Roman Holidays

Hello, Blog. Nice to see you again.

For those who have noticed how quiet it has been around here, I apologize for my month-long absence. December was a whirlwind of travel and fesitivities that flew by in a - very fun, exciting - blink of an eye. The end of 2011 was filled with a trip to NYC and Chicago (photos to come), a wedding in London, hosting Christmas here in our flat, and celebrating New Year's Eve Roman-style. There was great company, food galore, and a brand new holiday experience for me.

When I was growing up, our Christmas holidays were steeped in tradition. For as long as I can remember, Christmas has always been the same: Christmas Eve dinner with one side of the family, Christmas Day with the other. Christmas morning cinnamon rolls after ripping open gifts on the living room floor of my mother's house. Even as young adults, my sister and I clung fast to our childhood traditions and insisted on dumping our Christmas stockings on the floor as we created a mountain of gift wrap and ribbons. Luckily, as the years went by, this stopped happening before dawn (sorry, Mom). In post-childhood years, these traditions became a warm bit of nostalgia, and a chance to re-live favorite memories. As adults, no matter where we were or what we were doing, my family has always come together for this time of year, and everything has always been comfortably and blissfully the same.

This year, for the first time in my 30 years, I broke with tradition and spent Christmas in Rome. Roland and I hosted the holidays here, with his family, in our flat. While the experience was completely different, the holidays still felt as warm, festive and full of love as they always have. I managed to slip some Christmas comforts from home into the day - a few Christmas tree ornaments taken from our childhood collection made the jouney over to Rome to adorn our new Italian tree, and the Charlie Brown Christmas album played during dinner. And, thanks to Skype, I still got to see the faces of all my loved ones on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve, we took a walk around Rome, enjoying the beautiful city decked out in lights, and dined on some Christmas Eve spaghetti (oh, the irony) with plenty of prosecco. Christmas day brought mulled wine and mince pies - great English Christmas tradtitions, which I loved - and, most importantly, my first-ever Christmas in charge of cooking the meal. Pre-Christmas, this brought on a fair amount of stress. I'd never cooked a holiday meal before, and would also be cooking for Roland's family for the first time. No pressure! Besides braving going into a butcher - by myself - to attempt ordering our Christmas turkey in Italian (not as scary as I thought), I racked my brain over how to manage to make a whole dinner in our tiny little ancient Italian oven. Boasting just one small shelf and no temperature knob, it was likely installed in the 30's and became the thorn in my meal-planning side. In the end, however, the planning paid off and the worry was unwarranted as everything turned out great. Roland was the pefect sous chef, and I managed to get through the meal stress-free. Note: I must also credit mulled wine for this!
We served up a mix of food for dinner, including a very tradtional Italian pasta, Bucatini all'Amatriciana, as a first course and roast turkey and vegetables with mashed potatoes for the main course. Everything turned out lovely, everyone ate too much, new traditions began and all in all, it was a wonderful Christmas.

As the rush of the Christmas festivities came to a close, we decided to have a low-key New Years Eve and celebrate in a typical Roman fashion. Along with thousands of other people, we made our way into the Center of the city in the late evening on the 31st. In Rome, much of the NYE festivities happen outdoors. People gather in piazzas for concerts, fireworks, singing, dancing and celebrating across the city. We took the Metro in and had a slow wander across the city, people-watching and stopping for an occasional glass of prosecco, taking everything in. Much of the festivity surrounding New Year's Eve in Rome involves fireworks. No matter that fireworks are illegal for anyone who is not a licensed professional - everyone from children on up gleefully sets them off, without abandon or without attention to their location, all day long. They exploded in the middle of streets, on pedestrian paths, next to cars and in pretty much any imaginable location. It gave the city an edgy feel - although it was all celebratory, it also had the affect of raising my blood pressure for most of the evening as the "BOOMS" kept me constantly jumping out of my skin. Roland had handed me a pair of earplugs before we left, which I jokingly mocked him for. All I can say is I was more then happy to have them as fireworks exploded loudly and suddenly at every turn. (As it turns out, feeling slightly nervous or cautious probably wasn't such a bad idea - I later read that due to the NYE fireworks, 2 people were killed, a building burned down, and another 500 ended up in the hospital).

We eventually ended up at our destination, which was Piazza del Popolo. This piazza is famous for hosting one of the biggest celebrations of New Year's Eve. Thousands gathered here, where music played and illegal fireworks galore exploded in the center of the piazza. We took a spot in a corner of the piazza to watch the revelers - men wandered through the crowds selling bottles of champagne and beer, and all matters of glowing and blinking headwear. The fireworks here were, actually, beautiful. People leaned out of the windows surrounding the piazza, waving sparklers and Italian flags. Children sang and danced anxiously awaited midnight. Everyone formed a massive ring around the center of the piazza, which remained empty for fireworks (and, interestingly, beer bottles - people kept throwing them over the crowd into the middle of the piazza, where they smashed. I am told this is one of their traditions). There was no official countdown, so everyone kept an eye on their watches and began celebrating as their clocks struck in 2012. It was a really cool experience, and I remember thinking in wonder as I took it all in...I am in Rome. Halfway across the world, celebrating New Year's Eve in one of it's most famous piazzas. Not a bad way to wrap up 2011. Looking forward to seeing what 2012 has in store. It certainly has some big shoes to fill.

Rols and I on Christmas Eve - Via del Corso

Via del Corso on Christmas Eve