Rome-architecture

About the city. I have my favorite places. Of course. The Pantheon is the best one. I love the energy it has. Old and majestic. With the Rafaello tomb, "watching over" the whole place. With its perfect ceiling. Then I love the Roman ruins, Trastevere, the St. Augostino church with the Santa Monica chapel and tomb inside, Vatican, with its amazing statues, Villa Borghese park with its heart shaped "look".....I loved everything in Rome. Everything!!! I was having even guilt thoughts for betraying Lisbon, that I adore. And now I know that I could actually live in Rome. Yes. I would love to do that. Go live in Rome with my love :-))

I was blessed with beautiful moments. I wish you the same and even more, when you get to visit Rome. Let love rule :-)

Religious Rome

What can I tell you about religious Rome? I had at least two special moments. One, was when I got to visit Santa Monica's tomb. I knew about the church, had no idea where exactly it was and just strolled randomly in the streets. As hazard does its job so beautifully, I found it without even looking for it on purpose. I got into the church, completely forgot that in Italy it is not very polite to go in the church with your shoulders uncovered....so, I got in with my "beach dress", showing my back and my shoulders. I get in, go see Santa Monica, take pictures, smile...I am happy, happy, happy...and then I get out just to call Elzi back to show her that special place. Well, this time I am not allowed to enter anymore. They didn't see me the first time so I hope I have been forgiven :-))

This is a place I consider with good vibes - the tomb of Rafaello, with this sweet, delicate doves.

"The great Sufi poet and philosopher Rumi once advised his students to write down the three things they most wanted in life. If any on the list clashes with any other item, Rumi warned, you are destined for unhappiness. Better to live a life of single-pointed focus, he taught"-another Elizabeth quote :-)

And then....the second special moment for me, apart from visiting Vatican....was my brief moment of happiness, my very special sunset moment, when I get into a narrow street, and all I see is light and shadows, and light....and I take it as a miracle and I see myself under the natural, Sun spotlight. Thank you, Sun! You know I love you much :-))

In Rome, I have been asked what makes me happy. I do not have a definition for that. I just know when my heart is happy and I let her express herself as she can - sometimes clumsy, sometimes more openly, other times shy or too bold. My happiness is made out of moments, like I guess anybody's happiness is made out of. And then....my happiness is made out of so abstract moments, places and events, that I sometimes cannot define them. I love sunrises, sunsets, the Ocean, I LOVED MY view from my balcony in Lisbon, I loved walking in the street in Rome, I love smiling at people and feeling their good energy bathing me, I loved the wedding I attended, when I started to cry like a baby, seeing an overwhelmed with feelings bride and then....I loved it when I forgot again who I was and how I was and I walked in the street like a Buddhist monk for a few moments, with my mind emptied from useless thoughts. And I loved that because I let all the good energy and vibes invade me, in a huge city like Rome, I get to meet my friend, the bride to be, in the street, and I start calling her name....and when I meet wedding guests, the very next day, at a restaurant, next to the Pantheon, where I used to spend almost all my time in Rome :-)

I love good hearts and magic encounters. I love magic! Happiness = my magic moments.

Roman holiday - the beginning

I spent almost one week in Rome. From the 14th to the 19th of September. I never got to go for a wedding abroad. Nor, to confess, was I anymore a "weddings fan", as I discovered in the meantime that not marriage is the confirmation of love, as obvious or....strange as it may seem. Deeper chains connect people for real. Now, I would be an hypocrite to say that I am against marriage, since I believe more than anybody, in "endless love", but sometimes the two of them don't match.

This time I got the invitation from a friend of mine, a beautiful Romanian 31 years old lady, with a beautiful soul and positive thoughts in her mind. She has always wanted to be a bride, to get married in Rome and I know that she attracted all these beautiful events and people into her life. More and more I believe in the power of attraction, in the power of thoughts, be them positive or negative. This is why I sometimes protect my soul from not confessing all my wishes or beautiful encounters to everybody. But this is also a confirmation of the fact that I am still weak and I believe that others can influence me in any way. My complicated mind makes sometimes beautiful things run away from me because I doubt. I am though doing my best.

I have no idea why I started to write about these when, while in Rome, the only word that crossed my mind for five days was....."sex". And yes, Elizabeth Gilbert was right when she was writing... "Every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. If you could read people's thoughts as they were passing you on the streets of any given place, you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought. Whatever that majority thought might be - that is the word of the city. And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you don't really belong there. What is the Rome's word? Sex".

Sorry.

I am sorry I ruined your wishes to read a cultural short blog. I was lucky that some years ago I got to spend three months in Rome, doing almost nothing but analysing paitings, chasing the opening hours of I don´t know what unknown church that had a tiny Rafaello painting on its ceiling....or eating ice-cream. So I "studied" Rome and its beauties before. This time, my mentor was Elizabeth Gilbert. Before leaving, I read a few lines from her famous book, and all I remembered was that men were so handsome that "you feel like applauding them in the street" and that food was gorgeous. I am sorry to inform you that she was right. Thank you, Elizabeth. If I have to follow your steps and go to India to get peace of mind and heart and then to Bali to find love, I will do that to get all these.

Yes, Rome is made for pleasure. Everything leads to that. Environment, people, food.