So you must all be thinking, “woah, that must be a bloody big egg sandwich she’s eating” because yes, after leaving for a lunch break just over two weeks ago, I never returned to recounting my time in Rome. Between organising my university re-application, helping my sister get ready for uni and watching countless missed episodes of Project Catwalk, I haven’t had much time to update the blog…until now.
Rome is a city that stole my heart five years ago, when my family and I made our first ever trip to Italy. Ever since that first trip, I have viewed Rome as a city of olives opposite the Pantheon, twilight horse and carriage rides through the ancient centre and midnight strolls through atmospheric streets. Now however, five years on and without the guidance and finance of my parents, would the city fit in with the memory I’d treasured from my childhood?
In a word: yes. Everything was how I remembered it; the fountains were in the places they belonged, the Sistine Chapel as beautiful as I had remembered and the gelato as delicious as that first trip. But then again, there was only a measly five year gap between visits. When compared to the centuries and even the millennia that those gorgeous buildings have stood, unchanged, it doesn’t really come as a surprise that I would find the exact same Rome welcoming me as I did half a decade ago.
Going on holiday with your friends and without your family is fun. Fun but often bloody inconvenient. Like when you have to fork out for a rip-off taxi ride to your new apartment, and then when you have to trundle round a supermarket looking for food which you have to cook and pay for, all by yourself. However, where there are mishaps (and there were many on our holiday, trust me) there are memories and whether it’s fainting in the Vatican or finding strange men in your bed; they’re all bound to end up in the ol’ scrapbook of laughs.
Of course, the highlight of the whole trip for me was the food. Even though we ate at home about the same amounts of times as we ate out, I still felt as if I’d eaten like a true Roman, (well, apart from those sausages and chips we cooked for ourselves). One memorable dish was the Saltimbocca alla Romana I tried in a traditional trattoria. The name literally means ‘jumps in the mouth’, and if you could only taste the richness of the marsala and butter sauce and the succulence of the veal wrapped in prosciutto, then you’d agree that the name is well suited.
However, despite the savoury delights we devoured during our stay, nothing can top the King of the dulci: Gelato. In fact, we probably spent around half of the week searching for recommended gelaterias. In fact, for the first few days we had absolutely no luck and had to resort to the delicious, yet obviously inferior ice cream from the touristy gelaterias. However, as luck would have it, one evening we ended up bumping into all four of the acclaimed ice cream shops in the space of half an hour. Now don’t even get me started on the bliss that ensued – there was a gelateria that served 100 different types of flavour! Need I say more?
So, despite being five years older, the Rome I found was still as magical as the city I saw through those 13 year old eyes. Whilst on our original trip we spent most of our evenings eating antipasti and listening to buskers, this time we spent them getting lost and then found, and then usually lost again. The Roman Forum was seen through the window of a bus this summer rather than from the comfort of a horse-drawn carriage and instead of demanding money from my Mum, I had to resort to pulling it out of my own pocket. However, despite these changes in context, Rome still welcomed me with the same warm and secure hug that I recognised from five years before.
So after two months of Italian Inspiration I feel like it’s the time to put the baby to rest; especially seeing as I’ve now accepted an au pair job in Madrid for three months starting in October! Yes, that’s right, from now on you’ll be reading from the pages of Español Inspiration…or something along those lines anyway. I’m very excited about this new chapter in my life and what kind of surprises it will bring, however I am sad to see the end of my Italian experience. However, of course the country and the people will never fail to be an inspiration to me and I feel that I will always live my life under the guidance of ‘la dolce vita’ – The Good Life.
Ciao
Alice x
To The Table 