The first time I was in [[Rome]] it was with my high school class one year before graduation. Our latin teacher, who also served as our "Klassenvorstand" or head teacher wanted us to illustrate what this language actually meant for humanity, where it came from. We were 4 boys and more than 20 girls and when it came to choosing the actual sights to see in the city, vastly outnumbered. So most of the time we had spent in the [[Vatican]], watching the pope for some reason. But I also remember us 4 taking the [[Vatican Museum]] very seriously and eating some pizza or whatever in a rundown place not far from the [[Fontana di Trevi]]. That was in 2004, 20 years ago and I didn't remember anything. My girlfriend had been there in 2008 and she on the other hand, still knows the city by heart. Since we met, we always had wanted to go there together which never happened until this year, on December 19th, she finally decided to do so, in an attempt to reduce the customary pain and suffering of Christmas season. See, when the world is telling you to have a good time, to be grateful, happy, with family and friends and you somehow struggle with these, you are feeling like an idiot for missing out. Insult to injury, not only are you missing something but the world is making sure you really get it. So this year we said screw it, let's have fun and [[Rome]] was the first step into a holiday season that wasn't that much different than all the others, except for our decision to not compare ourselves to anybody and just focus on who and what is present. [[Rome]], eternal city. Once we arrived at termini station reality immediately makes itself known by showing you the same globalized poverty you have in other big cities. Homeless, spacciatori, addicts, prostitutes and bullshit vendors. After having lived in Paris, trying to love her but being continually disappointed, leaving and regretting I learned the following thing. Reality is not your problem. Just go somewhere where it doesn't get in the way of your dreams and then enjoy your fantasies. That's how reality changes for humans: by being ignored. Following this premise, we went on foot from the railway station to [[Campo de' Fiori]], a bustling market was just closing up, those motorized brushed were sweeping the pavement, 2 seagulls were tearing a pigeon apart next to a big domed church, [[Sant Andrea della Valle]]. The cosy apartment perfectly situated across a narrow street from yet another church and next to a pub to let us immerse ourselves into the italian soundscape. Walking through the city in the evening and over the next few days, we were astonished to find that the historic center is much smaller than we remembered. You reach everything by foot in a leisurely stroll. There were also less tourists than we feared, until sunday, one day before christmas, when the 2025 roman catholic jubilee year was going to start. The main thoroughfares are of course filled with the rip off tourist traps we all love and admire but you know you are in an extraordinary place when in the space of about an our your thoughts go something like this: [[Piazza Navona]]! Let's take some pictures with the Four Rivers by [[Bernini]], look at the christmas decoration how cute, you can even see the star on the christmas tree through the hole in the middle when you stand on the other side. And this church, have you seen the ceiling in the library?! They are celebrating a mass, tourists respectfully lined up near the entrance, smell of incense and the 2 side chapels are adorned with vividly flowing reliefs that would suck the most hardened sceptic into believing miracles. Palazzo Spada, the two guys at the ticket counter, one old, one young, flirt with my girlfriend and joke with me, happy to use this sunrays-turned-language to create one small moment of good vibes that make up days here. In it, the perspective of course, but also an impressive art collection, did you know roman sculptors took care of shaping nipples poking through women's stylish red marble dresses?! A young couple, an art student and his girlfriend, both pieces of art themselves, astounded in front of the "bozzetto del trionfo del nome di Gesu" by [[Gian Battista Gaulli]]. A preparatory sketch stuffed among hundreds of pieces in an almost empty museum holds all the expressive power a painter can express in their medium. A couple of steps later, you go through an old underpass, frescoed and tied to local religious belief that led to it's own expression: [[cerca' Maria pe' Roma,]] that is, to search for the needle in a haystack, because it's so difficult to find. In the passage, a strange guy, talking to another strange guy handing over a plastic bag that we avoid, only to end up in front of a curiously concave building, that had been built like this because underneath are the foundations of the [[Theater of Pompeij]] at whose entrance [[Julius Caesar]] had been assassinated 2068 years ago. One day in [[Rome]].