the past, the present, and the future

when i lived in california for a year, i might go to a county park, hike around and think, "if this were in any other state it would be a major site."  but california had such an abundance of specatcular natural areas that it wouldn't be possible to give them all a prominent place in the collective mind.  that was how rome felt.  this little square here... these monstrous statues... any other city and they could be one of the main focal points, if not the main attraction.  but in rome, everywhere you look (or at least everywhere we looked, so everything within walking distance to our apartment) was basically a feast for the eyes, every street what we americans imagine a european city street to look like and history that you can somehow start to really feel was alive.  there is a faint pulse to all those amazing roman ruins.  

that being said, it really is a town (or at least where we were moving around) catering to tourists.  i don't know how i can fault rome for this.  i am a person in a bright purple jacket, blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a guide book after all, and without spending a significant amount of time in a city, how can you ever feel with authority like you know the real, "authentic" place?  maybe there is no modern rome without tourists?

this is the piazza (navona) near our apartment...

it's quite possible he goes along our vacations to foreign cities simply for moments like these...

though he has developed an architectural interest in building ruins with his blocks now and very often chooses the roman army for his battles against anyone he can convince to have an army battle with...

the inside of the pantheon. we stumbled upon the pantheon on our first little walk around, during the late afternoon of our arrival, and i don't know exactly what it was, but i loved it.


its ceiling...

but mostly i loved the outside of it.  and i don't think my pictures really do it justice, but i'll put them up anyway, just because...

from that first day...

and on our last evening...

less glamorous, feeling a bit less old than the city that surrounded us... i'm talking about myself here-- in the little apartment we stayed in...

our first morning out... a kitty cat orphanage set amidst ruins...

looking down from capitoline hill... 

roman seagull...

the inside of the coliseum...

the outside...

a bit of circus maximus...

more gelato...

another morning... trevi fountain.  another of my favorites...

this woman is coming back to rome someday

so is this boy

and he even paid to have his brother assured another trip (when you throw a coin in the fountain, it is supposed to mean you will come back to rome someday)

that morning we took a train to a nearby town.  ostia antica... 

ancient rome's port town (when it used to sit at the mouth of the tiber river, which runs through rome).

here, a necropolis, because ancient romans did not bury the dead within cities...

the road...

shops in this little square would advertise their wares through murals on the ground...

i love henry running toward the camera here...

one of ostia's current inhabitants...

this too was taken because of some salamander-like creature, though now i can't see where it would have been in the picture.  a william discovery.

he nearly blends in to the brickwork...

contemplating?  more likely i was just trying to keep warm as the sun got low...

what a panoramic picture looks like on a blog...

the only 'selfie' of the trip...

back to the city... 

the next morning... eating breakfast and watching sports on tv (the easiest thing to watch in another language) and henry building his card towers...

there is the tiber...

on our way to the vatican city...

st. peter's basilica...

inside...

back on the streets...

our last day.  perhaps the site i appreciated most of all-- the forum... the past center of things in the ancient city of rome... (is that description redundant?)... and until we get back to the piazza with the pantheon, the focus of this next set of pictures...

i think i was playing around with this photo to see if i could dim the sun... i couldn't really, but i'll leave it in...

william was all about having his photo taken at the forum...

and trying out all kinds of sneaky things with the panorama option...

i think we're all laughing here with the guy who agreed to take our picture at our failed attempt to get henry to cooperate for the purposes of a group photo...

back to the pantheon...

and the end of our journey...

i've gotten a few messages asking how rome was and how we are doing (good!) and it's been enough to push me to sort through all the many pictures from this trip and put them up in this post.  as has happened in the past i unintentionally stopped posting on a daily basis and it has been an unexpectedly nice break.  as much as possible i have been trying to be conscious about the amount of time i spend online in an effort to keep things simple and small.  there is so much going on in the world and we all have our own opinions about it all.  sometimes i have to remind myself that though i should keep up on the news, i don't have to necessarily read every single opinion from those i love but whose opinions i so often disagree with that can very quickly make me feel unsettled.  so i might keep taking this break.  picking up a book in the evenings instead of the computer.  i think many of us share this feeling of being overwhelmed with the bombardment of everyone else's opinions and goings-on... and while this blog doesn't aim to add to the commotion, i think, like anything else thrown out on social media, it probably does for some.  so in my effort to make calm for myself, i am also, at least for now, doing my part to make calm for others.  i want to continue chronicling our adventure here in denmark for posterity's sake so maybe my motivation will pick up again as it has in the past.  i will surely to continue to post when inspiration strikes or simply too much time without an update from us passes at the very least.

and now i must stop and go pick up the boys.  as the day goes on the fog gets thicker and the paths are icy from yesterday's melting snow.  take care for now as you slow down, speed up, or just maintain a steady hold on life's sweet journey.  xo