Viva Roma!

Beautiful wedding!

Ahh... Italia! We just got back to Gaborone this afternoon from an absolutely wonderful week in Rome. As mentioned in my last post, the reason for the trip was to attend the lovely wedding of my twin brother's wife's sister. Well, as expected, the wedding was gorgeous and took place in the fabulous, ornate Church of Santa Susanna. The church is home to an American Catholic parish in Rome and thanks to a family connection, the bridal couple had the unique privilege of being married by a Vatican cardinal! The reception at the St. Regis hotel across the street from Santa Susanna was equally fabulous, and consisted of a beautiful hors d'oeuvres hour with a giant feast of a lunch that was easily the best meal we had in Rome (that's saying a lot - the food was amazing all week).

Rome waiting outside our hotel room window.

The wedding festivities aside, getting to spend a whole week in Rome with Scott, my parents, brother, and sister-in-law was pretty amazing. It was quite an interesting feeling to board a plane in Gaborone one day, and hop off in Rome the next... and arrive at the hotel, climb a flight of stairs, and voila, there's my family all the way from Orlando! We stayed just a ten-minute walk from the Vatican at a lovely little family-run place called Hotel La Rovere right next to the Tiber River. The staff were extremely friendly, the rooms spacious and clean, and the view from our window was spectacular. I would highly recommend it for anyone traveling to Rome!

Enjoying the day in Florence.

No caption needed!

We spent the glorious week visiting all the popular tourist sites in Rome - St. Peter's, the Vatican museum, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Trastevere, and more! Just wandering around was a pleasure in itself, with so much to see and do around every corner there was never a dull moment. The six of us also took a high speed train up to Florence for the day and had a fabulous time wondering at the majestic churches of Florence, wandering the streets, and day's highlight: eating an absolutely delicious lunch at L'Osteria di Giovanni. I was blown away by the out of this world service at this restaurant - when my sister-in-law mentioned that this was one of her dad's favorite restaurants, Giovanni himself came out and gave us three appetizers, wine, and dessert all on the house! You have to love that Italian hospitality.

Vegetable pizza!

I keep bringing up the food... but since I'm on that subject yet again, let's talk about the food in Rome (and Florence) for just a minute. Rather than bumbling around trying to choose good restaurants on our own, we had the great fortune to have the father of bride, who lived in Rome several years and has been back many times since, as our culinary guide. Consequently, we got to eat at some of the city's best restaurants without even having to consult a guidebook. I ate so much pizza, bread, pasta, cheese, tiramisu, gelato, etc. that it looks like I'll be dieting for months to make up for my gluttony! Most of our meals were at least three courses (primi piatti, secondi piatti, dessert) and I shouldn't even mention how much food there was at the rehearsal dinner... let's just say I lost count around the seventh course! However, it was worth every bite and the memory of all that delicious food will sustain me for some time here in the very non-culinary Gaborone.

VIVA ROMA! became the catch phrase for our group during the wedding festivities and very fittingly so - Rome is a magical city and I am so blessed to have been able to spend a week there with my family.