First time awe

Lawheads in Italy

My sister Diane and her husband Brian where in Italy for about 10 days and we used the opportunity to show them some of the best life in Italy has to offer. They had not traveled outside of North America before so this was there first exposure to Europe and the beauty of Italy and her people.


It was fun for us to see someone else have many of the same first time reactions to Italy that we had on our first visit. We started out in southern Marche basing ourselves at an apartment rental overlooking the Adriatic. While seeing what the Piceno area has to offer they were able to meet some of the people we know in that area, taste gelato, drink from a public fountain, stroll a weekly mercato, buy Sunday pastries, picnic along the road overlooking a medieval town, take part in la passeggiata, enjoy great food and wine and even buy some of their own sfuso from a winery. Diane quickly acquired a taste for caffé while after some prodding Brian tried it once but was not convinced.

We them headed off to Rome and all that she has to offer. From our rental apartment overlooking Piazza Barberini we had good access to the major sights of the Eternal City. From our apartment window we could watch the flow of life in the piazza below and Diane and Brian were able to experience Rome both during the day and night. They saw the major sites like Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, St Peters, Sistine Chapel, Mouth of Truth, Coliseum, Forums, Villa Borghese and Brian and I even got caught up in the huge labor union demonstrations on Saturday.

Our time in Rome corresponded with Palm Sunday so the city was full of pilgrims and school groups making their spring trips, certainly more crowded that we had seen in awhile. We saw and heard a lot of Americans; perhaps the economic crisis has not impacted those wanting to travel abroad?!

It was fun to show them around and allow them to experience many things they would never know being with some large group. They took home with them a lot of photos, some wine and hopefully some memories that will last a lifetime.