Rome and Florence: Cats, Coffee, and Art

Last month I finally took a trip to the place everyone said that as an artist I needed to visit: Italy! And it’s true, the first thing I noticed as the plane landed were the trees. The trees I have been seeing in paintings all my life, but never actually seen for myself; trees that populated the backgrounds of famous paintings or portraits from my art books — here they were!

I had been trying to organize a trip to Tangier and for the second was thwarted by scheduling conflicts and logistical issues. Frankly I was tired, and wanted to go somewhere easy to get to. I love Norwegian Airlines, so at the last minute I went and looked at some direct flight destinations from Boston, and Rome was a brand new one. In fact, my flight was only the second run they had ever completed.

Too be honest, I wasn’t all that interested in Rome because I was more interested Florence. I’m happy to say I spent more time in Rome — because wow, I would have felt like an idiot had I not! Honestly, finding out about the Largo di Torre Argentina cat sanctuary located where Caesar was murdered made me think perhaps Rome would be fun after all!

So my husband and I did both cities and although we liked them both in different ways, I think Rome was more up my alley (and less crowded). It also helped I have an artist friend who has been living in Rome for seven years and it was great to get out to other neighborhoods and go places with someone who knows the lay of the land and tidbits of history everywhere we walked. These amazing sites having been just hanging around for thousands of years of course does not impress the inhabitants very much. The “oh yeah that pyramid at the metro stop is from before the time of Christ” blasé attitude was so funny to me.

Since the trip I have been having a lot of images of giant statuary in my dreams.
I preferred the Borgehese Museum over the Uffizi, and was so overwhelmed I think I need at least two more trips there despite how small in size it is.

A strange thing that happened was in wandering the Forum I came upon the first basilica of Saints Comas and Damian. The depictions of them performing surgery was part of what kick-started my interest in medical humanities, so that was a trip!

By the way I highly recommend traveling in April because all of the orange and lemon trees were bearing fruit as well as all the wisteria that was in bloom.

We did get to experience and 80s dance night at a goth/biker/punk bar on the outskirts Florence to pair with the touristy things. I think as usual I overdid it with the museums, and I we only did a portion of my list. Aside from that, there was a lot of shopping in department stores, lots of coffee, and more coffee, and more, and more. Oh and pizza!

I also did something for the first time in about nine years: I walked around in heels without a cane! On uneven ancient streets! And I didn’t fall or die.

It was a great trip and a good getaway as a sort of 18th wedding anniversary celebration. All of this despite the fact I am absolutely terrible at attempting to speak or pronounce anything in Italian (Slavic languages are more my strong suit). More photos below. I took so many, and trust me, this is the edited down batch! And below that a list of places I went or stayed at…