La Bella Vita

I've tried condensing my Italy travels into fewer posts but it just doesn't seem to work. Apologies for the dry spell (too busy travelling to blog) but I will certainly make up for it now. First up, Rome!

At the end of May, I flew down to Rome to meet my friend Bronwyn. A couple days later, another friend Lise joined us and the three of us travelled around Italy for a couple weeks before ending up back in Lyon. We saw Rome, Cinque Terre, Florence and Venice.

I'd been to Italy before (Rome and Venice) so it was interesting to experience going back to some of these places, and with a much more knowledgeable companion to boot. (Bronwyn had been in Rome for all of May with her family).

We did all the tourist stuff - the Colosseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill, St Peter's Basilica, the Spanish Steps, the Borghese Gallery, the Capitoline museum...and more. I loved the Borghese for the Bernini statues. There is the one of Apollo and Daphne, Aeneas, Anchises and Ascansius, Pluto and Prosperina, and David. All of them have so much movement, expression and such delicacy that you can hardly believe they're carved out of marble.

The Mouth of Truth. I wanted to see this mainly because of the scene in Roman Holiday. We didn't re-enact it though because there was a line to get in.

We went to a church called San Clemente's, which was just around the corner from our apartment. (Or rather the apartment Bronywn's lovely and hospitable parents had rented). No photos allowed unfortunately so I'll have to try to describe it. The main church was from the 12th century and had been built on top of an earlier, 4th century basilica. This in turn, was built on top of the remains of a Roman Mithreum (a religion that flourished in Rome around the time Christianity was gaining a foothold). It was very cool going down the different levels (figuratively and literally), especially the middle one because they've taken all these bits of ruins and incorporated them into the walls, with no apparent pattern or logic. It's also very strange to think that the Mithreum level, now essentially two storeys underground, used to be at ground level.

My wonderful travel companions at the Colosseum:
The Arch of Constantine through an arch of the Colosseum:

We spent about five days together in Rome and they were all action packed. Since we had the apartment to return to in the afternoon and evening, however, we had an excellent home base to keep us from getting too fatigued. That plus all the gelato we ate. It became a twice a day habit almost. This is us drinking Cynar on the balcony of the apartment. The Colosseum can be seen between Bronwyn and myself. Yes, life was very hard.