As I have added years to my life I find myself getting less excited about birthdays, especially my own which hits in the gloomiest month of the year.
I have a winter birthday. This really annoys me. I want a sunny birthday party in a garden with balloons and flowers. In rebellion against the winter birthday; one year I decided to have a celebration in the summer roughly 6 months later than the actual day. It was fun but did bring much confusion!
In the last decade I decided to start embracing the double blow of increased age and cold miserable weather. It was time to be proactive about the rapidly passing years. I started my own tradition to cheer myself along and began to visit different European cities around about late February or early March. I looked forward to the British Airways Sales that occur just after Christmas. When I could afford it I would plan a new place to visit for a long weekend.
A few years ago the city of choice was Rome. I had no real understanding of the city, just a few images fed by watching movies shot in 'the eternal city.' When looking up the root of my name Julia, I found it was a Roman name and decided to go and explore the place that gave birth to countless Giulia's. ( There is no J in the Italian alphabet, hence John = Gian, Jesus = Gesu, Julia = Giulia.)
My aim was to wander the streets, drink a few espressos, hopefully find my way to the Vatican and possibly even see Pope Francis. That was about it.
So off Matthew & I set, flying in to Rome with very little idea of what awaited us. Over the couple of days of our visit we walked everywhere and took photos of everything. On day two I was happy to capture two Italian icons in one shot, the fiat 500 and St Peter's Basilica in Vatican city! Perfect.
Just a ten minute walk from the hotel, Vatican city is the place to see. We arrived to find that crowds had already begun to swell and all eyes seemed to be raised to a little window in the high walls above us.
The atmosphere in the square was brilliant. A whole mixture of people from every age and a variety of backgrounds. African & European nuns and priests, Chinese tourists, Indians, South Americans and people from every nation of the world. The crowd hummed with happy expectation and joy waiting for someone who they all obviously loved very much.
And then a tiny figure appeared in the window, sweet Pope Francis. A cheer went up from the crowd. Children were lifted on shoulders. He smiled and waved and then shared a little message. It was all in Italian but I caught the gist of it. Love each other. Love God. Love Jesus. Listen to the Holy Spirit. He read from the Bible and prayed for everyone. And when he had finished and waved goodbye, the bells of St Peter's began to ring out and echoed around the square. Everyone cheered again and hugged. It was a totally unusual experience for me. My expression of christianity is very different.
One of the faces of the many good looking priests that produce their own Vatican calendar every year. I very nearly bought one. So many handsome men of God in one place!
It was a great start but the following day I got us totally lost, thinking I had a feel for the geography of the place we walked for an hour in circles through the neighbourhood by the hotel. Frustrated we ended up jumping on a tram and hoping it would take us into the centre of town rather than further out into the suburbs where we had been wandering like lost sheep. We exited the tram ten minutes later because we didn't have tickets and I was getting nervous of getting caught and arrested! (We didn't have tickets because we couldn't work out where to get them or who to pay.)
I sat down despondent at the foot of a long flight of steps with my back to the view above, not realising that we had just arrived at the very heart of ancient Roman history.
Travelling without a map or a smart phone with satellite navigation is a wild adventure. I highly recommend it for an adrenaline rush! You will be amazed at how liberating it is. One minute you are lost and angry, the next you are found. Everything is completely unexpected and fresh.
After running up the long grand entrance steps and wandering around the area for a couple of hours most of the morning was gone and we were tired and dehydrated. Round the back of the old parliament buildings was a quiet courtyard of trees where we sat and ate our picnic lunch made up of breakfast rolls stuffed with cheese and ham, plus a couple of oranges. With sticky fingers and happy hearts we sat sheltered from the bright sunshine under a leaning wall. In the still of the garden the busy city seemed miles away.
Leaving our sheltered spot we wandered down a gentle hill slope, desperate to find a place to rehydrate and purchase a bottle of water. That was soon forgotten when we arrived at this incredible structure ... !
Matthew took this photo and he did capture some of the grandeur of these ruins. The scenes unfolding before us were unbelievable.
It went on like this all day. We did Rome backwards, through the side alleys, never knowing where we were or what we would see next.
My breath was taken away when I looked across the road and saw this impressive collection of buildings and statues towering above us. Just look at the size of the tall thin trees and the tiny dots of people down below and you will begin to understand the immense scale of this. I ran across the road, through the traffic where a handsome traffic cop in designer sunglasses stood smoking a cigar and leisurely directing traffic. ( They say that Rome pays its Head of Traffic the highest salary of any traffic department anywhere in the world!) I wish I had taken a photo of him, he was so cool. But I was in a rush. So to give you an idea, the photo below is taken from 'Oscar in the middle' on pinterest. I mean look at those boots and that cool swagger!
More steps to run up and then I did fight back a few tears as we came out at the bowl of eternal flames with a young soldier guarding it. What was so wonderful for me was that I had no idea where we would end up next or what we would see. We just followed our feet and embraced the moments as they came.
As well as the soaring architecture, it was the people that fascinated me. Not only the traffic cop, but everyone had so much sartorial elegance.
Matthew struck up a conversation with this musician, promising to meet up in London one day.
'Dolce far Niente ...' The art of doing nothing. We embraced this concept and soaked it all up, following no plan, wandering wherever our hearts led us all over the city.
It took us to the Spanish steps, but not to the Trevi fountain. We loved Piazza Navona but probably missed everything else. I enjoyed walking behind this couple out for a Sunday morning stroll with groceries in a huge basket and those casual bottles of wine!
In the search for my Roman name, I stumbled across it everywhere. My name was found at temple sites and in the supermarket where they sold 'Giulia Olive oil' and 'Giulia Grappa'. There is even an Alfa Romeo car named 'Giulietta.' I felt rather encouraged at how frequently I came across it. Ironically the meaning behind my name is not at all spiritual, it means youthful and curly haired. I guess that is an accurate description of me. A young heart with out of control hair in an ancient ' eternal city! '
I did feel at home in Rome and every time I look at the letter written to the Romans in the Bible and see my name mentioned, it makes me smile to remember this city.
Back in England I bought this recipe book filled with bright colourful photos of Roman cooking to remind me of my little adventure.
So farewell Rome ... A parting shot of St Peter's Basilica under the moon.
'Rome, at this hour, which varies with the seasons, is enchantingly deserted: inhabited only by a populace of statues, stone animals, and architecture, which seem to be living their true, unseen lives in that astonished silent serenity.' Carlo Levi