in Italy! 
At the Campo di Fiori market in Rome.(Actually, my second time. But the first time, some thirty years ago, I was on a train from Switzerland to the south of France, and it stopped in Genoa. We got out and had dinner at a restaurant near the station, just so I could say I'd been in Italy. Then we got back on the next train. So it didn't really count.)
Five days in Rome, two days in Venice. It was such a magical trip that it's hard to know where to begin. My daughter is studying in Rome for a semester, so that was the original reason for the trip. But now I want to go back--as soon and as often as possible!--more than to any other place I've yet visited.
It was as if Rome was custom-built for me: a city where you can walk everywhere; full of stories at every turn; and where nearly every street is crammed with places selling GREAT stuff to eat! We walked and ate and walked and ate and walked, and late in the afternoon we would go back to our charming little hotel in Trastevere (a terrific neighborhood, not downtown but easy walking distance) and rest or read, and then go out for a wonderful dinner. BEST. VACATION. EVER.
Venice was also amazing, but we had less time to get to know her. In both places, it was a huge advantage to be traveling in February and during a recession: NO crowds. We did not have to stand in a single line anywhere, not once, not even for the most famous sites. We hired a tour guide to see St. Peter's and the Vatican Museum, and when we walked into the Sistine Chapel, he murmured that in his seven years as a guide, he had *never* seen so few people there.
My camera-man husband took a lot of photos (353, to be exact). I'll post just a few of them behind the cut, below. Our trip continued with a train trip through the Alps, to Germany and then the Netherlands to see friends, and then we flew home from Amsterdam. I'm still stupid with jet-lag, but at the same time, thrilled by the memories of the trip.
Sightseeing highlights:
--the Bernini sculptures in the Borghese Museum, especially the leaves on the Daphne & Apollo statue, and Pluto's hand on Prosperina's thigh (got chills just typing that)
--Caravaggio paintings. Four in the Borghese (but unfortunately not Boy with Fruit, which was on loan to Milan), three in the San Luigi dei Francesi church (more chills).
--Michelangelo's Pieta, which made me cry the second I laid eyes on it.
--the floor tiles in the Basilica San Marco, Venice.
--looking through the keyhole in the door of the Priory of the Knights of Malta on Aventino Hill. Know what you see when you look through? SHHHH--don't tell! It's a secret! You have to go see it yourself!
--the Grand Canal in Venice. The whole thing.
--the Campo dei Fiori market in Rome, and the Rialto market in Venice. (I LOVE markets...)
Food highlights:
--carciofi alla giudea. Artichoke "Jewish style," crisp-fried. TO DIE FOR.
--a very boozy zabaglione cake filled with custard, but I can't remember the name of it.
--canocce. A shrimp-like creature that lives in only two places: the seas off Venice and Japan. What shrimp would like to be if it could.
--pasta cacio e pepe: Roman specialty, pasta with cheese and pepper. So creamy and buttery that it's hard to believe there's no cream or butter in it.
--currywurst! German sausage in tomato sauce with curry powder sprinkled on top, served with the best fries ever. Eaten at the Profi Grill, a 'pommes-budde,' literal translation 'french-fry house', very casual eating place that's not even quite a diner. Except that the Profi Grill is owned and run by Raimond Ostendorp, formerly a Michelin 3-star chef!
Shopping highlights: I bought a bag and shoes. (What else do you buy in Italy?) Also dried porcini mushrooms and torrone (nougat). Extreme frustration: not being able to buy and cook everything I saw in the markets!
A few photos...
( here ) Hopefully I'll find time soon to post the reading I did on the trip. Ciao for now!
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