ROME!!! It has been a shamefully long time since I blogged. All I can say is that it is what it is, and that maybe someday my good blogging intentions will be realized. Then again, maybe not. I did, however, promise my mom to post pictures of our latest trip and this is me making good on my promise.
For spring break this year we decided to head to Rome. Rome is a city I hadn’t seen for 20 years, and really remembered loving, so I was really excited for this trip. I always enjoy comparing my present impressions of a place with those I formed as a 14 year old. Things that were boring to me then generally tend to be much more interesting to me now. On the flip side, some of the things that I loved back then aren’t so thrilling to me anymore. It makes me wonder what I’ll think of these places in another 20 years. I guess I’ll have to come back and see.
We decided to drive to Rome (a 12 hour drive). Our original plan was to get up early and make the trip in one day. Fortunately, I remembered the dates of our apartment rental incorrectly and we found ourselves with an extra day of leave at the front end of our trip. I was DESPERATE to get out of the apartment and did NOT want to spend an extra minute here. We decided to leave Friday anyway and stop for the night part way there. It ended up being the best mistake I ever made! We found a hotel in Varese (the town where I went to school as a teenager and one of my favorite places), stayed there Friday night and drove the rest of the way to Rome on Saturday.
The drive from Germany into Italy is stunning. As you can tell from the picture below, driving through the Swiss Alps is a real hardship.
I mean, who wants to look at mountains like this? Really! I’m thinking that if the current economic trends in the U.S continue, maybe we’ll just have to settle there. You think they need a good prosthodontist in Zurich? Cause I know one.
Here’s Ian in enjoying Switzerland:
Ha! I think at this moment he’s enjoying the movie Tangled. When we go on long drives and I point out things like castles and amazing mountain views he looks out the window vaguely, mumbles “cool,” then sinks back into a movie stupor. I think he stopped being impressed after castle number 327. I have no room to criticize, however. I remember counting road markers to alleviate my boredom when we drove through Austria and I was 14!
We got to Varese around 6:00 – just in time to eat the BEST PIZZA EVER. Really. It was that good.
Totally made the extra night in a hotel worth it. I don’t know if it was because my first experiences with real Italian pizza were in Varese, so the local version of pizza has become in my mind the best version of pizza anywhere. I don’t think that that is the case, however. The concierge had told us that this restaurant (called Medusa) had the best pizza in town. I think he was right. Mom, Dad – do you remember ever eating there?
The next morning we got up and headed to the monastery of St. Caterina del Sasso (St. Catherine of the rock). The monastery is carved into the rocky cliffs on the edge of Lago Maggiore. It is something like 800 years old.
It was an unusually warm day and it was exceptionally clear. The views across the lake were spectacular. You may remember pictures from our last visit to Lago Maggiore. They look something like this - cold, dreary, grey, and obscured by clouds. There was a windstorm on Friday night, which was extremely loud in our top floor hotel room. We didn’t enjoy the noise, but we did enjoy the clear skies the wind left us the following morning.
Here is a view across the lake (thanks to our new zoom lens!) of the island (Isola Bella) we visited last time we were in the area:
Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go back. The monastery was fun though. Both kids were fascinated with the preserved body of a saint that was on display in a glass coffin. I got a picture of Ian in front of it, but Naomi was really the one that couldn’t tear her eyes away. I answered a lot of “why” questions that day.
The building has, of course, been added on to and redecorated many times over the centuries. There were some very early frescoes (I think that those behind the coffin are examples) and there were some that were done in, I think, the 17th century. I particularly liked this one of Jesus and the fishermen. It seemed particularly poignant given the location of the monastery.
On our way back out we passed this little shrine in the rocks. (More sasso, I suppose.) Naomi has most unfortunately entered the “I refuse to smile naturally if there is a camera within 300 feet” stage. So, with this lovely grin, I will wrap this up. I have great intentions of being back soon. We’ll see where they lead. Ciao!
