Rome's Romantic Capitoline Museum

A Museum; Romantic?  This museum in the heart of Rome is the oldest in Europe, full of Rome's best-loved treasures.  Located in a palace on Rome's most beautiful piazza; is there a dress code for this place?

Starting my day meeting my friend Sara at Cafe Barnum, her local Roman "hangout."  There is something about drinking Cafe Barnum's cappuccinos in the morning that makes me think, "yes, now I am in Rome!"  I needed to fortify myself for the long day of museum-going on this cold and rainy December day.  In fact, thunder and lightning this morning was threatening the walk to Capitoline Hill.  When there was a break in the rain, I grabbed my umbrella and made a dash for the museum a mere kilometre away.

Cordonata Staircase

The Capitoline Museum sits just behind the giant Victor Emmanuel Monument (I call it the white typewriter).  Capitoline Hill is the tallest & smallest of the 7 hills of Rome, but the city grew up around it. It is also the most important because, in ancient times, it housed the Capitolium, which was the Temple of Jupiter.  The central part of the Capitoline Museum, the Palazzo dei Conservatori, sits upon the ancient Temple.  The Capitoline Museum is actually a group of 2 parallel palaces connected by an underground walkway; it is so vast I would recommend allowing at least 4 hours to see it all.  Don't worry, there is a cafe on-site if you need a little pick me up!  The palace in the centre of the piazza with the double staircase is the Palazzo Cenetorio and is Rome's, City Hall.

The historical part of the museum that is free is the Piazza del Campidoglio itself.  I would recommend reaching the Capitoline Museum by the grand staircase accessible off of Via Teatro Marcello (on the right side of the typewriter when you face it). You may not know it, but this piazza is one of Michelangelo's masterpieces; he was not only a sculptor and painter but a brilliant architect as well. He designed this ramped staircase called the Cordonata to deliver you like you were riding up an escalator to the harmonious Piazza del Campidoglio.   Michelangelo designed the piazza in 1536, and it was a massive undertaking that took centuries to complete; there is an excellent display of the process in the museum.  Michelangelo also had the statue of Marcus Aurelius brought over from San Giovanni in Lateran and placed in the centre of the piazza as a focal point.  The original figure is in the new wing of the museum.  This piazza is even more beautiful at night, nearly deserted and all lit up! 😍

Piazza Campidoglio

The museum was going to be busy because of rainy weather.  We had not bought tickets online ahead of time, so that meant we had to stand outside in the long line to get in.  The entry fee is €7.80 for both palaces, and I rented an iPad mini self-guided tour for €6 (totally worth it).  TIP #1: Bring a BIG old Mom purse to stow your hats, gloves, collapsible umbrellas, etc.; otherwise, the museum will make you check in all backpacks and large umbrellas.  The service is free, but if the lockers in the locker room are full or the keys don't work, it is a HUGE waste of your time!  You are permitted to take photographs of most items in the museum as long as you don't use a flash.  There are a few rooms where photography is forbidden, but there will be signs (and museum guards) to remind you of this.  TIP #2: To purchase tickets online, go HERE.  For any reduced ticket (youth, senior, etc.) you must buy the tickets in person at the museum.

Once inside the museum, you are in the Palazzo Conservatori wing.  This 3-storey grand Palazza is out of this world beautiful, and I found myself taking as many pictures of the decor as I did the ancient art!  Don't miss the open-air courtyard with pieces of the famous statue of Nero called the "Colossus" that stood in front of a certain renowned Colosseum in Rome.

Now, the lightning and thunder outside shook the museum as the rain pelted against the antique windows, and it just heightened the experience!  Every room of the palace houses famous statues from Roman history, and they are out in the open right in front of you!

She-Wolf of Rome

I'm talking about The Boy with Thorn, Bernini's Medusa, the bust of that douchebag Commodus as the God Hercules ....right in front of you!  Of course, I went bananas when I saw my personal favourite, the symbol of Rome itself; The Capitoline Wolf.   Really, I know there was a let down in 2007 when scientists radiocarbon-dated her and found out she was not the same statue that was sitting in the forum since 65 B.C.E (this was made between the 11th & 12th century), but she is still stunning!  There are SO MANY gorgeous pieces in this museum, my post would be 220 pages long, and you would be fast asleep...but maybe a few more to share with you :)

All Hail Marky Marcus

You follow the museum along to the other side to the Palazzo Nuovo and the statue gallery there is INSANE!  The Capitoline Venus, Cupid & Psyche, Leda and the Swan, The Dying Gaul and so many more. All just so mind-blowing!  How could so much beauty be in one place?  Then in the new wing, you come upon a modern section of the museum with the original bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius riding his horse.  Apparently, the only reason the figure is believed to survive today is that people thought this was a statue of the Christian Emperor Constantine.  If the people had known it was a statue of a Pagan ruler, the bronze would have been melted down to become a set of church doors.  Romans were big believers of the three R's; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Lion Attacking A Horse

The piece that really struck a chord with me was "Lion Attacking A Horse."  This visceral statue was made around 300 B.C.E from Carrera marble and was found at the bottom of a stream in Capitoline Hill and was probably featured in the Circus Maximus.  I could feel the horses panic and almost hear it's flesh tearing as the lion sinks in its claws.  I didn't want to look at it, yet I could not take my eyes away!
The statue was fragmented when it was pulled from the muck; only the horse's torso remained, and the lion's back legs were missing.  The sculpture sat in front of the Palazzo Senetario from the 1300s on, as a symbol of justice (and capital punishment) for Rome.  In fact, The Lion was the symbol of Rome before the She-Wolf.  When Michelangelo worked in Piazza Campidoglio, he used to pass the Lion Attacking A Horse and admire the sculpture calling it "most marvellous."  In 1594 Ruggero Bascapè (a former student of Michelangelo's) restored the statue to include all the missing pieces.  The statue was completely restored in 2012 and given a place of honour in the new wing of the museum next to Marcus Aurelius.

Taking It All In

There are underground tunnels and galleries under the piazza that connect the museum buildings.  The Tabularium is not to be missed, not because of what is in it, but because of its location.  The Tabularium is where ancient Rome kept all its records and is why we know so much about our history today.  Walk past all the displays of antique pieces from the Temple of Jupiter (which is above you) and walk out to the arched corridor.  You are now standing in a building completed in 78 B.C.E!  Built on top of the remains of the Temple of the ancient Sabine God Vejovis, who was adopted by the Romans when they conquered this hill.  Many Roman Emperors probably stood right here, admiring the same view.  Damn!
TIP #3: THE BEST VIEW OF THE ROMAN FORUM IS FROM THIS VANTAGE POINT (only accessible from the museum)
The museum Cafe also has a nice view of the city, but I was exhausted with jetlag sneaking up on me and in need of a nap.   I literally ran home, getting drenched in the storm, falling to sleep with the sound of the rain pelting against the windows.

Perfectly.
Content.
Rome.

View From The Tabularium

 

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Watch this great video of the restoration work the museum did on Lion Attacking A Horse:

Rome's San Callisto Catacombs; How Roman-tic!

While everyone back home in Canada was contemplating their Christmas left-overs this Boxing Day morning, we were contemplating eternity.  We took a trip to South Rome's ancient Appian Way to see the early Christian catacombs of San Callisto.

Via Appia

This trip to Rome was our first trip overseas as a couple instead of a family.  As parents of a sixteen-year-old, we are re-discovering ourselves as a couple and our mutual desire to explore the world. Becoming a duo again had such a "Roman-tic" feel to it, and because of our love for Italy (and especially Rome), this is the place to kick off this new chapter of our lives.  Of course, every new journey begins with a road whether it is figurative or literal and our whole trip seemed to involve some kind of road.  The first road for us, being Rome's famous Appian Way.  Of course, nothing says "romance" like dead things...💑

Porta S. Giovanni In Aurelian Wall

The Via Appia, as it is called in Rome, was ancient Rome's main road that ran 430 miles south to the Adriatic port of Brindisi, which was the Romans' port to access to Greece.  This was once a bustling superhighway of soldiers and merchants and the most important road of the Republic.  Built in the year 312 BCE this road was nicknamed "The Queen of Long Roads" by the Roman people.  The Via Appia starts in the Roman Forum and passes through two Ancient city walls:  the Servian Wall built at the same time as the Via Appia and the Aurelian Wall constructed a century later.  Much of the Via Appia is preserved today as parkland and the original stones of the road are intact.

San Giovanni in Laterano

This is the furthest south we have been in Rome.  There are many ancient sights here, but they are quite spread out, and a bus, bike or taxi is a must to go see them.  We took a bus to the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran.  San Giovanni in Laterano was constructed in 318, about 600 years after the Via Appia, upon the site of an old Roman Fort and part of the Lateran Palace.  It is the first church in Rome where Christians could worship legally.  This was the Basilica of the Pope; so, therefore, it is an Archbasilica and through medieval times it served as the first Vatican until St. Peter's Archbasilica was built in the 1500s.
We didn't head inside because we were on a mission to go to the catacombs, but I did notice the HUGE ancient bronze doors on the front of the Archbasilica.  These bronze doors once hung on the Roman Senate House in the forum-they are well over 2000 years old. Roman recycling at its finest!

Outside San Giovanni in Laterano was this beautiful Egyptian obelisk.  It is the tallest standing obelisk in the world!  It was initially brought to Rome from the Temple of Amun in Karnak, Egypt and it spent some decades in Alexandria before being placed in the Circus Maximus as a decorative accent.  The obelisk was left to ruin with the fall of the Roman Empire in the 4th century and it toppled over, broke into three, and was buried in mud and forgotten for centuries.  In the restoration of Rome during the Renaissance, the broken Lateran Obelisk was dug up and restored and in 1588 was erected in the Piazza by San Giovanni.  The obelisk replaced the famous statue of Emporer Marcus Aurelius riding a horse that was moved to Piazza del Campidoglio on Capitoline Hill.

Strolling The Via Appia

Citrus Orchard!

The city landscape soon gave way to flat meadows of grass and houses with extensive vegetable gardens and orchards growing clementines and grapefruits.  A trail leads you into the Appian Way Regional Park, and you can stroll along the ancient pathway with the joggers and dog walkers of Rome.  Our friend Sara tells us that in the summertime, farmers bring their sheep here to graze around the ancient ruins in the park to keep the grass down!  We also saw orchards of olive trees that had been recently picked.  Much of the parkland is still privately owned, so farmers still utilize it as they have been doing for centuries.

Ruins In Appian Way Park

At this time of year, there are only birds amongst the meadows, and the silence of the park is somewhat eerie with all history surrounding you.  In the summer this park is full of Italians and tourists alike, but on the day after Christmas, this place was a literal ghost town.
The Via Appia fell out of use after the collapse of the Roman Empire, and in the 1700s a new parallel road was built.  The original Via Appia from mile 0 to 10 is now protected by this park, and Romans consider it to be "way out in the country" which makes me laugh.  Comparing this park to the lively Borghese Gardens in the centre of Rome, I can see what they mean.

Madonnelle on Via Appia

The path along the Via Appia was speckled with little religious shrines to the Virgin Mary called "Madonelle" that were all freshly decorated with Christmas flowers and letters from the faithful.  We passed the Chiesa del Domine Quo Vadis or "Quo Vadis Church."  This is supposed to be the infamous place where St. Peter, fleeing the Romans had a vision of Jesus, and Peter asked Jesus: "Quo Vadis?" or "Where are you going?"  So many of the earliest Christians sites are outside the Rome city walls I noticed.

Deep Underground

We arrived at the site of the catacombs of Saint Callixtus, a massive underground cemetery carved into the tufo stone. The entry fee was €8 per person, and it includes a 30-40 minute tour.  The tours are MANDATORY and are offered in many different languages with a very knowledgeable guide.  All the catacombs around Rome are owned, preserved and run by the Vatican.  TIP#1: You may not stray from the tour route or take any photos once down in the catacombs.  This is strictly enforced (I used many pictures from the internet for this article).
Our friend Sara decided to stay behind and grab a coffee in the gift shop which is open year-round, rather than join us for our creepy "tour of things long dead."  We met with our English speaking guide who was super informative and very funny.  He gave us some background on the catacombs. These particular catacombs date back to the second century and cover over 20 km of pathways, some of which are 5 layers deep, and there are about half a million bodies buried here.  TIP #2:  It is VERY chilly down in the catacombs wear appropriate clothing.  Also, this is a religious site, so your shoulders and knees must be covered in the summer!

Loculi In The Catacombs

So why are there so many catacombs and early Christian sites outside Rome?  Well, Roman Pagans believed in cremation and Christians and Jews believed in burial and Roman law made burial illegal within its city walls.  Besides most of the Christians lived outside the city walls where it was safer to live and worship in secrecy because they were persecuted.  Here in these catacombs are many family plots called "cubicula"; basically, a room where each body would fit into a niche called a "loculi" and then were sealed up with their name and date of death.  Once Christianity was legal in 380 and became the state religion, churches were built, and people could be buried in church cemeteries.  The bones and relics of early Christian martyrs buried here were moved to basilicas constructed in their honour, and the catacombs were eventually abandoned.   They were re-discovered again mainly in the 1800s.

The Crypt of The Popes

The catacombs of St. Callixtus are very impressive, 16 Popes were buried here and as many as 50 early Christian Martyrs who became Saints.  The "Crypt of The Popes" is a large burial site of 9 early Christian Popes and a bunch of bishops.  The Crypt of the Popes became a highly venerated place for early Christians to worship in secret and even became known as"The First Vatican."  Even this forgotten crypt was not safe from Roman soldiers who would come and kill Christians who were praying in this very room.
There is also a lot of early Christian symbolism on the walls and some of the oldest known Christian frescoes in existence.   The frescoes were preserved quite well and really lent to the atmosphere of the catacombs (which were totally creepy.) 👻

Early Christian Symbols

One can see a lot of Christian graffiti down there: symbols of fish, anchors, doves, loaves of bread, Phoenix, shepherds and the "Chi Ro" which is the monogram of Christ.  It is the Greek first two letters in Christ's name (Christὸs in Greek):  X (chi) and  P (ro).  This is where we get the abbreviation for Christmas being Xmas.  Oddly enough, no crosses! The cross and crucifix became a symbol much later in Christianity.

Santa Cecilia Tomb

The most evocative crypt is that of the martyr St. Cecilia.  In a nutshell: Cecilia was a young and beautiful woman from a noble Christian family who was wedded by her parents to a Pagan man.  She converted her new husband to Christianity, then his brother and began to have Christian services in secret at their home in Rome.  They were all caught by the authorities, and the two men were executed first, and the young Cecilia was ordered to be steamed alive in her own bathhouse.  The soldiers cooked her overnight in her home sauna on the highest heat, but when they opened the door to the bathhouse the next day, she was nowhere near dead.  So then they brought her before the governor who ordered her beheaded, and the executioner struck Cecilia with a sword 3 times, which was the maximum allowed by law but he could not sever her head.  She lived for three more days in this condition!   She was buried in the catacombs of St. Callixtus by Pope Urban and was declared a saint for martyrdom.  In 821 remains of St. Cecilia was brought to the Basilica built for her upon her home; St. Cecilia's in Trastevere.  The beautiful statue of St. Cecilia in her catacomb niche is a copy of the original sculpture (by Stefano Maderno in 1599) that sits on the tomb of St Cecilia in Her Basilica in Trastevere.  Such a moving story to be witnessed at Christmas.



Then with the sun sinking low in the sky, we gathered Sara and headed back to the centre of Rome to the lively Jewish Getto for some red wine to warm up and then on to dinner at our favourite slow food restaurant Grappolo D'Oro in Campo dei Fiore. We ate Cacio è Pepe and talked long into the night about what we had discovered in the Roman catacombs.  We conversed so long in fact that a dessert was in order:  Tiramisu, which means "pick me up" or "cheer me up."

After today's moving and sombre stories of life for early Christians, we all could use a little "cheer me up!" The visit to San Callisto catacombs gave us a deeper understanding of what life was like at the time Christianity was born, and a new sense of gratitude for the religious freedom we have today in the part of the world we live in.

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Christmas Travel Tips To Save Your Holiday!

Have you ever seen a movie where people were running through the airport trying to catch their flight, so they don't get stranded on Christmas day sleeping on a bench in the departures lounge?  If you did, it would be filed under the 'Horror' rather than the 'Holiday' genre. This is precisely what happened to us... 

  

I too ALL the precautions for hassle-free holiday travel, but hey, s**t still happens!  It was a real challenge when booking our Christmas eve flights to Rome.  The regular Westjet overnight flight we take from Toronto to Gatwick was operating as per usual over the holiday season, and we wanted to use our discounted companion ticket to save money at this costly travel period. The catch was that all the regular British Airways flights to Rome were cancelled on Christmas morning, and the earliest flight out of Gatwick to Rome was late at night; this meant I had to patch together a 3 flight itinerary to hopscotch us through Europe to Rome. TIP #1:  DOUBLE CHECK ALL FLIGHT SCHEDULES WELL IN ADVANCE FOR HOLIDAY CHANGES. I called up my sister-in-law Inge, who is a very seasoned traveller and asked for some advice.  Inge gave me the best advice in the world, and I am glad to have followed every single word of it.

Departure Traditions

Inge warned me adamantly about this next tip. TIP #2: LEAVE AS MUCH TIME AS POSSIBLE BETWEEN CONNECTING FLIGHTS OVER THE HOLIDAYS.  If the weather is terrible or late passengers are getting onto the flight or the airport is just super busy, you could end up getting delayed by hours and missing your connection at the next airport.  This would cost you hundreds of dollars to rebook another flight, and most of the flights during Christmas holidays would already be booked full, so chances are you would be hanging out at the airport for a LONG time waiting to get on a plane. Four hours is a minimum.  So, I selected the flight connection that left the most extended amount of time between each change in aircraft.  I figured a three-hour wait between flights should be enough time in a smaller airport like Gatwick.  Insert foreshadowing here.....

As Christmas Eve approached, I watched the weather predictions and saw that it was going to be fair and quite mild out, so no chance of storm delays.   Our flight had been moved up a full hour from 9pm to 8pm Christmas Eve, so that would leave a solid four hours between our arrival time in Gatwick and the next leg of our journey to Barcelona.  No problem, right?  WRONG!

Mountains Of Spain

TIP #3: LEAVE FOR THE AIRPORT EXTRA EARLY; I MEAN REALLY EARLY.  All of a sudden, on Christmas Eve, snow was predicted for the Greater Toronto area.  We left the farm at 3pm for the one hour drive to Toronto airport to make our 8:00 flight = lots of time.  The snowfall increased as we neared the airport, but there was hardly anyone driving on the roads = no delays.
TIP #4:  ARRANGE A SECURED PARKING SPOT AT THE AIRPORT.  The last thing you want to do is waste time driving around the parking lot, looking for a long-term parking spot.  Spring for valet service, so you don't waste precious time.  We rolled our dice with the self- park lot at Park & Fly and found a parking spot straight away near the pick-up shelter = we were strangely in luck!
TIP #5: CHECK-IN ONLINE FROM HOME TO AVOID LONG LINES AT THE AIRPORT TICKET COUNTERS.  We got to the airline ticket counter, and check-in was already done, and boarding passes printed and no luggage to check-in, so we breezed through the short security line = no problems.  We went to have dinner at the Irish Pub at the airport, and everything was like a hassle-free dream.  But things were about to turn into a bit of a nightmare...

Red Wine Fixes Everything

The light snow turned into a freak snowstorm, and we looked worriedly out the window at our plane.  Once we boarded the plane, we waited for a few late passengers to join us from a flight connecting in from Calgary that had been delayed due to bad weather.  The delay only set us back 10 minutes at that point, but we waited for over an hour for the delayed passenger's luggage to be transferred into our plane because the loading trucks were getting stuck in the snow.  Finally, when it was our turn to push off to the runway, our plane got stuck in the snow because we waited in our spot too long, and no one had ploughed around our aircraft for us to get out.  We waited another hour and a half for a bigger tractor to come and push us off.  People were starting to get really upset because they knew they were going to miss their flight connections at Gatwick, and we still had to go through de-icing the plane.  By the time we got up into the air on Christmas Eve, we were three hours late.  Meaning, depending on the flight conditions, we would have just under one hour in Gatwick to catch our plane to Barcelona.

Our Ride To Rome

Another invaluable piece of advice from Inge that saved our holiday:
TIP #5: TAKE CARRY ON  LUGGAGE ONLY AND SIT AT THE FRONT OF THE PLANE.   This way, if your flight is delayed, you will not have to wait for your luggage at a carousel; you can just grab it and run off the plane. When you check-in online (try to be the first as online check-in opens or even pay to select your seats), try to get seats at the front of the plane.  That way, you can be the first off the plane and sprint with your luggage to the next gate.
This is precisely what we did. We ran to border control, then sprinted to the train to get us from the North terminal to the South terminal in Gatwick.    Then had to physically check-in at Vueling because our Canadian passports would not allow us to check-in online with an EU airline.  Then we sprinted to security and did all that x-ray business, and then ran to our gate.  All in 50 minutes, it was like a marathon. Thank goodness that Vueling was holding the plane for us because they saw that we had checked in. They literally closed the gates after us.  If this were a big airport, there would have been NO WAY we would have made it!

A Toast To Inge!!!

Panting and sweaty, we plopped into our seats on the Vueling flight to Barcelona.  The skies were clear once we flew over Spain, and we caught breathtaking views of the mountains of Northern Spain.  Once we landed in Barcelona, we cleared EU customs and headed to the terminal for some food.  Many of the shops were closed for Christmas Day, but we managed to find some jambon sandwiches and wine.  I sat and watched our plane to Rome get cleaned and prepped-not taking my eyes off it for one second in case something else went terribly wrong.
I couldn't help but think about the poor man who missed his flight to the Canary Islands to meet his fiance or the woman who was heading to Madrid for Christmas dinner with her grandchildren, and many other passengers who missed their connections.  They were all stuck in Gatwick.  I felt like we had a Christmas miracle.

But wait; there's more.....

We arrived at Rome Fiumicino airport 15 minutes ahead of schedule without any hassle.  Our Airbnb host arranged a driver to pick us up for the same price as a taxi €48.  Our driver had my name written on a piece of paper, and we found him straight away at the arrivals lounge, and he drove us to our flat, which was near our friends' house in Campo dei Fiore district of Rome.  I was so happy, I could almost taste the Christmas dinner our friends had prepared for us!  Our driver dropped us off 15 minutes early at the house address and wished us a merry Christmas and off into the night he went.  What he didn't do is call our host to tell him that he dropped us off.

Roman Hospitality at its Finest

It seems that it is too much for any Italian Airbnb host to meet their guest at the agreed meeting time and place.  They want a call or text to say you have arrived at the rental, so you don't waste their precious time waiting around at the property. This happened over and over on this trip! So we stood outside the flat: 15 mins (we are early), 30 minutes (Italians are always late), 45 minutes (something is not right), 60 mins (he has forgotten us).  My ex-husband was cheap, and would not get an international data plan for our iPhones because it is really pricey with our carrier.  He figured we would be with our Italian friends the whole time we were in Italy so there would be no need for us to use our phones.
Because of this, I had no data, and I could not get a hold of the host by Airbnb messenger (hosts are told not to give out their personal phone numbers to guests).  TIP # 6: HAVE A LIMITED DATA PLAN OR A LOCAL SIM CARD FOR AN  UNLOCKED PHONE FOR EMERGENCY.






TIP #7: GET YOUR HOSTS PHONE NUMBER IF YOU ARE COMING IN LATE AT NIGHT OR ON A HOLIDAY WHERE EVERYTHING IS CLOSED!  I had been insistent with our host that I have his phone number in case of a terrible flight mishap. I called him and texted him, but the number was not going through.  There were no cafes or restaurants open on Christmas Day, so there was no wi-fi to be had anywhere! Giulio, our host, saw a strange foreign number calling his phone and figured it was me. He tried to call me back, but when I answered, the line was dead.  My ex-husband took note of Giulio's number and went off into the night to find our friends' apartment to get some help.  One and a 1/4 hours after we were dropped off in front of the flat in Rome on a cold and damp Christmas night, my friend Sara arrived with a flask in her hand saying she just called the host, and he is on the way with the keys.  Tired, hungry and having to pee for what felt like hours, the flask of red wine hit the spot (yes, wine fixes everything.)  Less than five minutes later, Giulio arrived with a bottle of wine and ample apologies for the mix-up.  It seems the regular driver was off for Christmas, and the replacement driver forgot to call the host to tell him we had arrived. Giulio figured something had gone wrong, but when he saw my call come through on his cell, he thought he would check the apartment in case we were there.  Why he didn't call the driver to see when he dropped us off is a vast mystery to me.




There is a happy ending to all this.  Once we dropped off our luggage at the Airbnb flat, we walked over to Sara's house, where her partner Tomasso had made a huge Christmas dinner for us.  The cheese, the sausage, the pasta and the wine....ohhhhh, the most incredible wine were perfect and made us forget all about our stressful travel experiences.  But we did learn a whole new set of savvy travel skills for the winter holidays!
We topped the meal off with a traditional fig fruitcake and freshly picked clementines grown in Rome.
I don't even remember how we got back to our flat at the end of the night, I just remember a deep and peaceful sleep.

We were home.

Do you have any Christmas Holiday travel tips?  Please share them in the comments below...  Happy Travels!

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