Roman Holiday
Every year, my 5 youngest children and I take a boat trip, we did it when I was married, and have done it in the ten years since, and although it’s a stretch and a splurge, it’s worth saving all year to do it!! I am addicted to boat vacations, because they give you so much freedom. It corrals everyone on the same dates (rather than people arriving late and leaving early at a rented house), and it gives you incredible freedom. If you don’t like where you are in the morning, you can go just a few miles away to a prettier place, or change locations and plans entirely. It’s like a movable house, and you can vacation in a bunch of places. And being on a boat is probably the only place that I really relax. It feels so removed from the pressures of real life, and is a wonderful way to spend time with my children every summer, and we all love it.
Boat vacations are not without their problems however, weather being one of them. We’ve had to change plans to avoid storms or bad winds, and have gotten stuck in port for several days. Last year, the owner of the boat we were on had some serious legal problems with the Italian tax authorities, and we were stopped by the French authorities, and ‘stuck’ on the boat for 5 days, unable to go anywhere until the problem was resolved. It messed up our itinerary, but there are worse places to get ‘stuck’ and we had a ball anyway, with a great crew, in a beautiful location, on a lovely boat.
This year, our nemesis on the boat was the weather. We hit an unexpected storm the first night on the boat (and fortunately we’re all good sailors, but nonetheless it’s unnerving to be pitching and rolling all night, and not a lot of fun). And our last day and night on the boat, we had major storm warnings, with l5 feet waves expected and 35 or 40 knot winds. That would have been nasty, and really not a lot of fun. So we agreed to leave the boat for the day and evening, and meet it again at a port near Rome. We disembarked at a tiny little port in Southern Italy called Gaeta, north of Positano, Capri and Ischia, and we drove 2 and a half hours to Rome. I hadn’t been to Rome in l8 years, and it sounded like fun to all of us, for a change of scene. It wasn’t the relaxed day we had hoped for on the boat, but it was going to be an adventure. And so it was.
I guess I never paid much attention to the atmosphere in Rome, since the last time I was there I was shepherding little children from the coliseum to the Sistine Chapel, admiring monuments, and getting everyone fed and finding bathrooms. This time, with adult children, I was bowled over by the charm of Rome. Wow!!! It is a knock out city, with all the monuments we all know about, a spectacularly beautiful city, and a sense of enchanting chaos, with wild drivers, handsome people, delicious food, and all the charm of the Italians. We were lucky that it was about 80 degrees in the daytime and cool in the evening. The week before it had been l07 degrees—-I’m glad we missed that. There are 500 Cathedrals in Rome, and 1,500 churches, big, small, ancient, crumbling, spectacular. We didn’t go to the ‘important’ ones, in order to avoid long lines to get in. But in any given block, there are as many as three small beautiful churches, with frescoes, painted ceilings, and a stunning beauty that takes your breath away. We had two delicious meals, walked endlessly, dodged the crazy Roman traffic, did some shopping (sadly, the same stores as everywhere else now. Globalization has wiped out all the charming local shops in every city and location, it’s all Gucci, Prada and Nike now, which I find sad, even on a tiny island like Capri). But we shopped anyway, and listened to the church bells tolling at certain times of day. We walked up the Spanish steps, gazed at the Vatican, and threw coins in the Fountain of Trevi: you have to throw in 3 coins, with your back to the fountain, one as a personal wish of any kind, the second for love, and the third as a wish to return to Rome—-I had no trouble at all making those 3 wishes, and I hope that all 3 of them come true!!!
It was an absolutely perfect day in a spectacularly beautiful exciting city, and we had to tear ourselves away after a delicious dinner to go back to the boat. They had had a tough day with heavy winds and l2 foot waves, and I’m glad we missed it!!! The day we got in Rome was a gift. I’d love to go back, and this time I won’t let l8 years go by before I do. What a gorgeous city!!! It was everyone’s favorite day of the trip!!!!
Love, Danielle
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I have become a recent fan of your books, and read one right after another. I pick them by interesting titles. Most recently finished Dating Game (my story… only he left me at 61 instead of 41, after 28 years of marriage…for a younger “girl” (she’s 21 years his junior), and now reading The Kiss. I can relate to this book because I have a 29 year old married daughter with progressing MS. She has had MS for 8 years now, and got really bad in 2009, one year after her dad left me. I spend a lot of my after work hours helping at her house as she is wheelchair bound and not able to do much but read, and use the computer. My only granddaughter Abbi makes my uneventful, nonsocial life bearable. I am so glad to have discovered your books, and buy them in hardback whenever I can afford a new one. I love reading your blogs; and your info about your life gives me hope. I only have the one daughter, and I did all the same things you did for your children. She played soccer, too; now she can’t even walk. I would love to hear from you, but know you are a busy person. I am full-blooded Italian, and my dream someday is to be able to visit Italy for a 2 week vacation, and find an Italian love. Am I a dreamer or what….lol. Thank you for giving me the pleasure of escaping my real life, for a few moments of dreaming.
I love your books!i have read the following in order: Zoya, accident, miracle, bungalow 2, dating game, no greater love, and at the moment i am reading the house on hope street it is the sadest out of your books i have read so far. The next book of yours i am going to read is A GOOD WOMAN because i have not yet read the blurb and i do not know what is going to happen. the books of yours i have got, but not read are: daddy, ransom, a good womman, wanderlust, the cottage and i am planning to go and get the rest. My mum got me reading your books because she was reading zoya, and i saw her crying. So when she finnished the book i started reading it and loved it so i started reading more, and more of your books.please can you write back because i have tryed for ages to try and get in youch with you i look on the internet for your contact details but it has not worked so please lend me a hand.
Laura-May-Kipling
DT9 5EZ
sherborne
dorset
The reason why i want to write to you is because, when i started reading your books i wanted to be an auther myself. So i started to write a story, and i was going to send it to you, then you could mark it like a teacher and send it back.
My sister does little fantacy storys on the computer they are really good. I would love it if she was a auther one day then i could in person meet you some day. Anyway i am dying to get on the sofa and finnish the house on hope street hopefully i will get an email from you soon bye.
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I love your books!i have read the following in order: Zoya, accident, miracle, bungalow 2, dating game, no greater love, and at the moment i am reading the house on hope street it is the sadest out of your books i have read so far. The next book of yours i am going to read is A GOOD WOMAN because i have not yet read the blurb and i do not know what is going to happen. the books of yours i have got, but not read are: daddy, ransom, a good womman, wanderlust, the cottage and i am planning to go and get the rest. My mum got me reading your books because she was reading zoya, and i saw her crying. So when she finnished the book i started reading it and loved it so i started reading more, and more of your books.please can you write back because i have tryed for ages to try and get in youch with you i look on the internet for your contact details but it has not worked so please lend me a hand.
Laura-May-Kipling
DT9 5EZ
sherborne
dorset
The reason why i want to write to you is because, when i started reading your books i wanted to be an auther myself. So i started to write a story, and i was going to send it to you, then you could mark it like a teacher and send it back.
My sister does little fantacy storys on the computer they are really good. I would love it if she was a auther one day then i could in person meet you some day. Anyway i am dying to get on the sofa and finnish the house on hope street hopefully i will get an email from you soon bye.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I love your books!i have read the following in order: Zoya, accident, miracle, bungalow 2, dating game, no greater love, and at the moment i am reading the house on hope street it is the sadest out of your books i have read so far. The next book of yours i am going to read is A GOOD WOMAN because i have not yet read the blurb and i do not know what is going to happen. the books of yours i have got, but not read are: daddy, ransom, a good womman, wanderlust, the cottage and i am planning to go and get the rest. My mum got me reading your books because she was reading zoya, and i saw her crying. So when she finnished the book i started reading it and loved it so i started reading more, and more of your books.please can you write back because i have tryed for ages to try and get in youch with you i look on the internet for your contact details but it has not worked so please lend me a hand.
Laura-May-Kipling
DT9 5EZ
sherborne
dorset
The reason why i want to write to you is because, when i started reading your books i wanted to be an auther myself. So i started to write a story, and i was going to send it to you, then you could mark it like a teacher and send it back.
My sister does little fantacy storys on the computer they are really good so i will send some of those over to LOL. I would love it if she was a auther one day then i could in person meet you some day. Anyway i am dying to get on the sofa and finnish the house on hope street hopefully i will get an email from you soon bye.
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Nice!