When I am lost I travel so I can come back home.
Those are the words that repeated itself in my head throughout my trip to Italy.
I have just returned from Italy where I stayed for 8 days, but feel like I have been away for weeks. I have seen and walked so much, the sensual input totally overwhelming me.
My body is tired, my head is still on holiday-mode, I lost four kilos from all the walking, but it was so needed to get out of my brain and back into my senses again and my is Italy good for re-enlivening the senses.
It was hot, visually stunning, super quiet in the country side, mega crowded in the city, it was loud, delicious, kind, rude, and everything in between… it was this and in overdrive. All seems to be a little bit more intense in Italy. The energy, the passion, well the life.
La Dolce Vita
This is a link to all my pictures:
As I don’t want to write out my day to day journal I am just going to share some random thoughts, observations and memories and share my (almost 600) photographs with you. Apologies about the ones taken inside, I do not have a very good camera, so they are a bit blurred. Or was the camera also suffering from visual overload 😉
Orvieto
I traveled first to Orvieto where I spent two days walking around, exploring the sights and just enjoying this city beautifully situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The city rises dramatically above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are completed by defensive walls built of the same stone called Tufa. Especially the huge Duomo made a big impression on me. I visited some museums about the Etruscan heritage of the city and found it all very interesting. A lovely place Orvieto is, like going back in time (minus all the tourist busses coming through – fortunately I am an early riser and managed to wander the streets all by myself, magical!).
The weather was so lovely, like high Summer would be in The Netherlands, around 30 degrees C. all week. Perfect! Only had one big shower of rain and that was it! So happy and grateful for that!! The nights and mornings were wonderfully cool, so perfect for sleep. I loved it. Now back in Holland I find myself shivering and I keep telling myself to really get the sweaters out soon (because of a lack of space, I change my wardrobe every season, pack up all the other clothes in boxes).
Tuscolano (Umbria)
Then I went to visit my aunt and uncle who live an hours drive away from Orvieto in Tuscolano. I hadn’t seen them in such a long time and it was wonderful catching up and to finally see where they live. And the place is amazing. I must have said it a hundred times. I kept pinching myself if I didn’t end up in a movie or something. A beautiful house in the middle of nowhere. So so quiet, just nature sounds and beautifully dark at night, I could actually see the stars!!
My aunt and uncle spoiled me rotten. My uncle cooked amazing food and my aunt made up plates like a work of art. All they do is done with such love and attention. My aunt also drove me around to see the surrounding area and we visited Todi for lunch. We had lunch at Vineria San Furtunato (next to Church San Fortunato) and the terrace couldn’t be in a more beautiful location. Halfway up the steps to the church. The waiters sure must be fit here to or from serving. We dug into a beautiful plate of cod carpaccio and a ratatouille dish. Thank you Josefien for this treat!
Also one of the neighbors, a sweet elderly woman living by herself with 30+ cats took us and some other people out for lunch (so very generous!) and well did she treat us to an Italian feast, so many courses I lost count (I forgot to take pictures)! I totally let go of my diet, so I ate the meat and drank the wine. I will get back on track when I am back home. On holiday I usually let go and just enjoy myself. Especially in lesser traveled countries I find it so much more connective to eat as the locals do and also in this case. Who am I to say no to such a beautiful gesture? I just find food such a big part of culture I also want to experience, so yes perhaps hypocritical, but my clean and animal friendly diet goes out of the window. Sorry, not really…I do what I can …and want.
That evening Josefien and I met up with a (super friendly and fun) friend of her’s for drinks in Todi and a pianoforte concert at the local college (old building, next to the church, again like stepping into a movie or back in time!); Chopin and Liszt. It was beautiful but a bit too much (and too long) for my taste. But very well played for such a young man and with a lot of passion and intensity. Afterwards ice cream at the local (still crowded at this time) square, the city of Todi is beautifully lit at night, magical.
In the free time staying there I just enjoyed doing nothing, wandered the forest a bit, picked wild fruits, meditated, did yoga, read a book, did tarot, journaled, I just was… It was wonderful so quite, such clean air. Space… something I didn’t know I craved so much. I slept for 10 hours each night, heaven!
My Roman Holiday
I stayed at my aunt and uncle for three nights and then traveled to Rome by train. I stayed in a BnB in Subaugusta for 3 nights, some 20 minutes from Termini. A quiet area outside the city center and I stayed with a lovely couple and their little boy in a clean and spacious appartement. As soon as I arrived I left my suitcase and head into the city, well you can see on the pictures what I visited…
There is so much beauty in this city it is hard to know where to look, it is like walking in a museum. Last time I was here was in 2011, so quite some time ago and I sort of forgot how beautiful it is. After a while it even makes you numb a bit I am sorry to admit. The first few hours are spent in awe and then you sort of get used to it. I noticed that this often happens in life. We seek the next new bright thing and then it fades. We should be aware of beauty at all times and never get used to it. I guess it is also a mater of contrast, because in Rome most buildings are beautiful there is not much contrast (or that being the poverty, the dirt, the crowds, but not really in the architecture?). I am always fascinated by cities such as Tokyo where old and new come together in contrast but also in perfect harmony and balance. Rome is a full on assault on the senses. No judgement there, not good or bad, it just is. The sights, the smells, the traffic, the heat, the crowds, the noise… I loved it, it made me buzz, but it also wore me out. If I was looking for contrast well this was in great contrast to the quietude of the days in the countryside. But all the noise did overtake my thoughts and my mind and I just sort of gave into it and it was quite lovely. Getting lost in the craziness of it all. Finding perfect peace in the crowd. I sometimes felt I wasn’t really there, sort of floating between the crowds like a ghost. Unseen, anonymous, quietly observing.
I vowed never to complain about Amsterdam being too busy anymore. All is in perspective now as in Rome there are so many tourists and of course I was one of them. But somehow I always find myself less annoying haha! Some tourists are just so disrespectful, and yes I know I am being judgemental, it is one of my pet peeves. I just hope all can be preserved well with such crowds coming through every day.
I also noted that there are so many military everywhere, I really don’t like how we are forced to get used to this being normal. It isn’t normal to have armed guards all over the place. Having to go through scanners when you enter a building, made me very sad.
On the 25th it was my birthday, I turned 43 and I was greeted from midnight throughout the day by so many sweet messages congratulating me! I visited Galleria Borghese and Trastevere that day and it was perfect. Galleria Borghese is stunning, I was fortunate to have a time slot right at opening and I was one of the first ones in, so I could enjoy the splendor in relative silence. Also the surrounding park Villa Borghese is a wonderful place to breathe and wander around in. Trastevere (across the Tiber) was a perfect ending of the trip, wandering the small streets, drinking a drink on the terrace, watching the world go by. The Universe just had to pull a little prank on me. As I put myself on a 15 euro daily budget I made it a habit to eat the daily lunch deals as my main meal of the day (and something from the supermarket in the evening) so far I had lovely and elaborate lunches for little money, though this time as I was pondering to have a glass of wine or not, it being my birthday and the last day in Rome, and the plate that came out of the kitchen was stacked with liver, just fried liver with onions. Haha so I opted for the water 😉 Thanks Universe! (probably also very good as I turned out to be anemic from the last blood test I took two weeks ago – so down the hatched with the liver).
The next day I stayed near the BnB as I needed to go to the airport that afternoon. I walked around a nearby park with old aquaducts. It is a strange feeling walking there as there are no other buildings around, just rural area and these major structures, you can really imagine what it was like back in the days. Also this is just a wonderful quiet place, so sat on a bench and read a book. Later that day I picked up some pizza to eat later at the airport, packed my bags and went home.
At home I was greeted by birthday cards and flowers from my neighbor, so so sweet!
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Thank you for all your birthday wishes and for reading this, see you soon!
