Roma, Italy

Hello friends and family,

To give an update on what we’ve been up to,Jared and I are in Rome! For those of you that don’t know, I’m Italian – Antognozzi?Anyways, one of my cousins in Italy will be married this Spring and the family plus Jared made the voyage across the Atlantic to be there for the wedding. We arrived on Wednesday (the wedding is on a Saturday), so we had plenty of time to explore the city.

On Thursday, my parents and us went into the city to do a speed-Dating monument-touring esque marathon.

We hit so.many.spots. First, we went to the Vatican, but after gawking at the line, we decided to go to Castel Sant’Angelo instead. The fortress was used for multiple purposes during its existence – a fortress, a mausoleum, a hideaway, to name a few. It’s where the Pope would escape to during times of turmoil through the underground tunnel that was linked directly to the Vatican. Once we got to the top, we had a beautiful view of the city including the Vatican, the Tiber River and Trastevere (one of the older neighborhoods in Rome).

From there, we walked to many different spots in the city – the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, Fontana de Trevi, and the Villa Borghese Gardens. The Garden grounds were massive – it was surprising that there is so much green so close to the city! The gardens are right next to the original old wall to the ancient city of Rome. We even walked in front of the American embassy, where my mom worked for some time and where she met my dad (and where I became a possibility). Unfortunately, we forgot to throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain!

The next day, my parents wanted to spend time with my grandparents so Jared and I got the big kid talk and we were able to go into the city ourselves. If my dad didn’t direct us the first day, and if we didn’t have my cousin’s hotspot, we definitely would not have made it. From our apartment, we took the bus to the metro and got off at Ottaviano to visit the Vatican – this time on the inside. We walked around looking like lost dogs until we slyly snuck into line for Saint Peters Basilica. Luckily, it only took 1.5 hours until we made it inside!! I had already been but it was years ago, and Jared had never been so it was breathtaking for the both of us. The detail and architecture leaves you in awe – no wonder it took 120 years to build the church. We even got to go down to the grotto, where the sarcophagi (tombs?) of past popes lay. In case you didn’t know, the Church is said to have been built on the bones of Peter. We saw the interment of the bones, along with a plaque describing the words next to the bones “Petros Eni”, or Peter is Here. Pretty humbling to stand in the spot where the greatest Catholic Church in the world was formed.

After the Church, we walked back to the metro, transferred lines (wow we’re pros), exited the metro and found ourselves standing right in front of the Coliseum. We bought tickets for a dainty 12 euros and walked inside the 2,000 year old Roman amphitheater. There are two levels available for walking and multiple plaques with varying fun, and gruesome, facts about the games that once took place inside those walls. Men, mostly slaves but some idiotic individuals looking for fame, would emerge from the tunnels beneath the Coliseum to fight each other to the death, or worse, fight defenseless against imported wild animals. It was customary in those times for people to spectate and watch people be ripped apart for pure entertainment – glad I wasn’t around back then.

Our tickets also gained us entrance into the Roman Forums, ancient ruins that once were the center of Ancient Rome. With just two days to explore downtown Rome, we really did see a lot. The next two days were spent with family and at the wedding.

Saturday – wedding day. The wedding was in an absolutely beautiful church, outside of Rome in the countryside on a town called Grottoferrata. The wedding was early in the morning, which was different than any American wedding I’ve been to. By 1PM, we were at the restaurant. Let me explain how an Italian wedding works as I now know – you eat course after course for about five to six hours. When we got there, there was a beautiful spread of aperitivos, which are the appetizers commonly eaten before the main meal. There was a whole prosciutto and a whole wheel of pecorino cheese – I was in heaven. We missed the memo because we thought that was the entire meal, so we each had about 4-5 small plates before being told this was just the beginning – there were three other main courses then dessert! The venue was absolutely stunning. It was in a backyard of this old Italian building with vines running up and down the sides, and a view of Rome below. After the appetizers, we moved inside for the later courses. There was seafood pasta, layered pasta with ricotta, pistachios and honey, and lastly a hearty piece of steak with roasted potatoes and an arugula salad (I wish they served that first!). Even though the food was spaced out, that was one of the bigger food babies we ever had. To top it off, there was a dessert bar with the wedding cake, cheesecakes, fruits and other tortes. It was definitely the most beautiful and tasty wedding we’ve been to!