Roma – La Città Eterna

Yesterday was definitely one of the best days ever, spent in the beautiful city of Rome! ♥

In the morning we caught the train+metropolitana, had caffè al bar, wandered around the piazzas and then finally met up with Claudia (meno male) just in time for…our private tour of the Italian Parliament House!

It was SO amazing, il Palazzo Montecitorio. Unfortunately we couldn’t take any photos inside due to the stringent security measures, but I’ll try describing it as best I can anyways. Divided into two sections between ‘historical’ and ‘modern’, the place was enormous and the furnishings were just so beautiful. With red-carpet lined floors covering all the corridors, we walked through ‘Il Transatlantico’, saw the different rooms like ‘La Sala Verde’ [The Green Room] and ‘La Sala del Casellario’ [The Mailbox Room], and sat in for a segment of question time in ‘L’Aula’ [The Plenary Hall of the Chamber of Deputies].

But my favourite part was by far entering ‘La Sala Aldo Moro’ [previously La Stanza Gialla], ‘La Sala della Regina’ [The Queen’s Hall] and ‘La Sala della Lupa’ [The Hall of the She-wolf]. Inside ‘La Stanza Gialla’, there was a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and everything was shiny gold – insomma, it was utterly incredible! It was such an overwhelming feeling to be in the exact places you’d normally see on TV during press conferences and diplomatic agreements. And to think that I’ve now been to the place where all the politics of Italy happens, oh so official!

The decorations, fittings and artworks inside…seeing the original tapestries of the Medici family, among so many other priceless pieces of art. It was SUCH a good tour, and I absolutely loved every part of it, ah amazing! Made even better due to the fact our ‘group tour’ consisted of two people, for the most part the guide spoke to us in Italiano – and I understood a large majority of it! After they checked our passports at the first entrance though, we somehow managed to bypass mandatory security screenings completely?

After Parliament we walked the entire Via del Corso and went shopping! I must say, I am loving ‘i saldi’, and the shops on that street were SO good. (ZARA), H&M, Gap, Sephora…and all the other stores you can’t find in Australia! And for those of you who know how much I LOVE (and am an absolute sucker for) touristy souvenir shopping, I was able to finalise all of my token memorabilia for the trip! Fun times!

Time passed so quickly, to the point that we only had lunch at 3pm at a pizzeria. In the afternoon we revisited the lovely Trevi Fountain followed by Piazza di Spagna, which was honestly so much fun! In search of the perfect gelato, one of the highlights of the day was definitely eating WAY too much of it, more than once by the way – assolutamente buonissimo! But seriously, why does gelato (+flavours) taste SO much better in Italy?

Such an enjoyable and unforgettable day, I can’t believe everything is starting to wrap up though – in exactly a week I would have just landed back in Sydney…just in time for school – non voglio partire!

A dopo!

xxxxxxx

Serena

[Palazzo Montecitorio]

Vacanze Romane [Roman Holiday]

So it’s just occurred to me that I haven’t actually posted anything in Italian besides the occasional blog title, hence:

L’altro ieri ho guardato il film ‘Vacanze Romane’ (1953) interpretato da Gregory Peck e Audrey Hepburn. Mi sono divertita, la trama era tanto carina; però per me la parte migliore era quando stavo vedendo i posti che ho già visitato a Roma come Piazza di Spagna, Fontana di Trevi, Castel Sant’Angelo eccetera. Suppongo che le ‘vacanze romane’ siano esattamente ciò che sto avendo al momento! …è basta.

[The other night I watched ‘Roman Holiday’ (1953) starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. I really enjoyed it, the plot was really sweet; but the best part was definitely seeing all the different places I’ve already visited around Rome, like the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Castle of Sant’Angelo etc. I suppose a ‘Roman holiday’ is exactly what I’m having at the moment!]

Alright in other news, late last night I watched Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) in the cinema which was pretty good, despite the fact that it was in Italian with no subtitles this time! I must say it was dubbed really, really well; something I didn’t expect given the quality of some other foreign/dubbed films! Surprisingly though, I understood enough of it with the help of slyly looking up the plot beforehand haha…

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This morning was so productive – even though it’s nearly the end of the year I somehow managed to find the motivation to get some schoolwork finished! It felt so good…but there’s SO much that needs to be done in such a short space of time! In the late afternoon though, I went dress+shoe shopping for a new year’s eve party!

While I was there, I also decided to buy the book ‘Un giorno’ [One Day] by David Nicholls – in Italian. It should be a good read, and I’m pretty excited to see how much of it I actually understand once I get going!

Buona notte!

xxxxxxx

Serena

[Un giorno]