Day 1
Well, It was a daunting task. I was ‘in-charge’ of our dream vacation for 2011. My research consisted of interviewing friends who’ve been there before me and then I was going to do internet research after collecting friends’ opinions.
Actually, it wasn’t such a daunting task until I started talking to friends. All said that their trip was so overwhelming. All said that I should definitely ask for help from a travel agent. There were so many places to see and so many things to do in Italy. It was all too much to decipher.
They were so right until I started getting quotes from travel agents. I thought to myself, why should I have someone else plan my dream vacation. Yes, you read it right. MY dream. Actually, my family’s dream as well but they didn’t know any better!
All those years of Architecture school should at least pay off somehow, right? So I started the process. I turned to the internet for research. I knew the historical values of certain sites. I had to include those in the ‘must see’ category. Another was the ‘must experience’ category. Yet another was the ‘must travel’ category.
This blog is not about travel but more about how I saw Italy in 7 days through my discriminating set of eyes!
Day 1: Love the front doors in Italy. So welcoming! This was our Trestavere apartment. This fell under the ‘must experience’ category. Trestavere is a neighborhood just outside of Rome. You can take the bus to Rome and get there in about 5 minutes…more or less. What we loved about Trestavere is the neighborhood feel. People worked and lived there. To the right of our apartment is the most quaint restaurant we’ve ever been. Very friendly people. English wasn’t spoken so well but the smiles and hospitality said it all.
It seems that most of the apartments in the area had a balcony where you can see a few historic buildings. Here, we can the Campidoglio!
As we ventured outside of Trestavere, of course, a visit to the Pantheon was a ‘must see’. Actually most of Rome was a ‘must see’. There’s so many historical buildings to visit but alas, only 2 days in Rome. Oh, be still my heart! It was like my architecture books came to life! Had a list of ‘must see’. I had listed and scheduled them according to their geographic locations. Thank goodness, also, for google earth. This is a wonderful tool.
I couldn’t get enough of the architecture and its interiors. Amazing.
