30 Days In Rome: Tale Of Two Cities

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Tale Of Two Cities

I (Chris) have only thought I was truly going to die five times in my life – once whilst lost on a mountain in the high Nepal Himalaya in minus 31 degrees and with night falling, once whilst scaling a cliff in the Blue Mountains with way too much air and rope between myself and the ground, once on an aircraft flying to Armidale, once on an aircraft flying to Edinburgh (this crash would have wiped out the entire staff of Guinness World Records) and finally, once on the aircraft yesterday, flying into Rome.

But first, our final full day in London was lovely, with time spent at Borough Markets (which Jen and I used to visit every Saturday morning on the Vespa for our week’s very fresh food) wandering along the Thames, on double-decker buses, discussing Shakespeare with Sam whilst outside The Globe and with plenty of promises to return for good, if we can work out a way.

Chris & Sam on the ‘wibbly-wobbly bridge’ across the Thames

Jenny & Sam outside The Globe Theatre

Chris & Sam atop yet another double-decker bus

Jenny & Sam having a civilised lunch as pigeons await scraps

Then came the flight to Rome, which began smoothly enough from Heathrow’s new Terminal 5, and ended with 30 minutes of rather terrifying turbulence. We pitched, we yawed, we dropped, we rocked and rolled. Every child on the flight (apart from Sam) and plenty of adults, made very good use of their sick bags. Sam originally giggled as if on a roller coaster, then turned very green and spent 25 minutes with his face buried in a sick bag, but never actually lost his lunch … thank the Lord for small mercies. Speaking of the Lord, I said a small prayer promising that if we survived this flight, Jen and I would drink a bottle of red every evening whilst in Rome. Hence we’re both currently performing our penance.

So when we arrived in Rome we realised all of our airborne suffering was worth it as our apartment is the greatest apartment in the entire world. Who would have thought a flat could have more space than our house? It is so beautiful, so perfectly-well located, so amazingly designed and so wonderfully decorated that all I have to do to make Jenny cry (not that I want to make Jenny cry…) is say, “We have to leave this apartment after 28 more days…”.

Here’s a quick view of the kitchen and lounge area…