Window Shopping, Roman Style

I don't think, in all my days I'll be able to express what this trip meant to me. It was amazing, and exhausting, and filled with sites and sounds and smells and tastes I have never experienced before and can only pray I experience again. It was the kind of trip that changes you. It was the kind of trip that will come back to you on a lazy afternoon when you smell basil and tomatoes wafting from a kitchen window. The kind of trip that will come back to you when you smell incense drifting out from church doors. The kind of trip that comes back to when you hold a sip of red wine in your mouth and savor the tannin flavor. It will be the kind of trip that sneaks up on you and fills you with memory when you least expect it.

Rome is a dichotomy in terms. It's ancient and modern at the same time. Its a slow stroll down a cobblestone street and a speeding blur of lights all at the same time. Its locals sipping coffee at bars with tourists clamoring about. Its neighbors speaking in Italian too fast to understand and tourists speaking in Italian too fumbled to comprehend. Its truly amazing in every sense; all senses.

I understand why Rome lures people back time and again. I can only hope I'll be back some day.