8th April - It's Coming to Rome



When I say 'It's', I actually mean 'me'. Today kickstarts the start of this year's adventures and a return to my spiritual home, which is basically just anywhere BUT England. Honestly, such is my thirst to escape the U.K, I could probably be sat on a plane to North Korea and still feel a jolt of excitement. The inside of any airplane cabin lifts my mood immeasurably. Fuck it, just let me stand in the Departures zone of an airport for a few hours, purchasing excessively overpriced mini toiletries and meal deals from Boots/WH Smiths and I'd feel like I'm having an orgasm. 

But of course, I'm not just off to 'any' destination today. I'm off to Rome, and within British attitudes towards travel, I feel there's a certain snobbery attached to European destinations. An idea that unless you're headed to the deepest suburbs of South Asia, or warming up eskimos with Galaxy hot chocolates and handjobs in Antarctic igloos, then it doesn't really count as 'travelling'. I'll shout it loud and clear for the folk at the back... The length of your flight time does not dictate the happiness you'll feel (unless it's Miami. It's genetically impossibly to feel sad in Miami), in said location. As a prime example, Latvia is 3 hours away, and it's a shit-hole. Yet you can be in the heart of Paris within 45 minutes from Stansted, and it's my favourite City in the World (call me a 'basic bitch' all you want, but if you don't agree, you've probably not experienced the charm of Parisian life properly).




The Italian Capital is, like Paris, one of the few destinations I've visited and yet still felt a compelling and lustful urge to return to again in future. (Perhaps this is the magic of the Trevi Fountain, where it's claimed that should you toss a coin into the water (I did), you'll return to Rome again). Perhaps a huge reasoning for this is that the City itself feels inherently 'romantic'. I've heard people arguing the same case for London, but it's as far from romantic as I can imagine. Sure, it's a great city, but 'great' in the same way as New York. Where hustle, bustle and relentless stress are small prices to pay for gigantic buildings sandwiched either side of a murky grey river. Rome, on the other hand - like London - carries grand tradition and history (for obvious reasons) - but in much of a charismatically Italian way.

From the pristine beauty of the sistine chapel, and grand walkway through to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, to the crumbling Colosseum, a real haunting snapshot of Julius Caesar's pomp, it's impossible to not feel the echoes of history upon every footstep of Roma's cobble-filled pavements. And then there's the food! If a 2-hour flight is 'basic', then basic is what I'm willing to be for a country synonymous with Gelato, Coffee, Wine, and 'the big 3 P's' of Pizza, Pasta, and Peroni. I'm-a-coming-to-Rome...






... And I'm-a-not-coming-home!



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