Three coins in the fountain...

I confess - our own Roman Holiday was akin to a tour of the eponymous movie's locations. I sat on the same spot on the Spanish Steps and splashed my feet at the same spot in the fountain beneath it as Princess Anne; indeed, in my Princess Anne-inspired leather sandals, no less! We took a turn around the Colosseum and tossed a coin in the Trevi Fountain, which we see Audrey wander past in the film... I even dragged the reluctant camerado on a lengthier-than-expected trek to the Mouth of Truth and Castel Sant'Angelo; sadly there were no barge fights anymore.

Our particular haunt in the Eternal City was the Pantheon square:-

What pizzaz, hey! The camerado is in her polkadot culottes from our local vintage, Mela Mela, and this was my Rilkerian *dress of the night*'s (well, that's how I think of it) first outing - I found it for 28E in Florence when we were cycling through the Palazzo Pitti!

And, if you look at my Roman Holiday *collage*, you'll see the greatest gelaterie in all the world - the della Palma, in the sidestreet opposite and to the right of the Pantheon. I don't even like ice cream that much, but I would willingly give my little toe for another tub of their chocolate and coconut gelato... it even had Greg Peck and Audrey on the walls!

Of course, the *main attraction* - *I suppose* - is the Pantheon itself. It was rebuilt in 125AD, and standing in the beam of sunshine streaming into the shade through the ocular (or Great Eye, oooh!) in the dome is something akin to a religious experience. The sarcophagus of the artist Raphael reads ILLE HIC EST RAPHAEL TIMUIT QUO SOSPITE VINCI RERUM MAGNA PARENS ET MORIENTE MORI - "Here lies Raphael, by whom Nature feared to be outdone while he lived, and when he died, feared that she herself would die."

The Vatican is quite sinister, what with all the secret doors in the sides of statues (true!) and secret underground passages we could glimpse through the gratings in the floor of St Mark's - but special mention for me goes to Raphael's Stanza della Segnatura in the Palace. The four walls and the frescoes on the ceiling depicted the four features of humanist learning and worldly and spiritual wisdom: philosophy, theology, justice and poetry. As the camerado pointed out, "Exactly what you're going to study on your course!" (And yes - my place to study Theology at Cambridge has been confirmed!! Can't wait until September!!)

Like magic! Rome is, indeed, enchanted. Look at this wildflower-bedecked bower of ruins we literally climbed into in the Forum:

Even more wonderfully whimsical was this beautiful boating lake we found in the Villa Borghese! There was a fabulous old temple on a secret island surrounded by bright pink blossoms and willow trees, and people were sculling their little rowboats in between the dozens of turtles and ducks bobbing around in the water... one boat of girls was celebrating a birthday with faerie-pink balloons! Rowing around the lake reminded me of:

• Rattie and Mole The Wind in the Willows! (But who is who? Actually, I am Toad - the camerado is Rattie, practical and efficient.)
• That gorgeous scene in The Notebook where they are rowing in the rain laughing.
• That even more gorgeous scene in Funny Face where Audrey Heburn is dancing in her wedding dress with Fred Astaire beneath the trees by a little chapel, and then they step onto a raft and drift off down the river with the swans into the sunset...
  Audrey on the scene: "Stanley (Donen, the director), who at the time was perfecting his French, was photographing Fred and me floating down a stream on a little raft at the end of the picture. Stanley wanted to dress up the scene by having us followed by a flock of swans as the picture faded out - only the swan wrangler, as we called him, was late with his cue. And so, with the camera rolling, a desperately frantic Stanley started yelling at the top of his lungs, 'Les singes! Les singes!' What he meant to say was 'Les cygnes!' or swans. Instead, he was calling out for monkeys."
• Redwall rowing chants:
  Shrumm! Shrumm!
  Waylaheykoom!
  Shrumm! Shrumm!
  Oh, the river is deep and swift and wide
  Waylaheykoom!
  An' there's my matey at my side!
  Shrumm! Shrumm!
  With the sunlight beamin' through the trees
  Waylaheykoom!
  We'll all remember days like these.
  Shrumm! Shrumm!
  Oh oh waylaheykoom shrumm shrumm shrew, I won't forget a friend like you!

Without a doubt, though, my favourite place out of all of our travels has to be the Villa D'Este. It's an hour's bus ride from Rome in a small town called Tivoli, but it is more than worth the journey. Designed by a crazy Cardinal in the 1500s and tucked away in a little courtyard, we walked past the entrance a couple of times before even realising it was there. But, oh, the incredible giardini delle meravigli - the terraced gardens - are filled with dozens and dozens of FABULOUS FOUNTAINS, from a musical Water Organ at the top of the largest one to the Terrace of a Hundred Fountains (look, you can see them in the Three Coins in the Fountain opening sequence)! The light and the shade of the trees and the sounds of the water really were like the setting of a fairy-tale and it really did feel like the best of everything we love most, Narnia and Bushy Park and Hampton Court and the boating lake! It cast a sort of spell over us, too; we lay there for hours in a kind of enchanted slumber... as you can see:-

And the red circle is me standing in the spray getting very wet.

As Three Coins in the Fountain reminds us, 'you've never lived until you've loved in Rome!' Here are some things we learned through trial and erroneous error:

• I was turned away from the Vatican for wearing shorts and had to buy a pair of trousers for 12E - don't let it happen to you!!
• STAY NEAR THE CENTRE. We stayed in the Ricasoli Guesthouse (http://www.cross-pollinate.com/), a 15-20 minute walk from the station. The room was fine, and the owner, Bin Chen, is very sweet and helpful and gives you maps and advice - but be warned. It's too far from the city centre to walk, and although there's a metro station just around the corner, it closes early (10pm on Sundays, as we found out on our first night...) and the last night buses back to the train station are around midnight - you end up missing out on a lot of the nightlife. On the plus side, everyone crams onto the night buses and no one seems to check for tickets, so at least you get a free ride home!
• Save your euros for gelato and eat in the sidestreets just off the central areas - the food is much cheaper and actually much better than the few touristy-places in the main squares that we tried. Tuna pizza!! But beware!! One waiter (see if you can find the restaurant - the sidestreet to the right of the Pantheon, covered in ivy and bedecked with fairy lights!) brought us out two huge goblets of free wine - and kept refilling them! And it was good wine, too!
• Most importantly - don't forget to SHOP! Even it's only of the window-variety on the famous Via dei Condotti - we actually walked past a film crew shooting a model strutting down the street laden with Louis Vuitton handbags!

(How much do you love the camerado's Marilyn Monroe-'We're having a heatwave'-style dress?? On a scale of misty longing eyes to green envious ones??)

Oh, Dior...

This once stood among men, stood in the midst of fate, the destroyer...

...stood in the midst of not-knowing-towards-what, as if it existed, and drew stars toward itself out of the enshrined heavens. Angel, I'll show it to you, also, there! It will stand in your gaze, finally upright, saved at last...

RILKE

This is exactly how I felt about Santa Maria del Fiore in FIRENZE!

Where to begin?? We reached Florence at 7:15 in the morning, and since our rooms were not ready until 2 we ordered orange juice at a park-side cafe (it came freshly squeezed and frothing, scrumptious!) before walking straight over to the Duomo (that's one of the things I loved most about the city - you can walk everywhere!) and lighting a prayer candle (1). It's always the feel of the centuries in the stones of these places that I can never get over - construction of the cathedral began in 1296 and took over 170 years to complete. Photos can't capture it, but if you go there yourself, wear sleeves or bring a shawl - the camerado had to put on a bizarre green bag to cover her shoulders, and the smaller churches we tried to look in didn't even offer that and just kicked her out.

The Uffizi Gallery is equally brilliant, although I could never pronounce it, and the queue is very tedious - on our first 'attempt,' we finally got in and milled around looking for where to buy tickets, and when we asked a security guard, he marched us out and told us to queue again! Probably thought we had snuck in through the reserves queue (which, funnily enough, we did unintentionally when we went to see the real David at the Academia - oh, the poetic justice!) It was certainly worth queueing the second time to see the Venus di Milo, but my favourite painting was a 'Madonna and Child' by Berruguete (2) - so different to all the other Mary and Jesus images because he painted them happy instead of solemn, which just makes it so much sadder, knowing what happens.

We spent our second day renting out bicycles and cycling up to the Pont de Michaelangelo for what really is the best view of the city - I adored all the pledges of love carved into the walls (3) and there was even a rose garden (4)!! Also, look out for the turtles (5) - on the way up there were lots of big overgrown arches over secluded pools filled with literally dozens of the cute little *critturs*...

And, of course, we caught the hour's train to Pisa for the requisite *holding up the leaning tower* shot (5), although the town itself was very random and there was no air con on the return journey - at the height of a June afternoon in Italy, this is truly a death ride!

We also tried to check out the bar crawl which meets every night at 9pm under the replica of David in Piazza Signoria (6 - walking to the Uffizi and spotted a designer fashioning this dress out of carrier bags!). For us, however, twas not to be; we approached the huddle on our first night but, after exchanging significant glances, extricated ourselves to go to a free choral concert we had spotted advertised - on that night only - in the S. Carlo Church on Via De Calzaiuoli. So glad we did! I've never even listened to chamber music before, but at points it was so beautiful it actually brought tears to my eyes. The company - the Lirico Chamber Singers - were all around our age and we got talking to some of them afterwards. Turns out they had been flown out from Spokane, Washington as part of the International Music Festival and were the nicest people as well as the most talented. I love these spontaneous, off-the-beaten-track experiences!

http://www.uhighchoir.org/lirico

The second night we made our now-familiar way to the statue, the camerado just pointed and screamed "AAAHH! THE DOUCHEBAG! THE DOUCHEBAG!" It turns out she had spotted an obnoxious frat brother and his attendants who had tricked us into joining his charmless conversation at the hostel the previous evening. We just turned tail and fled. It looked like it was going to be a depressing last night - especially since we had had the *bright idea* of getting a big helping of ice cream for dinner. Unfortunately, we got some from a cafe on the corner of the Piazza (avoid eating in this area-it is ruinous) and we couldn't even get halfway through. It was nauseating. 7 was one of the saddest sights I have ever seen - this big tub of disgusting, 8E apple and strawberry ice cream dribbling rejected on the floor.

Yet every cloud on our adventure seemed to have a silver - nay, a golden lining! We got talking to two charming Florentine students, and when we mentioned our traumatic ice cream experience they took us to the best gelaterie in town - Grom, in a sidestreet just off the Duomo square (8) - and the ice cream was good indeed. Italian guys are wonderful - when we tried to pay for drinks afterwards, they looked askance: "No, no, no! You must understand... you see, we are gentlemen. No." The camerado: "...OK!" She even got in some romance overlooking the Ponte Vecchio bridge. I felt like I was in a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie.

My #1 recommendation for Florence, however? THE CINEMA LIBRERIE!!! We were walking down the Via Guelfa, and I stopped stock still with a hand to my heart - we had just walked past an entire window filled with Marilyn Monroe!!

I turned to my right - and the next window was filled with Audrey Hepburn!!

A shop dedicated to my two greatest heroines!! I almost swooned. It's a fantastic little place stocking hundreds of old movie posters of my most beloved films - the camerado picked up a Casablanca one, I had to get Roman Holiday, and we each bought a smaller pin-up of Marilyn. Of course, we then had to lug them around the rest of Europe over land and sea in a huge carrier bag fussing over crumpling them. Most impractical - but how lovely my dorm room walls at university shall be now!

Where We Stayed: Plus Florence

http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/italy/florence/30145/

Hmm, I am always suspicious of any accomodation claiming to be a "luxury hostel," and rightfully so, it turns out. It just felt like it was unsuccessfully trying to be an all-inclusive hotel - they served food, but you had to queue at the constantly-packed reception (constantly - we looked in at 2am to see if the queue had lessened. Nothing doing) to put money onto a stupid card to get any. There was a fitness area and 'pool', but this was so heavily chlorinated that it burnt both of our eyes before we even got in. The only thing resembling a communal area was a big rooftop bar - admittedly with a gorgeous view - but it was closed off at midnight, which was usually just when you had got a good conversation going with people. Our rooms were excellent, though (we got a double bunk with en suite bathroom), and the location was great - close to clothes shops, supermarket and a playground with the most FABULOUS SWING ever (9 - this is where we spent most of our nights...)

Its saving grace was, indeed, the DJs they got in to spin for the big dancefloor, complete with disco ball, they had all kitted out downstairs. We got back from gelato with the Florentine boys at about 2am on our last night and went down to join in - but nobody was dancing! They were all slumped in booths or lacklustrely playing pool! Effectively, this meant we had our own private disco, dancing the cha-cha, and the clearly sympathetic DJ played all of our requests. What a Sparkles and Crumbs way to end the day!

Next stop - the 11:09 train to Roma, Roma, Roma...

ASIDE: Saw Prince Caspian last night with the camerado - lies, lies, LIES! They made Peter pugnacious and obnoxious, added in a futile break-in attempt that NEVER HAPPENED which ended so traumatically the camerado burst into tears, left out Aslan, Lucy and Susan's brilliant Bacchae procession through Miraz's town freeing all the people from drudgery and - horror of horrors - Susan and Caspian. It's just so wrong! The camerado left the cinema actually incoherent with rage: "I HATE Susan! She's a sl-na-naahdshahhdj!" Lewis' descendants should sue.

So we'll go no more a-roving...

...So late into the night,
Though the heart still be as loving

And the moon still be as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath

And the soul outwears its breast

And the heart must pause to breathe

And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving

And the day returns too soon

Yet we'll go no more a-roving

By the light of the moon.

~BYRON

Home returning! Our first great adventure came to an (arguably equally great) end yesterday afternoon - we passed the Eurostar journey home from Paris with two bottles of delicious pink champagne! It really was like an old-fashioned Grand Tour of Europe, and everywhere we stayed has been a source of so much inspiration that I will have to go through them one by one - to quote The Sound Of Music, let's start at the very beginning...

BARCELONA:-

1. Barcelona Sound We stayed at this great little hostel just off Las Ramblas. Although they left the dirty sheets on the bed and you had to pay a couple of euros for clean ones (a bit much!), it actually had a great hostel-y vibe; there was a big common area where people would sit up until 3am talking. Or, in the case of *the Godfather* (in the picture), bustle in laden with bottles of absinthe and boss everyone into a complicated drinking game... such a character.

Me: "Where did *the Godfather* go?"

American guy: (Quietly, to himself): "I killed him." (Sees my laughter) "No, not really... I hate that guy."
http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/spain/barcelona/24385/

2. Las Ramblas Federico Garcia Lorca called this "the only street in the world which I wish would never end." The hustle and bustle is brilliant, but look out for the clowns - they follow you down the street, and we even saw one leap onto a pram. Fortunately there was no child inside it.

3. Sangria is definitely the beverage of Barcelona, although apparently it was stolen from the French! The camerado tried a 'Peachy Sweet' shot which "burned her throat", so the wine punch is always a safe bet. Get it cheap at the Travel Bar (http://www.travelbar.com/) - difficult to find (on Carrer Boqueria, a sidestreet off La Rambla) but definitely worth it. "So close to the sea you forget to count the days!" We got dinner for 1E, went on the tapas and flamenco night (do it!) and met a charming trio of troublingly perfect Swedish guys. They also run salsa nights, cooking classes and the requisite bar crawl, but we only had two days in Barcelona - and one night was fortuitously spent at the...

4. Summer solstice! By complete chance, we were in town for the Noche de San Juan on the 23rd-24th of June; the shortest night of the year! Apparently there were around 85,000 people on the city's beaches, and it was complete madness as we walked to join the revelry on the Barceloneta 'playa' - kids were running around setting off fireworks all along the pavements, rockets firing into people's faces, hair catching fire... The symbol of the festival is the bonfire, and one of the lovely Swedes told us of the tradition of walking over one to release all the negative things from the previous year, and then walking back over looking forward to the good things ahead. A fitting metaphor for our trip! The trick to enjoying the celebration is finding a huddle to join; I heard a British accent and pounced: "Hi, are you guys English? Can we join you??" and ended up sharing sausages with a funny group of Americans and Londoners who had come to the city to teach English. A word of warning: bring your own alcohol. It was only after we ordered two mojitos from a stall on the beach that they demanded 20E... disgraceful. Also, stick to the centre - the morning after, I got talking to a guy at the hostel who had trekked to a beach party two hours away where the dancing went on all night. I began to feel regret until he added: "But then the police came to break it up... and all these Spanish gangs appeared and started fighting and throwing things at us... and then they floored one of the Australians with a big iron rod... so we all scattered... and then there were no buses or trains because it was behind this dodgy airport... it was scary."

5. Love, love, LOVE coconut on the beach!

As much fun as we had at Parc Guell (6), my favourite sight was La Sagrida Familia - a gigantic 18-steepled church which Gaudi initially designed and began building in 1882, determined to move away from the secular after Parc Guell. It is still under construction today - as you can see - with an estimated completion date of 2026, which is impressive! And it is certainly not secular; as a Theology student I got so excited over the incredible richness and detail, not to mention beauty, of the Catholic symbolism. The doors of the Passion facade are carved with Catalan Biblical quotes mixed with images - just look at the face! My favourite spot was the beautiful doves on the 'cypress tree of life.' If you ever get to see the cathedral, I challenge you to find them! I am going back myself, for 2026!

"...I weep like Leonardo da Vinci: what beautiful things I would make if I had the means..."
Gaudi

"I would not like to live in a world without cathedrals. I need their beauty and grandeur. I need them against the vulgarity of the world. I want to look up at the illuminated church windows and let myself be blinded by the unearthly colours. I need their lustre. I need it against the dirty colours of the uniforms. I want to let myself be wrapped in the austere coolness of the churches. I need their imperious silence. I need it against the witless bellowing of the barracks yard and the witty chatter of the yes-men. I want to hear the rustling of the organ, this deluge of ethereal tones. I need it against the shrill farce of marches. I love praying people. I need the sight of them. I need it against the malicious poison of the superficial and the thoughtless. I want to read the powerful words of the Bible. I need the unreal force of their poetry. I need it against the dilipidation of the language and the dictatorship of slogans. A world without these things would be a world I would not like to live in."

Pascal Mercier