LAZIO, ITALY
12—20 April, 2013

Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?

Two months ago, my father had planned a week-long trip to Italy to take care of some stuff that needed taking care of after my nonno’s death. Since I hadn’t been to our house in almost a decade, and the boyfriend had (obviously) never been at all, we decided to tag along. This is the story of that trip. Well, photo-story, I guess, because we didn’t actually do much. No gripping narrative here, folks! If you only want to look at the photos, or want to see all of them, the flickr album is here. All the photos in this entry are clickable, though, and will lead you to flickr where you can view them in pretty much every size imaginable. The videos won’t stream in HD on this site; if you want to watch them in all their glory (and I use that word very liberally), just click on the video title and it’ll get you to vimeo.

‘Twas a rainy morning in Berlin when we started our road trip.

The weather was disgusting all the way down to Munich, and then again in Austria and down to South Tyrol where we spent the night. That’s why I hardly have any photos of that leg of the trip. We arrived in Vipiteno in the dark, but when we got up the next morning, there was sunshine, finally!

I apparently have a thing for mountains. And black-and-white photos of them. That evening, we finally arrived at our house, dropped off our stuff and went right out again to get pizza. Sadly, there was a line for a table at the place we always go to that was far too long. So we got take-out pizza and took it home. Not as good as the ‘real’ thing, but it was only the beginning.

The second day, we went to see the ocean in Anzio! It was too cold to go in (for us anyway; there were more than a few brave souls who were already out swimming), but just looking at it again was nice. Anzio was super crowded for some reason, so we didn’t really do much else there but went back home instead.

Took some random shots of flowers, so here, have two:

The boyfriend had work to do for his thesis and I had a bunch of things to read while my father dealt with Important Things the day after that, but in the evening, we went out again. Nothing special, but we eventually ended up in Anzio again and I took more than a few photos of the ocean and the harbour.

Same procedure the next day, except we finally found an icecream place that a) was open already and b) sold granite. We each got a lemon granita, except it wasn’t very good and ridiculously overpriced. 🙁 Ah well, next time. I do love me some granita. We had a typical Italian dinner that night, with antipasti and penne and IT WAS SO DELICIOUS.

The next day was far more exciting! My father again had stuff to sort out, so the boyfriend and I went to Rome for a day! We had originally planned to stay the night, but then decided against it. And the one day was enough; we walked so much we would’ve been unable to walk any further the next day anyway. So, brace yourselves for a lot of photos.

We arrived at Termini and walked to the Colosseum from there, climbed the Capitoline Hill for a nice view, then made our way to the Vittoriano where I took a lot of panorama shots (another awesome place if you want a view over the city).

After that, we went to see Trevi Fountain (duh!), climbed another of the Seven Hills, and followed that up with a break for dinner. I had fairly decent gnocchi and the boyfriend had carbonara.

Theeeeeen we went to the Pantheon (my favourite) and to Piazza Navona, where we spent a while looking at all the wonderful art, and ended up buying a piece each.

The last thing on our list was watching the sun set over the Vatican, so here, have a bunch of photos of St. Peter’s Basilica and Castel Sant’Angelo. We didn’t go into the Vatican, but there would’ve been no time for that. Plus, we’ve both been to Rome in the past, individually, so it wasn’t really necessary anyway.

My father picked us up close to St. Peter’s Square and drove us to a place overlooking the city (the Eighth Hill, if you will). It really pays off to have someone with you who more or less grew up in these parts. 😉

The day after that was far less eventful, but it was market day, so we checked that out. Dinner was, once again, pizza; the last time we’d be able to have any. Afterwards, my dad met up with a cousin for more family business, and that was the last day of our trip already. 🙁

On the way back, we had fantastic weather until we hit Austria. From that moment on, it just turned awful again. But we still ended up driving through the night and got home at 4am or so. Fun times! To be honest, the drive has always been my favourite part, and probably always will be. It was so nice seeing the house again, though, and some of our relatives, and eating amazing pizza. I already want to go back.

No place like home.

© Isabella Valenza; all rights reserved. Do not repost or copy without permission.
★ flickr album