Talk Without Speaking

I’m stepping back in time because I don’t want to forget. And, considering that it’s been several months since our trip to Europe, I guess it’s a testament to how powerful it was that I still feel compelled to write about it here.

After coming home I couldn’t sum up the trip in one or two posts. There are more tales to tell about this really incredible trip.

I don’t know what it was this time. I had been to Rome before but, honestly, it didn’t stay with me, it didn’t strike me as much as it did this time. What a city. And one that really resonated with me on this trip for a number of reasons. Despite being a morning person I love the pace of a city that gets up late and stays up late - where you can wander the backstreets at 10:30pm and come across countless cafes serving up their pizza, pasta and wine, wine and more wine. What a city for just allowing your feet to wander; you’ll certainly come across something else amazing.

And speaking of amazing. Of inspiring. Of being awestruck. We waited in the sun-baked square with the thousands of others for our turn to enter the Basilica. I had been in before but I don’t remember being struck like this. And you can say what you want about belief and faith versus those who choose only to believe what they see. But I’ll say this, I don’t see atheists creating something so grand and powerful and beautiful. And I can understand how you could devote your lifetime to studying one room.

It was…well….beautiful just to watch the people be affected by the atmosphere.

You could write a book about a day in Rome and all that you could see. Sipping coffee and munching on croissants against the St Peter’s square fountains, being caught in hundreds of random photographs. Cobblestone streets. The smell of an ancient city. Gelato. The metro. The serene river sliced by the bridges. Plates of heaped pasta. Architecture. The way the light seems to get absorbed into the rock at night.

Suffice to say I loved it and I could see myself living here somewhere, sometime.