I really struggled to write this post. That’s why there has been a lag in my blogging .

I first came to Rome in 1976. I was just 19 and on my first trip overseas alone.

I was on an 18 to 30 year old camping tour and we camped in some place 20 miles out of Rome and took the metro in everyday. I remember being a bit overwhelmed by the sheer history ; The coliseum, the forum. , the Vatican and the sheer numbers of tourists. They were everywhere. It was July, it was hot and humid. I was grouchy and while I understood the incredible place this city held in Western Civilization, Rome and I just never bonded.

Years later I would come back a lot for business. I’d fly in have a meeting and fly out . So Rome and I have a checkered history.

I do have three great Roman memories.

When I worked for Elsevier they had a global executive meeting there. One evening they had a reception at the Vatican. Suddenly I found myself with 4 people all alone in the Sistine Chapel. Instead of the thousands of tourists being herded through it was just myself , two colleagues and a guard . I plopped myself on my back on the stone floor and spent 30 minutes gazing at that incredible ceiling without any sound or trampling tourist groups . I’ll remember that till the day I die.

Memory 2. Shortly after our marriage John and I visited Rome. I was resistant as ever. John, suggested we rent scooters and drive around . I was incredulous. I kept reading him stories from the internet of tourists who rented scooters and got shipped home in a box. Finally, he convinced me . I honestly don’t know what came over me . Suddenly I was Marcello Mastroianni racing up one way streets and over sidewalks. I ended up ditching John as he was just not keeping up . We later managed to rendezvous at a parking lot near the Borghese Gardens . It truly was one of the best travel days of my life

Memory 3. This trip. We passed an antique bookstore and we wandered in. I have always wanted an Italian edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Don’t ask me why . I asked the aged owner in very bad Italian and he smiled and went to a locked cabinet. He rifled around for a few seconds and pulled out a 1859 edition. I bought it immediately.

On this trip we focused on just walking and eating. We stayed in an amazing hotel with a terrace that had a 360 degree view of Rome and a great breakfast. I began to revise my opinion a bit . We had fantastic meals , great walks through the streets until we took a shortcut through the plaza where the Trevi fountain is .. OMG. It was like a Walmart Christmas sale. Thousands of people fighting and shoving to take one selfie after another . Street vendors selling tacky magnets of all sorts of things Roman and some not. Do we really need a magnet with Only David’s genitalia on it in purple ?

I was talking to an American taking selfies with his wife and I pointed out the sign that said Marcello forever . He had no idea who he was . I realized he wouldn’t go home and watch La Dolce Vita and the famous fountain scene was lost on him. Barbarians ! John had to calm me down with a coffee lol. So we finally escaped by car to Firenze through the gorgeous Landscape of Umbria and Tuscany. Leaving Rome behind …until next time