Sunday18th
October
Rome
One
of the wonderful serendipitous moments of our trip was when, in San
Francisco with Victor, we realised that we would all be in Rome on
the same day. We have been blessed by the travel gods.
On
the way to meeting the boys, Jim took Nic to his most favourite Crazy
Catholic Crypt – the Capuchin cemetery on the Via Venuto. It's a
set of chapels where the niches, lamps and decorations are all made
of the bones and skulls of deceased Capuchin monks – yeeks! It is
both Baroque and macabre at the same time and evidently a big hit
with the Marquis de Sade, who was a regular visitor. The visuals are
the stuff of nightmares, and really needs to be seen to be believed.
We
met up with Victor and Don and joined them on a little bus trip they
had organised for us to join. We visited the Villa Aurlia, Villa
E'ste and the remarkable Tivili gardens with fountains that are truly
awe inspiring. Our friend Andy in Berlin had suggested this trip so
we knew it was going to be special. And it was.
We
dropped the boys back to their hotel and then headed into another
boy-town sight. This time it was much more fun. We met boys from
all round the world and had a fun and friendly night and even met a
lovely local, Markus, who lived, literally, around the corner from –
bloody small world. We ended up having dinner together at midnight
and walking slowly through the streets of Rome beautifully
illuminated with lights. Crashed into bed at 1:30 am, very tired
little bunnies.
