LIZ FIELDING

THE GREAT ITALIAN ADVENTURE

Day One...

The trip to Rome was brilliant. The drive to the airport, the flight, the arrival were all without incident, which is exactly the way it should be.

On arrival in Rome we took a taxi into the city. The driver was fabulous. He gave us a running commentary as we drove Italian-style – ie fast. Here was Antico Rome, and the catacombs, there was an aquaduct, here was Valentino’s villa (I can’t tell you a thing about the villa, but he has a very impressive hedge). Then we reached the walls of the city, huge, impressive and then, wow, ohmigod, he turned sharply through an arch and took us right through the Roman wall and into the city.

On the left was the Domus Aurea -- Nero’s house -- and then, like a thump in the chest, there was the dome of St Peter’s in the distance, on the far side of the river and the Colosseum. Amazing.

By the time we’d checked into our hotel – a Roman Palazzo with genuine mosaics behind the glass wall of the lift – it was dark. Time for a g&t and then dinner in the open air roof restaurant. Utterly romantic. We were bowed and scraped over like a count and his contessa – something I could truly get used to.

Day Two

We walked through narrow streets boasting the names of the great designers and arrived at the mausoleum of Augustus – had to pay our respects. It was sadly closed -- you have to make an appointment to go inside apparently -- but having done our duty by the old boy we walked on to the Spanish Steps. It was early, they had just been washed and there were very few people about.

We took photographs of Keats house, the polizei, a gorgeous penthouse apartment that would certainly be the perfect home for a hero.

We had tea at Babingtons (very English, dark panelling, with a cat motif), then we walked right up the steps. The view across Rome from the top is stunning. Again that view of St Peter’s. We wandered along to the Parco Bhorgese, then down to the Piazza del Popolo.

Hot, leg weary, we sat in the piazza and had iced coffee with ice cream and because when you’re in Rome, etc, we did what the Romans do and had a siesta!

In the evening we wandered streets lined with shops with names straight out of Vogue. This was strictly window shopping – I’m the wrong shape for that kind of fashion, so it doesn’t matter that I can’t afford it.

We ate outside at a street café in that evening -- further scrummyness and no guilt because of all that walking -- then fell into bed.

Having fun is so exhausting!

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