As we prepare to leave Rome for our next destination, we’ve become nostalgic – as usual – about the things we love here. Here’s our list of favourite things in Rome. A few of them will be relatively easy to bring along with us, but most of them are place-specific. So we’ll just have to come back!
- Wandering through piazzas everywhere, usually with tempting restaurants and bars ringing them
- Finding fountains and little gardens in lots of expected, and unexpected, places
- Eating gelato, any time of day. (Or all of the times of the day…)
- Discovering an unexpected ruin around every bend in the road, and a masterpiece in every museum
- The Pantheon, which always turned up when we least expected it
- Wandering about in various parks and gardens
- Getting lost and discovering new neighborhoods
- Enjoying long leisurely lunches with friends new and old
- Sampling pizza in a surprising variety of shapes and sizes!
- Getting to know Roman pastas
- Eating gorgeous vegetables, from spring and beyond, in restaurants and bought at markets
- The way so many churches have a priceless art treasure, yours for the asking
- Attending Easter Mass in the Vatican
- Learning to talk with our hands. (Okay; one of us was already pretty good at this!)
- Drinking an Aperol spritz, our (almost-) daily dose of sunshine in a glass
- Noticing the respect for older people we see exhibited everywhere, and also the love of children, who rule the roost!
- Taking day trips to Ostia and the Via Appia Antica to see even more ruins
- Settling down to an Italian breakfast of cappuccino and pastry
- Being able to get along well enough in the language.
- Knowing how many others before us have lived here, left their mark, and loved it too!
So there are our 20 favourite things in Rome! Though, to be fair, we could have easily given you thirty, or fifty – we have loved it here!
I love that you ended with Camilleri’s gravestone!
The non-Catholic cemetery is such a lovely place we couldn’t pass it by entirely without mention!