You Scream, I Scream, We all Scream for Gelato (or Run Pigeons, Run)

Ciao Bella Roma!

The capital of Italy hasn’t let us down. Josh and I had both been to Rome before we met, and had experienced quite a maddening frenzied pace, but this time we both loved Rome, and felt that the city was very relaxed. Perhaps this is because of its context- that it’s only a mere 3 million people compared to the cities of 30 million that we’ve visited? After all of this travel, our reference points are a bit skewed. For the last 9 weeks, we’ve gotten used to brushing our teeth with bottled water, eating limited produce, always aware of sickness and contamination. We were all very grateful to arrive into Rome after 16 hours of travel from Bangkok. Now we can eat anything we want, drink any water we want and be okay! This may sound like a really silly thing to be grateful for, but for us it’s a huge blessing. Oh the simple pleasures of life!

Whenever we arrive to a new place, we try and prep Luna on the language. I studied Italian in college, so I attempted to teach Luna some words and phrases. After having already learned bits of Japanese, Mandarin, Sri Lankan and Thai, she wasn’t eager to learn Italian, too. I had told her what a beautiful language Italian was, and how it sounded so nice- but when we got in the taxi at the airport, she looked at me after listening to a conversation on the radio and said, “Mama, Italian sounds like alligators speaking.” She wasn’t having any of it. Luckily, after a few days of people saying some very nice things to her in Italian, she has come around. It also doesn’t hurt to know how to ask for gelato.

There are amazing sights in Rome.  The Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Forum, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain (buried under a pile of scaffolding), etc.  But during 5 days and nights in Rome, Luna’s favorite activities were playgrounds, gelato and her latest hobby – chasing pigeons.  She chased them in parks.  She chased them in public squares.  I think she even chased them in her dreams.  There are no safe pigeons in Europe with Luna on the loose!