And so a new year begins...

It's January second and I am just arrived home from Rome - what an adventure!!! These past five days have perhaps been the craziest of my entire life. First of all, I had no idea how truly aggressive Italian men are. Between the stalker, the cute 22-year old hotel front desk guy, the rock-band guitarist, the carpenter and waiter who saved me from the stalker, and the three brothers from Dublin who kept me safe on new years - I've had my fill of Italian men for a year or two. Secondly, I cannot describe how awe-inspiring the marble and stone, and 3000 years of living Rome contains. I hope with this blog and pictures I post, I can accurately portray the life and history that I saw during my week in Rome. What a nightmare, what a dream, what a high-flying adventure, what a crazy place Rome is. The sequence of events of my trip go something like this -

Day 1 - Tuesday 2pm - arrive to Italy to a shady hotel room with blood all over the walls, checked out of my hotel and was homeless for 3 hours, grabbed another hotel off the street, negotiated price, checked in, view piazza dei espana, fontana de trevi, piazza venezia and sunset views of the city, and manage to meet an Italian man who ends up stalking me over the course of my trip. End day 1.

Day 2 - I spent the morning in the colosseum, palentine hill, and the forum (there are no words to describe these massive structures and bits of broken history), to lunch in a little cafe in Trastevre where I meet a guitarist in an Italian rock band, get invited to show, spend the afternoon viewing piazza novano (great little outdoor market), campe dei fiori, and have my first bianca chocolato - a white chocolate drink that is divine. In the evening I have a date with real Italian pizza and a young Italian man I met at my hotel who speaks great english and takes me on a night-time tour of the city. End day 2.

Day 3 - Wake up around 10am and sight see until 5pm. That day, I saw the sistine chapel (the last judgement wall is perhaps the most inspiring painting I've ever seen), san pietro (okay - I now truly believe that the Catholic Church may have more money then Bill Gates), la castel de st. angelo and much more. That night, I decide to venture out on my own. After a quick freshen up at the hotel, I decide to use my guide book and hit a bar by myself (independent woman!) as I walk out of my hotel at 9:45pm, the Italian I met on day one "happens" to be driving by my hotel although I never told him where I was staying!!! Mind you - this is a city of 3 million. He says to me - ciao bella, funny meeting you here tonight, my mother lives just down the road - CREEPY! I promptly say no thank you when he offers a ride, a drink and god knows what else, and keep walking. Ciao! A little unnerved, I hold my reserve that I will go out and meet people that night -- and of course I do -- two sweet and kind Italian men take me under thier wing and show me a night of laughter and conversation in broken English and Spanish. They invite me to spend New Years Eve with their friends. Fun! End day 3.

Day 4 - Now that I have seen almost all the sights of Rome, I decide to spend this beautiful sunny day in Villa Borghese - a massive park on the North side of Rome. There I sit for four hours enjoying the sunshine on myself, watcing people play with their dogs, and generally enjoying the peacefulness of the scenery. It is refreshing, cleansing and detoxifying for my mood. I spend the day setting goals for the year. About being courageous, about London, about many things. That night, I meet my new friends at their flat for what turns out to be the most magnificent part of my Italian vacation. Dinner is with Angelo, Claudio, Roberto, Maria, and Francesca - it's a homeade 7 course Italian meal, with flowing wine, bread like I've never tasted before (from a small town outside of Napoli -where Maria is from) and lovely broken conversation with 5 young Italians who have taken me in on new years. What a treat! After dinner - we head to Piazza dei Popolo to the craziest new years celebration I have ever seen. There are something like 300,000 people in the square. Fireworks, kisses, champagne everywhere and people smashing bottles on the brick. A sight - a moment - a set of thoughts - which I will never forget in my life!!! After Piazza dei Popolo, we head to a discoteca, which turns out to be a 9,000 person dance party (10 warehouses all with differen music) -- CRAZY! I danced the night away with many Italians and three great gentlemen from Ireland - who walk with me for 2 hours back to central Rome - we laugh and talk about life, and moan about our tired feet, all while the sun in just coming up (I am definitely too old for this stuff!). I reach the hotel at 9am, sleep for 45mins, shower, pack my bags, hit the train station back to the airport. After the longest vacationing week of my life, I am home at my flat - getting ready for bed. End day 4 and 5.

I survived. I lived. I took risks. I made friends. I wouldn't change the trip for anything, but I may not be traveling alone to Italy anytime soon. This adventure made me think of many things on new years - I had a lot of alone time to review my goals and dreams for the next year, to worry and challenge them, to work through adversity, fear, unknown, and to stick up for myself and make lemonade with my lemons.... and well, based on these 5 days, and the last two months in london, this is my new years wish to each of you....

...May each of you have a joyful 2005 - let it be a year of thinking through life's directions and more importantly, may it be full of the right amount of courage to help us take a chance on at least one of those things we've been dreaming of - and turn that thinking into something real, something tanglible, something with action and momentum. Let this year be an adventure which continues to build that thing in each of us which makes us our own person, allows us to continue sharing that special thing with the world, and replenishes it more freely and fully than we can ever dream of giving it.

Happy New Year! I love you all.

Suzy