When I was a little girl, my mum gave me a newspaper clipping of an Italian garden (pictured below) and told me we would go there together one day.
Taking her at her word, I immediately went and pinned the clipping to the noticeboard in my childhood bedroom and have kept it close ever since. As I got older, the clipping moved with me across Burton, Bristol, London and Leeds. When I left England to travel the world, it stayed safely tucked away in my mother-in-law’s attic and was there waiting for me when I returned.
So, when my mum turned 60 this year, I figured it was about time that we finally went to visit the place in the clipping!
After unwrapping an assortment of clue gifts – probably wondering how a candle can possibly smell like “Rome” and what on earth she was going to do with a huge bag full of multi-coloured pasta shells – she finally opened her card, where the clipping was taped along with an explanatory message. I wasn’t sure my mum would even remember giving me the clipping all those years ago, but she didn’t even get to read the message before immediately bursting into tears at the sight of it. “You don’t even know what it says yet!” I laughed, giving her a hug. This was met with was a tearful “I know what it is!” as she hugged me back – a really precious moment that made even my boyfriend shed a tear. I’ll spare my mum the embarrassment of including the video of that moment within this blog, but I’m very grateful to my dad for capturing it for me to keep and look back on!
Less than two months later, we were boarding a plane to the Eternal City – a day made even more exciting by receiving the news that I’d had an offer accepted on a house just moments after clearing security! My mum was so excited for me and proceeded to spread the good news across Manchester airport, proudly beaming at everyone we came into contact with: “My daughter’s just bought a house!” She stopped just short of looking up the Italian translation so that she could continue spreading the good news upon our arrival. “Mia figlia ha appena comprato casa!”
We packed a lot into our time in Rome, ticking off all the tourist hot spots like the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. We walked up the Spanish Steps; saw the Pantheon and the Vatican and threw coins in the Trevi Fountain to ensure our return to Rome. As we explored the city, my mum pointed out places and landmarks that she recognised from her youth and told me stories about her time there. Meanwhile, I returned the favour by pointing out all the filming locations from The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Fair is fair.
It won’t surprise anyone to hear that one of the best things about Italy was, of course, the food. We drank pints of prosecco; carafes full of the most delicious wine and pretty much just ate our body weight in pasta, pizza and all the other delicious carbs. Italian food is one of my all-time favourite world cuisines, so I was in heaven there!
One place that deserves a special shout out is Bonci Pizza. It was nothing like any other pizza I have ever eaten before or since. It melted in your mouth and I would probably swim back to Rome for another slice.
The gardens we were there to visit are called the Gardens of Bomarzo – also known as Sacro Bosco, or 'Park of the Monsters'. It is a Mannerist monumental complex located in Bomarzo, in northern Lazio (about an hour outside of Rome) and has been there since the 16th century.
We had a spattering of bad luck on the day we went to visit, including missing our train there (despite a frantic dash through Roma Termini); arriving to a virtually abandoned train station in the middle of nowhere and getting caught in a thunderstorm that would cause even Zeus to batten down the hatches. But, having waited over two decades and travelled over a thousand miles to get to that point, we weren’t going to give up easily.
Despite being greeted by no staff, no other passengers and a non-operational payphone at Bomarzo station, we were saved from being completely stranded by a young Italian boy working in a small, connected shop. My mum was able to communicate our urgent need for a taxi to him and, a few phone calls later, our knight in shining armour: a local taxi driver called Roberto, came to our rescue in his little white car.
Roberto dropped us off at the gardens with the assurance that he would be back to pick us up in time for our return train to Rome and refused to take any money until he came back to collect us. At the time, we thought this was a really kind and trusting gesture. In retrospect, he probably wasn’t too concerned about us running off without paying him, seeing as we were stuck in a storm in the middle of nowhere and completely reliant on him to get just about anywhere!
Finally, the moment had arrived.
We walked through the doors, bought our tickets (half expecting them to be closed or sold out after all that!) and entered the gardens.
We were giddy with excitement as we walked down the path. The newspaper clipping showed one specific sculpture that we were particularly eager to see and, despite having seen the photo hundreds of times between us, we spent the first few minutes running over to every sculpture we saw, excitedly exclaiming: “this is the one!” Before realising that it, in fact, was not.
Finally, we really did see the sculpture from the clipping! We were so excited and spent ages taking loads of photos with it. The fact that we were standing there together, inside the photo that I’d carried around with me for all those years, was just the most special and surreal thing. I tried to soak it up and appreciate the moment as much as I possibly could.
Sacro Bosco was a really beautiful and interesting place to visit, with lots of impressive sculptures scattered across the gardens. We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves except for a small Italian tour group who we bumped into occasionally. This was a big change from the hustle and bustle of Rome we had become accustomed to and made our time at the gardens feel even more special – like they were just ours. The park was also quite small, which was a good thing because… remember that thunderstorm I mentioned? It got a whole lot worse. The rain soon began lashing down and the thunder became louder than anything I had ever heard – almost as if the park’s monsters had had quite enough of being photographed for one day and were roaring at us to get out. We took their advice and promptly left (but not before grabbing a few souvenirs from the gift shop to remember the day by!)
As promised, Roberto and his loyal white steed battled their way through the raging storm to pick us up and get us back to the station on time. Even though we didn’t speak the same language, meeting Roberto was one of our favourite parts of the trip. He had a calm and reassuring presence that made us feel safe despite the cut-off location, extreme weather and fact that he was a complete stranger to us. He reminded us more of being with a grandparent than an Italian taxi driver who we’d just met that day.
When he dropped us at the station, he did so with a recommendation to visit his favourite restaurant in Rome. We were absolutely thrilled with this as I really wanted to make sure that we tried some really authentic Italian food whilst we were there, but was struggling to see the wood for the tourist traps. As soon as we arrived back in the city, it was the first place we headed.
The restaurant was called Ristorante da Giovanni and, if you ever find yourself searching for somewhere to eat in Rome, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Giovanni (of “Ristorante da Giovanni” fame) greeted us like we were old friends and he reminded us very much of our new taxi-driver friend. When we mentioned who had sent us, it turned out that Giovanni was good friends with Roberto, and told us that he used to work as a chauffeur for famous Italian politicians!
We were treated to the most delicious meal of pasta and seafood in the most quintessentially Italian restaurant you can imagine; looked after by the friendliest host who recommended delicious appetisers and brought us carafes filled with wine and plates of limoncello cake to share. Bellissimo!
After a busy few days, we spent the final night of our stay relaxing in the hotel room. We rested our tired feet; shared some wood stove pizzas (that we’d watched being handmade from scratch!) and a bottle of wine whilst watching… The Lizzie McGuire Movie! The perfect end to a perfect holiday.
My favourite thing about our visit to Italy wasn’t the famous landmarks, the incredible food or even getting to live out all of my noughties kids movie fantasies (pop star double life pending)… It was just getting to spend some quality time with my mum in a way that we haven’t done in longer than I can remember. We had the most wonderful time together and created memories that I will truly cherish for the rest of my life. I hope that we get to go somewhere together again soon!
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