travel tuesday: rome

After my post about Cinque Terre last week, I was going to talk about somewhere other than Italy this week, but I was chatting with a co-worker about Rome this afternoon, and I got that heart ache. The one where you conjure up an image of somewhere and you get a little all senses memory hit. 

The way the light filters into the Pantheon, a cool stream of light that cuts a swath across the floor.

The cool humidity coming off the Trevi Fountain at dusk. It's bustling with people all hours of the day, but it seems like a party in the evening. People eat gelato, chat with each other. It doesn't feel quite as much a "get out of my photo-op" as it did earlier in the day.

It was nice to maneuver out of the way of everyone else's photos and just people watch.  The photo below is where we were standing to take the photo above.

The pure sound of silence in the Sistine Chapel when you're the only ones there.

Not the Sistine Chapel, but the map room in the Vatican museum is pretty cool.

(I don't have a picture of this one since photos aren't allowed in the Sistine Chapel, but my memories of it are as much about the sounds of that room as they are the magnificent ceiling.)  I'll throw in a photo of the Swiss Guard for you, how's that?

The music of the rollerbladers in the Borghese Gardens, mingling with the taunts they shout at each other, egging the next one over or under the limbo stick.

The taste of the gelato we bought across the street from Largo Argentina, which we ate while we strolled around and counted feral cats in the ruins.

The late afternoon light at the Colosseum, as the shade began to climb upwards.

The nearly unbelievable expanse of St. Peter's Basilica. The longer you're standing in it the larger you realize it is.

  

Rome is so very old. It's ruins piled on ruins and then a 500 year old building newly built on top of that.  Like New York City, it has it's own way of making you feel small.  

But more than small, it makes you feel how transient life is. These ruins have been here for thousands of years.  And they'll be here for a thousand more after we die. They will outlast us. 

I think it would be amazing to live in a city like that, one that is always reminding you that you're only here for a moment, the smallest grain of time. There is a certain kind of Italian shrug (very different from the French one, I think), that says "eh, we're all going to die. What are you going to do about it?"

I guess I understand that. You walk by the Pantheon every day, or take the metro by the Colosseum to get to work, then you're constantly being reminded of that fact.  

On our last day in Rome, we went up to the Borghese Gardens to see the view of Rome, and wander around like the Romans do on a Sunday afternoon. We sat down for a moment to rest our feet after a long day of walking, and we saw ourselves. 

At least, a version of ourselves, 30+ years from now.  While I hope we're laughing more than these two did when we're their age, I hope we love each other as much as they seemed to love each other.

 When I say "We saw ourselves in Rome," I of course mean this little interlude, but also I think we felt the possibility of a life there, in amongst the ruins. 

I know one thing.  We'll certainly be going back to Rome. Hopefully soon.

*All photos are either mine or Mr. Bump's much more fabulous ones. The full set of Italy photos can be found on his Flickr site.

cinque terre

I was toying with the idea of doing some posts about places we've traveled, in part because I'm going to try that NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) thing again, and in part because I've not talked much about it (although I always mean to), and it's a big part of our lives.  Then last night I heard about the flooding in Cinque Terre, and my heart broke.  This is such a beautiful region of Italy. The people were lovely, and each town was really special.

From Wikipedia:

The Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is in the Liguria region of Italy, to the west of the city of La Spezia. "The Five Lands" is composed of five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The floods have devastated Monterosso al Mare and Vernazza completely, cars pushed into the first floor of buildings by the force of the mud and water. 

Vernazza October 2010

Vernazza post-flood (source)

Vernazza October 2010

 

Vernazza post-flood (source)

Monterosso October 2010

Monterosso post flood (source)

For more images of the flood, you can check out this slideshow.

we are home, home from rome

(This was my stupid grin all through Italy.)

So we went to Italy.  We went to Italy for three wonderful, fabulous weeks.  Despite mixed weather, loss of one passport (mine), and fifteen (yes, 15!) bug bites (just on me, natch), it may have been one of our best trips ever.  

We flew into Rome and were there for three nights. Then we took the train to Sorrento and spent an afternoon at Pompeii, a day touring the Amalfi coast, and then took a ferry to Capri, where we spent our 9th anniversary. From there we returned to Sorrento, picked up a rental car, and drove to Le Marche by way of Civita di Bagnoreggio. We stayed 3 nights in Le Marche at the most amazing agriturismo and explored the area.  After that we drove down to Pienza through Arezzo and Cortona.  We spent the next day driving around Tuscany, and dropping our car off in Florence.  After three days and nights in Florence exploring museums, we took the train to Cinque Terre, stopping to spend part of the day in Lucca on the way there.  We explored Cinque Terre as well as Portovenere to the south and Sestri Levante to the north in 4 days, and then we spent most of a day traveling by train to Venice.  We spent two days and nights getting lost in Venice and then took the train to Milan, where we flew out the next morning.  It felt like a lifetime but it flew by seemingly in the amount of time it took me to write this paragraph.

And now we are back and we are sad. I can’t seem to get out of my funk. Nothing seems worth getting excited about: not work, not baking, not running, not the upcoming holidays.  All I want to do is curl up in bed and dream about Italy. Or possibly just grab Mr. Bump by the hand and head to the airport with our passports and a credit card and never come back.  Instead, while I am desperately trying to pull myself backward through the hedge into my life, I thought I would take some time to tell you the stories and show you the pictures from our trip.  Maybe it’ll help me get over Italy.  As if that were even possible.  Stay tuned for our adventures and  pictures.