Rome | Day 1

I hadn’t expected getting to Rome to be an adventure in and of itself, but — surprise! It was. Not only was my original flight cancelled, but my replacement flight out of O’Hare was delayed, leading me to stress about my ability to make the connecting flight at Dulles. Luckily, I got to Dulles with time to spare but then — gasp — Celeste got stuck at security. Not stuck as in searched…stuck as in, they closed down the entire TSA security operation for nearly 45 minutes. By the time she made it to our gate, we were boarding the flight. Needless to say, there was some stressed out texting happening.

But we made it, and spent most of our 8-hour flight catching up and trying to sleep with very little success. We probably got around 2 hours between us. We arrive ad the airport around 8:30 am and took an airport shuttle to our hotel, the Hotel Central Park, just north of the downtown area. We tried to check in, but the rooms weren’t ready yet, so we freshened our makeup, stowed our bags, and took the hotel shuttle down to the drop-off spot just outside Vatican City.

The weather is going to be gorgeous all week: Low 70s and blue, clear skies. It was a beautiful afternoon to start our week-long tour.

Since none of the Vatican museum stuff is open on Sundays, we walked along the Tiber River. The bridge we crossed on is just next to the Castle of Saint Angelo, which started out as a mausoleum, but was then converted into a fortress for the popes. It’s most recent incarnation was a prison.




So we crossed over the Tiber and headed to the Roman Forum. The first thing you see when walking that way is what our tour book calls “a plus-size marble confection on the south side or Piazza Venezia,” the Vittoriano. This 100-year old monument is in honor of Victor Emanual II, the first king of united Italy. Behold:



Then, on our right, we saw the Roman Forum which, at first glance, looks like just a bunch of ruins. They represent, however, what used to be the nerve center of the most powerful Western civilization in history for the better part of a thousand years.





I was taking one last picture of the forum when my camera died, so I apologize for having no pictures of the Colosseum. I hope to go back and snap a few before we leave. Celeste took a bunch, but I can’t convert her raw files into jpgs for my computer — believe me, we tried. (The pics you see are from the web until I get copies of Celeste’s.)

[celeste in her go-to pose for the week]


Anyway, the Colosseum was amazing!! In spite of its disturbing history as a “theater of slaughter,” it is elegant and impressive, both inside and out.



Right alongside it is the Arch of Constantine which, believe it or not, is decorated with sculpture looted from earlier emperors’ monuments. Wild! Constantine, for those of you who don’t know, was the person who legalized Christianity in 313 A.D., ending the persecution but getting the religion in bed with the empire…never a good idea.



From there, we walked over to Palatine Hill and walked through the gardens and ruins of what used to be the home of emperors and other ancient big wigs, including the house of Augustus. We walked back up through the ruins of the Forum and then headed back to rondevous with our hotel shuttle in order to get ready in time for the group dinner.



Which brings me to a rather important point: Why are we here? Especially since, hello, didn’t I just take a European vacation? Yes, but this is WORK people. A company called Xlear invited me here for a conference on the products they make using Xylitol, a natural sweetener that helps fight caries (which turns into cavities). Along with me, there are other people from the dental industry, Xlear researchers, and editors from health-conscious consumer magazines, including Delicious Life and Whole Foods magazines.

We had a nice dinner with some of our fellow attendees (many of whom brought their own versions of Celeste) and then bowed out to head back up to the room and pass out from exhaustion.