If verb forms can have their moment, the gerund “trending” is definitely having its 15 minutes of fame. I see references to it everywhere. It’s not just Twitter that’s chattering about it. All the social media sites are full of it (no pun intended). There are trending global brands. Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and Versace are trending in Saigon. Banana Republic and Gap in Kuala Lumpur. In America the transgender population, cat videos, and selfies are trending. In food it’s slow cooking. And in Rome? What’s “trending” in Rome (#trendinginrome)? OMG, it’s Gluten-Free Pizza. What? No. Yes, it’s true. It must be a joke. Gluten-free pizza in Rome? Yup, not kidding. Here it is folks. Up close and personal.
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Travel is enriching but, like chocolate mousse, sometimes it’s too rich to digest. It’s better in small delectable, melt in your mouth bites. Too much of a good thing diminishes the power to amaze. Rome is that way. It’s the chocolate mousse of European travel. So, pace yourself and think about taking small bites.
Italy is a feast for a lover of history. There are archeological digs, landmark buildings, walls, roads, and artifacts from different historical periods, painting, sculpture and architecture spanning millennia, a landscape that seduces, and a cuisine that delights. Rome, in particular, offers a rich diet of Etruscan, Roman, and Renaissance treasures that cry out to be tasted.
Graham Greene said it best in The Third Man:
“In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.”
Greene was right. Italy is unruly and categorically different from its smoothly oiled, efficiently organized, neatly manicured Swiss neighbor. Yet, in spite of the chaos, inconvenience, confusion, corruption, and union strikes that disrupt some essential function nearly every day, it will charm you. It looks good, feels good, and above all it tastes good. Love it or hate it in the beginning, I guarantee that if you look for the good things and don’t expect perfection you will end up loving it.
“Slow down, you move too fast
You got to make the morning last,
Just kicking down the cobblestones
Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy…
Got no deeds to do
No promises to keep.
I’m dappled and drowsy and ready for sleep.
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me.
Life, I love you,
All is groovy.”
Paul Simon got it right… and something made me dig into my unconscious for those words (59th Street Bridge Song) while sitting at a sidewalk caffe’ in Rome stressing out about the lack of a good Wifi connection.
Geography is destiny – Abraham Verghese in Cutting for Stone
The most interesting, literate, progressive, and beautiful places on earth are not necessarily those that are furthest away. When asked to pick a city with these attributes the list will likely include Paris, London, Rome, Berlin, Copenhagen, Singapore, Hong Kong, Capetown, San Francisco and others but never, until lately, has Seattle cracked my Top Ten. Surviving Seattle has always been my mantra because of the weather, but I’m rethinking that in view of a recent epiphany.
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