts’ to come up with a plan to save the tower. The team was led by British engineering expert John Burland. “The people of Pisa are delighted that the tower has been restored but not that it has been straightened.” Just no pleasing people! Having had a rich, luxuriant sampling of Italy over the past 4 months we circled back to Roma to enjoy another week before bidding Arrividerci!
Roma is Roma. Dramas have been center stage through the ages. Iconic ruins such as the Pantheon, Coliseum, 800 churches crowned by the Vatican’s St Peters, Castle of Saint Angelo, monuments, arches, aqueducts and columns of former Roman opulence are dotted throughout the center. Mark Twain maintained that, “The Creator made Italy by designs from Michelangelo.” Punctuated with magnificent statues, fountains and quaint Piazzas or plazas; there is always something iconic waiting around every corner. Roma is filled with welcoming spots to have a coffee in a sidewalk cafe or lick the latest flavor of gelato.
Gelato. Ah yes gelato, and now with Italy’s increasing interest in healthy food, the options for vegans are impressive. Do you know that they now make a 70% dark chocolate gelato with fresh cacao mixed with warm water? Add a scoop of fresh raspberries or tart lemon drizzle and watch the magic happen. It is easy to meander through the back streets of Roma for miles each day. Hope springs eternal. The journey is always shorter with a reward waiting of a fresh gelato, crispy vegan pizza, pasta in a tratorria, followed by a glass of red wine and a dessert such as tiramisu. Arrividerci! Flamboyant, exciting, flavorful Italy. Merivigliosa!
And so it goes…………………………………..Next as we bid farewell to Italy (for now), we look forward to resting a bit in S.E. Asia; Bali, Indonesia. Until then Keep Laughing, Keep Living Life to the Fullest, and remember to never give up Hope. Make the most of time you have available or the time you have left!
Take care and thanks for keeping in touch!!
Love, Light & Laughter,
xo Nancy & Joseph
Travel Notes:
“Per favore. Grazie!” Please. Thank you!
"Come sta?"(How are you?) "Sto bene, grazie." (I'm fine, thank you)
1 United States Dollar equals 0.91.5 Euro
Book on Booking.com or Agoda.com for a sweet little pension near the Vatican or center of town and within walking distance of all the sites. We stayed out in the suburbs once and a lot of valuable time was spent get into the heart of Rome! Also be careful when booking – some of the listings seem cheap but when the total is added (with all the hidden fees such as cleaning, only 1 person allowed so additional person fee, etc!)
Vatican City room in a lovely old apartment within Vatican City! Domus Serafino Booking.com
Piazza dell’Unità 24, Vatican City – Prati, 00192 Rome, Italy
(Phone: +393406072367)
The 5 most visited places in Rome are:
#1 Pantheon (8 million tourists a year),
#2 The Coliseum (7.036. 104 tourists a year),
#3 Trevi Fountain (3.5 million tourists a year),
#4 Sistine Chapel (3 million tourists a year) and
#5 The Roman Forum (2.5 million tourists a year)
Just wander and absorb the ambience! Remember to pause in little sidewalk cafes for a tea or glass of wine between sites. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither should your walking tour be done in a day!