Travel Tales Tuesday: A Perfect Day in Rome
Rome was the last stop in my trip to Europe after finishing my Honours dissertation. It was early January 2011, and despite having been on holiday for almost four weeks already both Mark and I were feeling run down. We were both suffering from depression, and we were both getting homesick. We didn't make very good use of our time there as a result. However, one day stands out in my memory as perhaps the best day we spent in Italy.
We slept late, sprawled out in our suite (our hotel was overbooked and so our room was upgraded for free- we certainly couldn't have afforded it ordinarily!) After lazing about and completely failing to muster the energy to navigate another new public transport system or deal with people in a language that neither of us spoke or even attempting to choose a landmark or attraction to visit, we decided we'd just take a walk and see what we could see.
And so we stumbled out into the sunshine. It was a beautiful day. It's not that we hadn't enjoyed the previous several weeks of snow and rain and grey skies and freezing temperatures- the snow in particular had been part of the attraction of Europe at Christmas time! - but seeing a bit of blue sky and bright sunlight helped to ease our homesickness and lift our spirits.
We ended up in a nearby park and thought we'd have a stroll. It was an enormous place, with big old trees and winding paths and beautiful fountains and statues around every corner.
After wandering through for a while, we stopped for some chips and icecream and had an impromptu picnic. Feeling full and content and generally more chipper than we had in a while, we decided to hire a two-person pedal car to continue exploring the park in. They looked so fun! And surely on full bellies sitting down and moving a little faster would all be upside.
Because we're giant geeks, and because we had been recently been using our old gameboys to keep us entertained on flights and trains, we proceeded to cycle about singing the old Pokemon bicycle theme. No matter what kind of looks we received, I still think it was awesome.
It wasn't quite all upside though- the gentle slopes and charming winding pathways were suddenly a whole new challenge, and our legs were burning before long. When we came to a downhill slope, we were so relieved... until we realised that the brakes did not work anywhere near as well as we would have liked. Our singing took on a slightly panicked edge. We hurtled along, narrowly avoiding small children and rubbish bins and dogs and other pedal cars, until eventually we reached level ground and gently coasted to a stop.
And because once wasn't enough, we decided to do it some more.
As we explored, we came across a building advertising an exhibition of Lucas Cranach's work. My favourite style of German medieval dresses are nicknamed Cranach gowns by reenactors, because portraits of court ladies wearing this style are how this dude made his bread and butter and he painted a whole lot of them. I'd been slightly disappointed at other galleries and museums we'd visited to find that some of the paintings I'd really wanted to study had been elsewhere for exhibitions, and here I'd just stumbled across them!
After we returned the pedal car, we found our way back to the gallery where I spent a long time examining the details of paintings I had given up on seeing and making excited squeaking noises. Mark patiently followed me around and said "yes dear" at all the appropriate moments. I believe that what he enjoyed most was a chance to sit on padded benches after all the cycling.
After, we spent some more time enjoying the sunshine with some deliciously unhealthy snack food, before slowly making our way back to the hotel.
It was a far better day than we could have managed if we'd planned it. It's one of my favourite memories of the trip- even if I can never think of it without getting a very repetitive piece of music stuck in my head!
We slept late, sprawled out in our suite (our hotel was overbooked and so our room was upgraded for free- we certainly couldn't have afforded it ordinarily!) After lazing about and completely failing to muster the energy to navigate another new public transport system or deal with people in a language that neither of us spoke or even attempting to choose a landmark or attraction to visit, we decided we'd just take a walk and see what we could see.
And so we stumbled out into the sunshine. It was a beautiful day. It's not that we hadn't enjoyed the previous several weeks of snow and rain and grey skies and freezing temperatures- the snow in particular had been part of the attraction of Europe at Christmas time! - but seeing a bit of blue sky and bright sunlight helped to ease our homesickness and lift our spirits.
We ended up in a nearby park and thought we'd have a stroll. It was an enormous place, with big old trees and winding paths and beautiful fountains and statues around every corner.
After wandering through for a while, we stopped for some chips and icecream and had an impromptu picnic. Feeling full and content and generally more chipper than we had in a while, we decided to hire a two-person pedal car to continue exploring the park in. They looked so fun! And surely on full bellies sitting down and moving a little faster would all be upside.
Because we're giant geeks, and because we had been recently been using our old gameboys to keep us entertained on flights and trains, we proceeded to cycle about singing the old Pokemon bicycle theme. No matter what kind of looks we received, I still think it was awesome.
It wasn't quite all upside though- the gentle slopes and charming winding pathways were suddenly a whole new challenge, and our legs were burning before long. When we came to a downhill slope, we were so relieved... until we realised that the brakes did not work anywhere near as well as we would have liked. Our singing took on a slightly panicked edge. We hurtled along, narrowly avoiding small children and rubbish bins and dogs and other pedal cars, until eventually we reached level ground and gently coasted to a stop.
And because once wasn't enough, we decided to do it some more.
As we explored, we came across a building advertising an exhibition of Lucas Cranach's work. My favourite style of German medieval dresses are nicknamed Cranach gowns by reenactors, because portraits of court ladies wearing this style are how this dude made his bread and butter and he painted a whole lot of them. I'd been slightly disappointed at other galleries and museums we'd visited to find that some of the paintings I'd really wanted to study had been elsewhere for exhibitions, and here I'd just stumbled across them!
After we returned the pedal car, we found our way back to the gallery where I spent a long time examining the details of paintings I had given up on seeing and making excited squeaking noises. Mark patiently followed me around and said "yes dear" at all the appropriate moments. I believe that what he enjoyed most was a chance to sit on padded benches after all the cycling.
After, we spent some more time enjoying the sunshine with some deliciously unhealthy snack food, before slowly making our way back to the hotel.
It was a far better day than we could have managed if we'd planned it. It's one of my favourite memories of the trip- even if I can never think of it without getting a very repetitive piece of music stuck in my head!
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