Benvenuti in Italia!
Ah Italy, a place where people eat ice cream every day, drink like fish and smoke like chimneys yet somehow manage to outlive the US – I thought I had just stepped into heaven. And our first taste of heaven was absolutely our hotel. The St. Regis Rome is, as expected, a portrait of Italian opulence so over-the-top that you continually ask yourself if you magically became royalty. It’s the type of style no one would ever want in their own house, but in a hotel it’s just enough ridiculousness that you really enjoy it. We were even upgraded to a suite so our room had a NAME!
Once we stopped laughing like giddy little children, we made our way out into the city to explore. Being that Rome is such a compact, walkable European city, even Katie’s toe didn’t slow us down too much and we were able to cover most of the city in our first full day. Our first day actually happened to be Republic Day in Italy so there were parades and all sorts of special events.
Unfortunately, this also meant that some of the icons of Rome were closed for the holiday, and significantly more depressing (for someone who will remain nameless), Gucci, Valentino, Dolce & Gabanna and other shopping icons were also closed.
Nonetheless, most of Rome is simply soaking in the beauty and impressiveness of what the Romans were able to accomplish 2000 years ago.
This entire city is basically a giant museum of beautiful art works to be enjoyed from the small cafés peppered throughout the city. It is impossible to look in any direction and not see an amazing building, sculpture or church, so as much as we would love to litter this post with a million photographs (and we do have a lot in store), it just makes more sense to see it yourself.
Our first pass through the city included the big things that no one should miss while here in Rome (also the places most crowded by tourists). The Pantheon, The Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps and countless beautiful Piazzas throughout the city (it would take me all day to list them all). Having just read Angels & Demons, I was looking a little closer for Illuminati imagery as I was walking around (I know, huge nerd).
It was at this point that Katie and I were starting to get a little tired and just wanted to experience the Italian culture. We found a cute little café, ordered a massive gelati, two café lattes and a bottle of red wine (not all at once, this is over a few hours) and watched the people pass by. If anyone was looking for a fun past-time, watching Italian men perv the many women that pass by (for those who don’t know: perv, v.t. to stare at impertinently, flirtatiously, or amorously). It really is quite comical.
It was about this time that Katie and I made the realization (crystallized easily into a phrase by Nick – thank you) that New Jersey really does give Italians a bad name. Apologies to those of you from The Suburb State, but spending my summers at the Jersey Shore in my youth, I have my share of run-ins with people like this guy (children should not watch that video… or read this paragraph…). After speaking with a few locals (who are hard to come by in a tourist metropolis like Rome), people are very very different than the “jacked and tan” variety I grew up with. Don’t get me wrong, there are some stereotypes that are extremely true. For instance, I have seen about a hundred people just like this guy and it really is impossible to try to mock Italian by being loud, oscillating your voice and using your hands – you will just fit in. Those things said, Italian people are just awesome.
After watching the world go by for a few hours we made our way back to our opulent palace of a hotel and called it a night. The rest of Rome had to wait until tomorrow.