Susan Serven

Another Big Birthday and yet another reason to travel!

This time it’s Rome, Florence and Pompeii. I’d always wanted to visit Pompeii, of course we added in Rome and Florence as well.

After grabbing our daughters, we packed up and flew to Rome, arriving late afternoon. After checking in to the St. Regis Rome (formerly a 19th century palace), we went out for dinner and to visit the Panthenon with a guide we had booked for the evening.

The next two days were full – a walk-around tour of Rome to see the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Capuchin Crypts (!!) and Roman Forum, a skip-the-line tour to the Vatican, on to an immersive tour of the Colosseum and on to the Ponte Sant'Angelo, completed in 134 AD by Roman Emperor Hadrian.

Our fourth day (my birthday!) we took a bus tour to Florence (we had been told to avoid the trains if possible) and found time to tour Il Duomo, shop in the town square, have lunch, and see the David (the original sculpture of the David is in the Accademia Gallery of Florence.

A copy of the David is located in Piazza della Signoria (Duomo Square), just opposite the Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace).

We visited Pompeii the next day – although only partially excavated, they’ve done a lot since then – it was astounding to see the work they’ve done, the vibrant town Pompeii must have been, and the human lives ended so tragically ended by the by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 (views vary, but they now believe the eruption happened in October rather than April due to new findings of plant matter which was growing at that time).

We had a short visit to the Naples Museum with a memorable late lunch of real pizza. Yummy. 

The next day, our last full day, my older daughter Emily and I took a taxi to the Appian Way (Via Appia), the first and most famous of the ancient Roman roads, running from Rome to Campania and southern Italy and known for its many ancient tombs and Christian catacombs.

These catacombs were built along its route because it was illegal to bury the dead inside the city of Rome.Must see IMO are the San Sebastiano and San Callisto Catacombs.

Of the two, San Sebastiano was more fascinating for me since it has the oldest including intact pagan temples (from the second century AD), located deep underground. The site was originally a quarry and a pagan burial ground before being repurposed and expanded by Christians.

Our dinner that night was in the old town of Trastavere. The name is derived from Latin, trans Tiberium; 'beyond the Tiber.’ It’s a charming old working-class neighborhood with narrow alleyways and medieval plus lots of restaurants, trattorias and pizzerias.

Needless to say, the food is so flavorful and absolutely mouth-watering, the pasta is out of this world (and I’m not even a fan of pasta) and the desserts (cannoli and believe it or not – marzipan, which is German?) were the best parts of any meal.

I'm thinking it's pretty much getting time for a trip back.