Apassionatamente - Italia Part Uno

As we all know, I am quite behind on my blog. According to my last post, I'm still in Italy...and if only that were the case! In actuality, I am now writing from northern Spain. But you see, we've got much to cover before then. So let's get to it.

Because I can't even begin to describe the full awesomeness of Italian food (all at once rich, intriguing, fattening, and delicious, for starters), I will do my best to include more pictures than usual in this post, so that I can at least begin to convey the beauty of all that Italy has to offer. We spent almost two weeks in the country - the longest leg of our trip by far - and as a result, we saw what I consider to be an impressive amount of the country. For brevity's sake, only an overview of each place will be included. But never fear; if there is one thing I know, it's that I most definitely want to return to The Boot in the future.

After our whirlwind overnight travel from Fez to Rome, we had to wrap our sleep-deprived minds around the Italian train system. I can honestly say that I'm a bit surprised that we made it to Bracciano, the small medieval village an hour north of Rome on Lago di Bracciano, in good time. But somehow that was indeed the case. We were met at the train station by my contact from the house we rented, and she showed us to probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever stayed: a medieval farmhouse just steps from the beautiful lookout over the lake, and completely renovated within the past two years. It was just what two tired travelers needed, and we used it as our home base for the next three days.

After our intensive travels in Morocco (and Joe's food poisoning), the sleepy little village was a perfect and relaxing contrast. The lake is quite the tourist attraction in the summer, but since the weather wasn't quite warm, the offseason prices and smaller crowds still reigned supreme. The town is home to the castle where Tom Cruise married Katie Holmes, and we took a tour of the 15th-century structure on the second morning, and then spent the afternoon in a cafe, reading and checking our email, because medieval farmhouses don't often come equipped with wifi. The next day dawned sunny and unseasonably warm, so we hiked down the hill to the lake front and strolled in the sunshine, oogling the expensive houses that lined the shore and watching a small dog try to intimidate a swan from the sand.

More than anything though, Bracciano was a place for immersing ourselves in Italian food. We learned to eat in the four course Italian style: splitting an appetizer and a pasta, then getting our own main and following up with a dessert if we were feeling ambitious. I rediscovered my deep love for porcini mushrooms, and also blessed my tastebuds with pear and gorgonzola ravioli, linguine with homemade pesto, seafood risotto, grilled local lakefish...the list goes on, but I'm getting hungry just writing it!

I have to insert a little bit of a shameless plug here. Out of all the places I've ever been, Bracciano is definitely in the top five of places I would absolutely love to return someday. I happened to stumble across it while searching "hidden gems of Italy" online, but if you are ever looking for an Italian getaway a bit off the beaten path but still very non-Italian friendly, put it at the top of your list as well!

Anyway, after three days we had to tear ourselves away from our newest love. Since I took some art history classes in college that focused on the Classical period, I have been dying to go to Rome for some time now, and being so close, there was no possible way we were going to skip it! So we hopped the train back into the city (successfully again), and found our Roman apartment. Given the high prices of Roman rentals and our comparatively low budget, it wasn't nearly the palace we had in Bracciano, but our reasonably-priced apartment was in a bustling residential area reasonably close to public transport, so one can't really complain.

After only taking enough of a break to throw our things down and change into clothes more suited to the 70 degree weather, Joe and I hustled to the Coliseum so that we could hit the lunchtime lull of the crowds. I'd heard legends of how packed the whole area of the Forum and Coliseum can get, and let me tell you, every single one of them was true! We were able to bypass a 40 minute line by paying an extra 5 Euro for an audio guide (highly recommended, mostly for the time savings), and we emerged into the bright sunlight from the dark entryway.

I often find that the things you're most excited to see while traveling can also be the ones that underwhelm you, but this was definitely not the case. Despite all of the movies and pictures I'd seen, textbooks I'd read, and stories I'd heard, nothing can compare to standing in the presence of so much history. We spent over an hour strolling around the different levels, listening to history and taking photos and just imagining all of the events that had happened in this one building. Not to mention people watching! Let me tell you, the clientele here was nothing short of breathtaking.

 After the Coliseum, we went just across the road to the Forum, which was much more cluttered than anything I'd imagined. Although it was the absolute epicenter of Roman life from the Republic, there was never a comprehensive plan put in place, so what remains today is a jumble of amazing archaeological sites all squished together without much rhyme or reason at all. Even though we spent another two hours weaving among the ruins, I can honestly say that we became overwhelmed quickly, and I don't even know that the signs we read fully conveyed what we were looking at the majority of the time. Even so, it was beyond worth it to witness many of the temples and remains of countless buildings I'd read about in books for years.

 That night, we ate yet another delicious and cheese-filled Italian meal, and made plans to relax the next morning before our scheduled tour of the Vatican. Although there are many places I'm game to tackle alone, the home of the Pope is infamously overwhelming and chock full of priceless relics that can be easily overlooked if not pointed out carefully, so I was more than willing to shell out a bit of cash for a five hour comprehensive tour of the museums, grounds, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. There were many times we weren't allowed to take pictures, but I did sneak one of the School of Athens (a famous Renaissance piece by Raphael that is widely hailed as one of the best early uses of perspective), which was one of my personal favorites. It was amazing how overwhelming the entire experience was; every single object in the complex is priceless, and it becomes almost dizzying after a while. At the very least, I became more skeptical of anyone claiming that the Catholic Church has a money problem!

 The rest of our time in Rome was a bit more slow-paced, due to a downturn in the weather. I went to several more churches, including St. John in Laterno (the original seat of the Catholic Church) and the Cathedral di San Clemente, which sits on top of a 4th century church and also a 1st century Mithraic temple.The Pantheon was obviously a must-see, although I found the new(ish) addition of a Catholic altar and relics jarring after having studied it in its original state, as a shrine to all of the Roman gods.

On the last night before we left Rome, Joe and I had an amazing dinner at a traditional Roman-style restaurant, the calm before the storm of yet another early morning flight to a new destination. This time, we were off to Milan to pick up the rest of Joe's family and start the Northern Italian leg of our journey!