Away From Home For the Holidays Part 4: Italian New Year

Although I couldn’t be with my family this holiday season, I was fortunate enough to spend four days with the Montanaros who were renting a small villa in Italy. I think I’ve probably known Maggie and her family at least since we were three or four — “cherub choir” days at church — so it was pretty cool to be able to see and spend time with them in a foreign country. We had beautiful weather and moderate temperatures which certainly added to the experience.

I took quite a few pictures, and I’m way behind on updating this thing so I’m just going to post some of my favorites which will hopefully give a decent narrative of my time there, assuming I remember it all correctly.

Day 1: Rome

Katie, Bo, Maggie and I take the train from the house (which was located near Viterbo) into Rome. We manage to pack a lot into one day and I thoroughly enjoyed not being the one leading the group/setting the itinerary for a change.
















Though this photo doesn’t do it much justice, the Pieta is probably my favorite sculpture and favorite work by Michelangelo





Day 2: Civita di Bagnoregio

With Rick Steves as our guide (in book form), we headed to a hill town called Bagnoregio which is only accessible by one pedestrian bridge. There are only 15 permanent residents left in the town, but quite a few shopowners come and work during the day.







Day 3: Montalcino and Montepulciano

We decided to journey into wine country which was a good decision. Unlike Napa Valley where the vineyards in most cases are estates with nice tasting rooms and commercial set-ups, in Italy you basically drive up to a family’s house and sit down in their kitchen to try what they have to offer. Even though the family we tasted with didn’t really speak English and we didn’t really speak Italian, it was pretty cool.






The proprietor of the place we stopped

Day 4: Ostia Antica

On my last day, we drove to Ostia Antica which is sort of the next-best-thing to Pompeii in terms of ancient Roman towns. Basically, it’s an old port city that was abandoned when the water receded. It was a lot larger than we expected and we spent the better part of the morning wandering around looking at the ruins.








Katie and Maggie amid some ruins




All in all, it was a quite relaxing time and great to be with friends from home. I’m definitely looking forward to my own parents making their way to Europe in June.