Urban Idealist

This past week we went on the first family vacation I have been on in years, but only this time it wasn’t camping (even though the five of us were all in the same room!). We went to Rome. My parents and brother are over visiting and we all were able to get away to Rome.

We stayed in this little hotel called ‘Hotel Hollywood’ (there wasn’t really anything ‘Hollywood’ about it and in fact our tv was broken so we were quite far from anything Hollywood…). Our room was on the top floor of a seven story building and we could sit out on a patio at night and in the morning. It was really cool.

Rome is a great city. It is extraordinarily different than Paris. Paris is clean and sheik, seems to be concerned with how it looks…Rome could not be any more different. The only buildings that weren’t tagged were the historical buildings, The Vatican buildings, and some churches. I was really impressed with how the Romans found new and creative ways to not put their trash into the trash cans…like stuffing it in the holes in walls. Even when a trash can was to be found it was overflowing into the street…

Despite how it first appeared, Rome is a beautiful city…The buildings don’t have the same architecture that buildings in Paris do, but the color was amazing! Imagine that…a building that’s not grey! Jen and I both really liked it a lot. A girl at our dinner party tonight asked me what my favorite thing about Rome was and I listed off about 8 things! There are some museums that you can visit, but Rome is a museum that you live in.

Here are some observations that stick out to me about the city:

1. There are only a few places that are clean in the city…and by far the cleanest was Vatican city. It’s interesting to me that the city that represents God to much of the world lives clean and well off while the city around it is in near decay. Unfortunately an all too true spiritual metaphor for the city of Rome as well.

2. People there are so friendly! I do live in Paris, so I think that a bear trap may appear friendly to me at times, but these people are genuinely helpful, love to talk, love to laugh, and seem to really enjoy life. They don’t seem to be bothered by tourists at all..unlike other cities I live in:)

3. Italian food in Italy (especially Pizza) is not like Italian food in Italy. It is not near as rich and not near as garlicy (at least in Rome). I loved it! I ate more pasta in the five days there than I have in the last month, but I loved it. Spicy sauces, seafood sauces, penne, spaghetti, fettucini, lasagna, mozzarella…ahh…I’m actually getting hungry thinking about it!

Most of all I am thankful for the time with my family. It’s rare to get to be with them, much less sharing such a great experience all together. Climbing the steps of St. Peter’s. Walking through the Roman Forum. Discovering new creations of gelato ice cream. Sitting on the Spanish Steps. It was really great. An experience I’ll remember for a long time.

My parents continued on to Florence, Venice, Chinqua Terra, and Nice. They’ll be back here in a couple of weeks. Nathan, Jen, and I came back to Paris. One more quick story…I pulled the ‘pregnancy card’ for the first time at the airport and not only did it provide the right reason to not let a huge group go in front of us (I, Jen, and ‘the baby’ needed to go to the bathroom), but it got us to the front of the line right away! Nice. This will be used again.