Because I love Italy. And would love to be there now.
Though, it should be said, not with my kids in tow. Which is how my friend is traveling. I think that adds extra stress and difficulty, for now. Later, we're definitely taking the kids to Italy. And to England. And to Thailand. And to China.
For now, Texas is about as exotic as we get. (And, well, compared to Connecticut, it is exotic).
I have wonderful memories of two trips to Italy, one for a week and another for a summer. Even now, when I'm in NYC, and the smell of gasoline mixes with cool morning air, I am transported back to walking around Rome. I know, not romantic, but Rome was one of the first big cities I was ever in (after Athens, which never felt like a coherent city to me). I think that's one of the reasons I love it--I was 18 the first time I went, by myself, and that experience and the summer I spent there at 21 (in school, where I met Lambeth), have made it golden (or eternal) in my memory.
I have been trying to finish this post for days but haven't gotten much time to revel in the memories in writing. They've been swirling in my head though, and keeping me company when things are slow:
- gelato, in flavors from pistachio to zabaglione, con panna, of course; it's the only food I really remember eating, plus tartufo and tiramisu. I was a pro at ordering in Italian. But only went out for dinner once, by myself, on a patio overlooking a ruin I can't name near the Wedding Cake
- Aida in the Baths of Caracalla on a summer's eve with a German stranger who kindly walked me home after the opera. I still marvel at the four white horses in the opening
- exploring the underground Domus Aurea with my class, knowing few other tourists were getting this view of Nero's palace
- ditto taking the tour under the Vatican and seeing where they think Peter was originally buried
- just wandering the streets and popping into any church to see the architecture and paintings; I visited over 100 in 3 months (which is basically one a day). My favorites: San Clemente, with its vertical view of the history of Rome from current church all the way down to Roman mithraeum; Santa Maria Maggiore, with its old basillican nave and stories of Pope Joan; the churches which contain Bernini's Ecstasy of St Teresa, the one with several Caravaggios, the church with the tomb by Michelangelo, and of course St Peter's which has the awe-inspiring Pieta, Bernini's baldacchino, and so much else
- museums, big and small from the Vatican to the Capitoline to the Doria Pamphilji to Villa Farnese to the Villa Borghese--it was like walking through my Jansen's art history textbook, from the Roman She-Wolf through the Renaissance and Bernini.
- fountains and public plazas--my biggest triumph was finding the fountain with the turtles that I then made a point of passing every time I was out
- the cats, walking and sleeping and posing on thousands of years of history
- 19th-century Rome with the tranquil Protestant Cemetery where I brushed the leaves off Keats's and Shelley's graves thinking of my grandfather and touring the house where Keats died
- living behind the "Wedding Cake" and seeing all the brides on the Capitoline every morning
- trying to cross the street and taking it on faith when I stepped off the curb that they wouldn't hit me
- drinking the water out of those curious pipe fountains
- visiting the little church around our corner, with the cat lady, which was later bombed. I wonder if she made it. The church--7th century or something--didn't.
- the Forum, the Circus, the Ara Pacis, the Pantheon, the Baths, the Colosseum, the Arches, the Column of Trajan--my gosh, if I named every ancient ruin . . .
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