Monday 22 December 2014

Buon Natale!

The lights are up on Via del Corso, the market is in Piazza Navona, and I've spotted a lot of Santa cyclists, rollerskaters and buskers all around the city in the last few days. You can't shop anywhere without walking into mountains of panettone, we have a lovely big tree up in our house, and outside the Vatican there is even a life-size representation of the nativity scene. Christmas has come to Rome.

However, despite all of these festive changes, I have to reluctantly admit that Rome just can't do Christmas quite like London. In the UK the run up to Christmas tends to start somewhere around mid-October, which come December is so tiresome that most of us are secretly begging for the whole thing to be over with. Yet in my first run up to Christmas away from home, I am actually finding myself daydreaming of mince pies, mulled wine, frosty pavements, blinding Christmas decorations and of course the relentless sound of Christmas songs on the radio. It is the 22nd of December and I haven't even managed to find a mince pie in this city, I've barely heard a peep of Mariah Carey or The Pogues, let alone glimpsed a bit of Love Actually or Elf on the telly. Yes, despite my love for Italy I miss old-fashioned English Christmas, which is why I'm flying home tomorrow night to have a proper celebration of this wonderful season in gluttonous, OTT, freezing, festive England. 


Buon Natale a Tutti!










Ancora ti amo Roma, even if you haven't quite got the hang of Christmas