Roma

We left the Arlanda airport at 9 am bound for Rome.  We got to walk out onto the tarmac to board the plane.  It seemed so retro!

We had arranged for a ride from the airport so we wouldn't have to worry about getting on a train or bus.  This picture is the friendliest the driver got.  Then he ran out of English and we never talked to him again the whole time.

He got us to our airbnb, so that's the important thing.  This is the view from our window.  So very Italian!  We were on a darling street just down from the top of the Spanish Steps.  It was called Via Gregoriana.

It was sad that the Spanish Steps were closed for renovation, but the Trevi Fountain had just opened up after a two-year restoration.  You win some, you lose some.  Scott and I have a long history with Rome.  After our senior year, when we had just started finally dating, I left to spend the summer in Europe.  I first stayed for a couple of weeks at Genevieve's apartment in Paris, spending time with her, and then being a single woman when she left town.  I missed Scott, and so Genevieve used the newfangled fax machine at her office to magically send him a letter declaring my undying affection.

He reciprocated my sentiments a couple of weeks later, when I was staying in Rome at a music camp.  I had left the "pensione" to go down the street with all my change to call Scott.  I heard the hotelier shouting out the window, "Scott Dopp!  Scott Dopp!"  I ran back and Scott was on the phone.  In 1989, an international call was a big deal!  It cost like a dollar a minute.  Scott said he loved me.  Can you imagine anything more romantic?  A couple of days later, I walked to the TWA ticket office and changed my ticket and went home.  I'm mad at my 17-year-old self for doing that, but I can't say I'd change it, because we did date for the rest of the summer, and if we hadn't, we probably wouldn't be married right now.  I mean, even WITH having the summer to solidify our relationship, I still "Dear Johned" Scott the missionary six months later and it took 4 years to get him back.  So if we hadn't had that stolen Rome time, there would have been nothing to go back to.

Speaking of going back, I convinced Scott, immediately after we got married, that it would be wise and sensible to drive across the United States and then spend 8 weeks backpacking around Europe, since we didn't have a house, and we had all those dollar bills from our restaurant jobs.  We would leave as soon as we got back from a week in Puerto Rico.  (Scott's cousin lived there, and we had somehow won a free airline ticket to "anywhere in the U.S. or Puerto Rico."  How could we not take advantage of that!?)  Looking back, I can't believe my first-time passport holder went along with all those plans, or that our fledgling marriage survived overnight train journeys and mosquito-infested hostels.

Our time in Rome in 1996 was spent with my dad, who had gotten lonely at home, with my mom on a Europe trip with students.  My dad loves Rome, so he was the perfect tour guide.

We wanted to recreate this photo, but we couldn't.  I guess we'll have to go back!

Sorry these are sideways.  See my dad?

There is a story behind the photo on the bottom...or the right.  The guy in the t-shirt that says "No Sports," we took his picture because Scott was starved for sports the whole two months we were in Europe.  He'd turn on the TV in a hotel and search for anything to satiate his craving for sports; a soccer game, maybe an NBA game in Italian if he was lucky.  This trip, standing in the exact same spot, we laughed about the sports addiction.  Now, we would never even dream of turning on a TV at a hotel in a city like Rome, for sports or anything else.  There's pasta to be eaten and side streets to explore!

Colosseum and Forum.  Back then, we got head sets and even a guide at the Vatican named Massimo.  Now, you can just google all the info you need.  I even googled, "What are those cool trees in Rome," and google reminded me, thankfully without laughing at me, that they're the Pines of Rome, of Respighi fame.  Of course!  That's one of my favorite pieces.  The trees of Rome are unique.  I can see why they inspire composers, artists and poets.

So.  Now Scott is our tour guide, at least whenever my dad isn't in Rome with us to act as our Roman history encyclopedia.

Our first day in Rome, we walked to the Borghese Gardens.  We were going to see the museum, but it was closed on Mondays, which I didn't notice on the website because I didn't think I really needed to translate in into English.  I thought I could get the gist in Italian.  Well, the gist was that there is a museum that we all wanted to go to.  The fine print is that it's closed on Mondays.  Oops.

We still had a good time walking in the rain through the expansive grounds.

You don't see enough penises at parks in Kaysville.

Lemon trees!

We were overly fascinated by this rabbit.  What a special little guy to be living in the Borghese Gardens!

Gelato was definitely a priority.

Our apartment wasn't far from the Trevi Fountain, so we walked by it numerous times.  It's always fun to see landmarks more than once, to feel like you really know the place.  I don't want to reveal too much, but I heard there were boys there that the girls kept having to go back to see at night.

Throwing (imaginary) coins in the fountain to assure that they'll return to Rome.

Trajan, my brother, lived in Rome a couple of years ago.  He was like a real-time guide, reminding us of things to see depending on where we were in the city.  I'm glad he reminded us not to miss St. Ignazio, because the ceiling is the most awe-inspiring in the city, and that's saying a lot!  We're talking about the city that houses the Sistine Chapel, and where any building you walk into could be a treasure box of priceless art.

The thing about the St. Ignazio ceiling is the foreshortening, which the girls had learned about it AP Art History. It looks like it stretches twice as high as it does, when it's really just an optical illusion, and a very convincing one.  Scott and I went back another day, and it was no less remarkable the second time.  And the dome ceiling above, that's flat.  They ran out of money and painted it to look like a dome, when it was just another trompe l'oeil.  Psyche!

Sometimes you see too much art and you start to get the giggles.  I sent a picture of this Jesus with a crown of thorns around his heart to my family, sparking a funny conversation about how it reminded Trajan and Josh of every picture of Jesus in Brazil.

And this one, also at St. Ignazio, the girls were making up captions for it like, "What?  I told you to bring a SHEEP!"  The second guy, carrying some demon, looks so startled.  I'm sure it's sacreligious to laugh, but you have to see the painting up close, with jetlag, after staring at a ceiling that's a giant optical illusion for half an hour.

The girls were completely smitten with the Pantheon.  That was the great thing about having them with us; they knew all the places we were going, and had studied them in Mr. Oram's class.  He's a fabulous teacher, so the passion for all the art and architecture was already instilled.  They were completely beside themselves to see the Pantheon in person.  On the way there, Golda was happy it was raining because she "wanted to see the rain come through the occulus."

This was my favorite gelato of the whole trip, while we were walking to the Campo di Fiore.  I don't know where it was, so we never went back.  The gelato was Amaretto di Saronno, and it had pieces of almonds in it.  My eyes are welling up just thinking about it.

Then we got pizza at a street place where this was the wifi password.  With all the terrorism afoot, it was unsettling to say the least.  On the other hand, it may have been the safest place in the city.  Who knows!

More gelato.  Always more gelato.  This was right around the moment Scott was looking in the window of a restaurant and smacked into a pole with his forehead.  Everyone in the restaurant was laughing at him, and I have to admit, I had to stiffle a few laughs.  That is, until Scott started laughing.  I really wish we had that on video so we could replay it in slow motion.  Poor guy, it really hurt!  And it hampered his map reading abilities as well as his patience.  I was happy when we got back to the apartment to rest Scott's noggin.