roman holiday with a purpose
19 april 2001

it seems that gary and i were not meant to go to morocco. this is the second time we've had tickets and have had to give them up for another destination. the first time was when we found out we were moving to amsterdam and would not be able to take a vacation right then and this time was because we have recently decided to relocate to ITALY and thought we should probably make a trip there a.s.a.p to have a look around. for those of you don't know, i'll fill you in on how this came about. as of mid july, we will no longer have our nice comfy expat package because gary's work permit will expire then and basically his obligations will be fulfilled. he now works for a department that sends him travelling around europe constantly and so his new boss told him he can choose whatever city he would like to live in, including staying here in a'dam or going back to boulder. the problem here has to do with the tax structure; not a good idea in financial terms. we've about had it with this weather, too. so, onto warmer climes. as much as we love boulder, we can't pass up a chance like this. we don't want to look back in ten years and say "we should have"..... we had narrowed it down to barcelona, london, or rome. well, london also has that hideous weather we're trying desperately to escape, and although barcelona is quite a lovely city, there's just something about italy that draws us in. the food, the language, the history, the art to name a few magnets. thus, our trip to rome.

we travelled early in the day on my birthday making this a tradition to celebrate it in italy, {last year we went to bologna}. stopping over in paris at the very modernly swank charles de gaulle airport, we treated ourselves to a fancy breakfast at the sheraton located inside the airport. it was now 9:30 am so we were awake enough to enjoy it. by the time we actually arrived at our residenzia {small hotel} we had travelled on two planes, a train, and a taxi and there was still daylight left. we were a bit trashed but after a quick nap, we were anxious to check out the vatican, a separate country only a few blocks away. there stood st. peter's in the midst of a distinctly italian square or piazza in all its domed splendor. as impressive as it is from the outside, the inside is even more so. there was a mass in progress and the light was hitting the window above Bernini's Baroque sculpture, illuminating the image of the Holy Spirit surrounded by angels in flight. the light was absolutely golden and the strains of the organ filled the basilica making it a moment to behold. in contrast to many old, dusty churches, this one is light in color with marble floors and pillars and is adorned elaborately without being ostentatious. one of the hightlights, not surprisingly, is Michaelangelo's Pieta, now behind glass since an attack in 1972. the sculpture evokes such delicate lines of movement, extremely refined, and is really breathtaking. once outside again, we celebrated seeing our first important sight in rome with gelato, italian ice cream, much lighter than non italian ice cream. it was after dinner {more about the wonderful food later} that we realized we had been in four different cities/countries that very day. coffee in a'dam, breakfast in paris, gelato in vatican city, and dinner in rome! that doesn't happen too often.

this relocation will be quite different than the one here since we'll be setting everything up on our own without the help of gary's company. challenge with a capital "C". what did we do in the days before internet? i shudder to think because our first step was to hire a relocation company and we searched out a few online. we got pretty lucky showing up in rome during the weekend and being able to meet with someone on monday. {that never happens}. in the meantime, we rented one of those really- scary- to- ride on motor scooters, the popular choice among city-goers in rome. there was no convincing gary otherwise and in the end, i had to admit it was the most efficient way to zip around town, scoping out various neighborhoods. rome is a lot bigger than amsterdam. i wanted to feel sexy and sleek ala audrey hepburn on our scarlet red piaggio, but the combination of being terrified and having that helmet hairdo was a bit prohibitive. fortunately, gary had lived in thailand and was quite familiar with how to drive it because really there aren't too many traffic rules, such as specific lanes or anything we americans might be used to. oddly, there is some unexplained organized flow in progress but it's certainly a puzzlement. we only had to endure pouring rain once and we were pretty happy about that. the sun shone for most of the week, spring had arrived along with gary's allergies, and we were grateful for the change of scenery. as i write this, winter still descends upon us here in holland {heavy sigh!} it hailed on me today.

more about rome. i had an image of what the city would look like; i saw it as being imbued with earthy, dusty, historical tones. rome is actually quite lush, abundantly sporting the flat topped acacia trees that i loved so much in africa. we also kept seeing these exquisite trees with vibrant purple flowers similar to lilacs and just as fragrant and one day we found ourselves in a park amid a semi circle of tall trees curving in towards each other. i'm a tree lover from way back so i was glad to discover that my new home would have other offerings besides ancient ruins and art extraordinaire. since this was more of a "work" trip, we didn't spend any time exploring those fascinating ruins, but we frequently zoomed by the Colosseum and Circus Maximus looking forward to doing so in the future. the job at hand was to make some connections and get the ball rolling. we met with michaela, our relocation agent, on monday and she did a great job of setting up some apartment showings throughout the week. in addition, we met a very helpful couple named allesandro {he's italian} and britta {she's german} who manage the residenzia we stayed at. they're keeping their ears open and have offered to help us. as i said, we were nearby the Vatican; the area is called prati and we decided that this is where we'd like to live. it's a quiet area but close to the center and has good access to public transportaion and "real" people, not too many tourists. our apartment and neighborhood here will be a tough act to follow; we're picky about certain things, making the house hunting a bit of a challenge and i think michaela has her work cut out for her. we saw several apartments, none of which was ideal. we're holding out for just the right one. there are some differences in apartment hunting in italy, the first being that you shouldn't necessarily expect to see a clean apartment if no one's living there and the other is that the kitchen appliances, such as refrigerator, sink, stove may or may not come with it. this is where you really have to open your mind and take deep breaths.

what can i really say about the food in italy that everyone doesn't already know? it's fantastic and i don't know how they do it, but a simple meal of pasta and tomato sauce is a culinary delight over there. bad wine doesn't exist in this country and they definitely know how to make a cappucino without drowning it in foam, although not usually hot enough for me. of course after i learned to ask for it "molto caldo", it was perfect. most people don't speak much english so we jumped right in and started learning phrases. it's such a beautiful language, in contrast to the one that some of us have been struggling with for more than a year now. gary and i both look forward to learning it. most nights we were able to have dinner outside with heat lamps providing just enough warmth, something that won't happen here for another three months, if at all. every area of town has a piazza, a square where people can meet, and after dinner lots of folks can be seen strolling around eating of course, gelato. {this gelato thing could be a problem for me}. many piazzas are surrounded by restaurants, some have majestic churches or fountains in the center and are often named after those structures. the piazzas are generally filled with people and musicians and are quite the lively scene. we won't be living too close to any as they tend to get pretty noisy but they're great to experience as a hangout. one night we enjoyed sitting at an outside cafe right next to the Pantheon. hard to believe it's been standing for over two thousand years!

towards the end of the week, we were getting a bit weary of cruising around, craving a more cultural experience. I HAD TO SEE THE SISTINE CHAPEL, along with the other thousand people standing in line. this would be gary's second visit and he assured me it would be worth it. after queing for forty five minutes, we got in and he led me at top speed to the chapel, which was really tucked away and took a long time to reach. we walked about a mile and when we arrived, it was obvious what the buzz was all about. it's hard to describe such a monumental creation. how did he do it; painting from a scaffold on a surface that is curved? the work is magnificent, divided into panels, depicting scenes from the Bible in the most inviting colors imaginable. without binoculars {we forgot them}, it's hard to see all the detail because there's so much of it but i bought a book and was able to see more of the intricacy. these figures really dance out at you even from a distance and you wonder how they can be only two dimensional. earlier i said that Michelangelo has a way of making artistic lines flow and i felt really centered looking at his work here. we stayed for more than an hour; each time you look away and back again, you see something brand new and alive. he's the master, in my opinion and i really look forward to many trips back there. so for all of you planning to visit.....you're in for a treat.

no trip could be complete for deb and gary without some type of dance performance so we scootered over to the opera house to see a program of nijinksky choreography. it was danced well and it's always great for me to see pieces i've read about and seen pictures of, noting them also for their historical significance. we had the good fortune of seeing the famous italian ballerina, carla fracci, in that performance. she's been around forever but you would never know it; she danced beautifully, capturing the quality of nijinsky's quirky choreography. he was definitely ahead of his time; obvious to see why he was considered a maverick and fascinating to see some of the early modern works. i was however, disappointed in the theatre, it's on the drab side, not nearly as impressive as some of the others we've been to around europe. oh well, there are some things i'll miss about amsterdam. when we came out, it was dumping rain so for our last dinner in rome, we had chinese food! it was up to par with the italian food and there is no lack of chinese restaurants anywhere in the city but oddly enough, we didn't see any other type of ethnic food. this is something we will REALLY miss about living in amsterdam; we don't want to expand eating that incredible homemade pasta everyday. like anything else, moving to rome will have its good points and not so good ones but generally we both had a positive feeling about living there { at least for a year} and are ready to forge ahead.

at the moment, gary is in bologna on business and will be heading to rome this weekend to hopefully see more apartments. i can't leave right now because i'm doing a two week intensive training in gyrotonic. it's different than anything i've ever participated in and challenging in all the right ways. there is a studio in rome, not too far from where we want to live and i'm hoping i can continue training and maybe eventually teach there. i realize i'm making it more difficult for myself by intending to work in a non english speaking location but i've always admired people who were willing to take a risk and now i aspire to be one of those people. i'll have to keep breathing!! so for all of you who didn't visit us in amsterdam, you still get a chance to come to europe. and for those of you who did, we hope you'll come again!!

ciao for now,

lots of love, deb