Just like that, Our Italian Romance turns 4 years old today! From the beginning, this blog site was created to share our love of Italy and to honor our late sister in law.
We have enjoyed posting stories of our time spent travelling throughout this wonderful country. Our posts are created to inspire our readers to visit Italy for themselves. We truly hope to encourage you all to make plans to visit Italy for yourself and discover new hidden gems. Why? Because Italy’s unique beauty and culture is extraordinary…
The current world health crisis of Covid-19 dominates the world news as we all know. Unfortunately, this has forced the cancellation of all trips to Italy for so many of us.
As disappointing as this is, we take solace in knowing that when the time comes for Italia to open its doors to visitors once again… we will be there!
But for now…..
We will have to make due with reliving the happy times of past trips to get us through this period of isolation. Stay tuned for upcoming posts and keep dreaming of Italy.
Thank you for supporting us and please stay safe ❤
T & P
Abbracci virtuali a tutti (Virtual hugs to everyone)
We at OIR always love bringing you uplifting stories of the wonderful things we discover while travelling throughout the amazing country of Italy. We feel extremely fortunate to have made the trip to the Italian peninsula as many times as we have.
To date, we have made the trip to Italy 5 times in 9 years. It really has been life changing to invest so much time thinking, talking and travelling to this remarkable country.
Without a doubt, we’ve spent countless hours reminiscing of things we’ve seen and done and… what we will do next in Italia. These have been hours well spent. The friends we’ve made along the way including our B & B hosts, fellow travellers and locals have been fantastico.
Enter, the Elephant in the room … Coronavirus (COVID-19)
It is absolutely heartbreaking to watch this wretched COVID-19 rip though Italy and the world for that matter. Seeing Italy close down completely is like watching a poorly written B movie disaster flick. It’s an unbelievable story line, and yet, here it is.
The images of empty streets and piazzas coming out of Italy are shocking and disheartening. It is like the life force of the country no longer flows through their streets.
The people have become captives in their own homes and have been forced to wait out the pandemic. Our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones.
The character of the Italian people
If there is a bright spot, the Italian people are making Limoncello from the lemons they have been handed. Watching them sing from their balcony’s to socialize with one another is a heartwarming display of making the best of a bad situation. When they sing and play music… it’s like they are saying “Up yours COVID-19”.
Plans to Visit Italy in late May…hopefully
Our plans for the end of May rest on shaky ground at the moment. We planned our 6th trip to Orvieto a year ago. If things don’t improve considerably by the end of April, we will have to reluctantly cancel our trip.
Ironically, even if Italy begins to recover by the time we are set to leave, we Canadians may be in lock down as the virus starts taking its hold of North America. I hope that we can show the same characterthat they haveshown.
There is always hope that September is COVID-19 free.
If the worst does in fact come to pass and our plans are cancelled, fear not Italia, we will be back in mid-September. It’s always been in our plans to see Italy in the fall. Maybe this will be that year!
How about we end this post on happy note?
Here is a selection of photographs we’ve picked from past trips to help remind us all why we will return to Italy when this has all passed. Enjoy and we will see you as soon as we can Italia!
Let’s start by saying, matching our previous days total of 24,000+ FitBit steps was just too much to duplicate. We had a slow start to the day and our website was having issues that needed immediate attention. Without the fix, there would be no new Posts. All good now!
As it was, our early morning start turned into an early afternoon getaway. Oh well, stuff happens and we didn’t let it hold us back from having another memorable day in Rome.
A tram ride to the Colosseum was just what we needed
There’s nothing like jumping on a tram, steps from your apartment, then jumping off some 30 minutes later at the foot of the Colosseo. It really is an awesome experience standing in front of this iconic Italian monument.
I say this even after multiple trips to the Colosseum. Sharing the moment with scads of people can be overwhelming, but who am I to begrudge them of their own special moment?
Doing things a bit different
While strolling around the Colosseum and Forum, you can’t help but be drawn to the huge white stone monument erected to honor King Vittorio Emanuele II.
Normally, we walk around the perimeter, getting sore necks from looking up at this imposing structure. Not this time. We made the walk up to the second level and got great views of the surrounding area. Good news, it is free! What a perfect place to snap loads of pictures.
Now, if you want even better views for even more spectacular photos then here’sour Tip of the day! Fork out ten euro each and wait in line for an elevator ride to the upper deck for truly remarkable views.
The nearly 360 degree vistas are stunning, as well as a great way to get perspective of where all the major attractions are located in relation to one another.
