rome
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Matt and I took Josh on a fantastic long weekend to Rome. Josh had a school project to write looking at the meanings of first and second century Roman architecture and was there to take lots of pictures. I was there for archaeology, espresso and ice cream.
While Josh had seen the city before, Matt and I had not, and we were pretty bowled over by this great city. The sheer density of notable architecture and archaeology is astounding; at every turn the ghost of Renaissance and Ancient Rome rises up before you like a startling apparition. And yet the city is so alive, even in the hot quiet month of August when we visited there was a dirty, bustling noisiness on the roads, a hectic vitality to everything.
We did a lot of sightseeing and walking in three days. We spent half a day tramping up and down the forum in the blazing sun, and Josh and I went up on the Palatine Hill as well. We stumbled upon the spectacular eighteenth century Trevi Fountain lit up at night, admired the outside of the Colosseum, and were struck dumb by the perfect calm hemispherical interior of the Pantheon. We drank Jamaica Blue Mountain espressos from the excellent Tazza d'Oro Caffè, ate soul quenching fruity gelati and drank beer lightly but enthusiastically. We stayed in a lovely hotel – Hotel Columbia on Via del Viminale –which had a roof balcony on which to take our breakfast in the bright early morning sunshine. We went on a lot of late evening walks - it was always hot enough to stroll in shorts and t-shirt, even in the early hours of the morning. We met up with Matt's friend Leonardo, who gave us an Italian perspective on things.
A particular highlight for me was when Josh and I wandered down to the narrow old streets around the Campo dei Fiori and the Ghetto, by the Tiber River. We stumbled on the Theatre and Porticus of Pompey the Great and found our way across the river to Tiber Island where stalls and events around the edges of the island were in full swing to celebrate a national holiday. We went back to the hotel to get Matt and Leonardo, who had been at a beach, and we all spent an hour or so at this very pleasant outdoor club at the head of the island.
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