“Roam if you want to… roam around the world…” 🎸🎤 (courtesy of the B52’s) was my internal soundtrack last week as I joined Jonathan at a conference… in Rome! It was so fun to be free birds, with Julian off at a soccer tournament chaperoned by his coaches. We ate scrumptious food (with beautiful squash blossoms featured at multiple meals), drank delicious wine, and while Jonathan schmoozed and facilitated sessions during the days, I took full advantage and crossed the border into Vatican City for a few hours, popped in & out of several jaw-dropping churches, walked along the city’s picturesque side streets and shopped ’til I dropped before enjoying the hotel’s roman baths. Pinch me now! While Thanksgiving may not be a thing here, I am beyond thankful for all of the adventures we are enjoying this year.

I’m also feeling pretty “pan-Euro” at the moment, trying to blend in when we travel and nailing it more often than expected (score!), with people I met speaking to me in Italian rather than English (but thankfully also fluent in English after perfunctory greetings!), including the guys working at the deli-type casual spots where I stopped for lunch. The pizzas I tried were unbelievable– I had one slice with squash blossoms, mozzarella and sardines, and another with burrata, basil, sweet potato slices & radicchio. Each combination was divine. And there was no tomato sauce on most of the pizza, which I always prefer! I also had a memorable freshly made multigrain pasta with a red pesto made from roma tomatoes and crushed almonds that blew my mind.

I really lucked out on the timing of the tours I booked in advance, as I was inside the Vatican museum complex (with an impressive Egyptian collection as well) and the Sistine Chapel when the skies opened up and dumped rain, and at the Roman Forum and Colosseum the next day when it was bright and sunny!

Each of the sites was more magnificent than the last, with the Colosseum winning the top prize as one of the well-deserved seven wonders of the ancient world. It was humbling.

Roaming around Rome after my morning tours felt like being in a movie. Having the afternoons to gaze at ruins, eat, stroll and shop was ridiculously awesome.

And in the evening, Jonathan and I continued to stroll around the city’s sights before dinner, totally blown away by the stunning structures all around.

As it happened, my window seat on the flight home kept the awe inspiring views percolating beyond Italy’s borders as we flew over the bright blue Mediterranean Sea before cruising above the freshly dusted snowy Alps that looked like vanilla meringues from the sky.

Back in Berlin, where 20th century history is literally all around us, the contrasts between ancient and modern history have been all too apparent.

Take for example the underground hallways that link the buildings of Julian’s school. These were part of a training facility for Nazi soldiers, and just a small fragment of an underground wartime tunnel network stretching all the way into the city center of Berlin.

It’s pretty creepy to walk those halls. But then again, the school’s mission is a perfect antidote to the building’s horrible past: “To inspire everyone in our learning community to be responsible, compassionate global citizens…” Through Julian’s school experience, the people we have met and the endless opportunities to travel around Europe, our family’s intention to burst out of our Northern CA bubble and become citizens of the world is definitely coming to fruition.

All in all, it’s been a week filled with historical memory, paying homage to the most grand civilizations of the past that are held with tremendous honor by Italy, and wondering how Germany will continue to reconcile the tremendous horrors of its past.

There’s nothing quite like the power, longevity, magnificence and ingenuity of the Roman Empire to put everything in perspective.