Our Roman Holiday: Epilogue
Lessons Learned
Hello ~ I’m Scott and welcome to your 5-minute vacation for April 6th. This is the penultimate postcard about our Roman Holiday. I’ve been trying something different with this series (the explanation is here). I appreciate you inviting me into your inbox today.
The surviving remnants of the Colossus of Constantine are on view in the Capitoline Museum. I wanted to see them ever since I saw Sheila Metzner’s photo “Campodiglia,” from her work for Fendi fragrance in 1986. You can see her photo on her home page.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the past several “throwback to our 2013 Roman Holiday” postcards. I’ve enjoyed sharing that trip with you.
In addition to having a ton of fun on our Roman Holiday, we also learned a few things that shaped our future travels: rent an apartment, take daily notes, and take a Hop-on/Hop-off bus.
It was our first time renting an apartment instead of staying in a B&B or hotel.
Renting an apartment made our 12 nights in Rome much more comfortable. Having breakfast on our schedule was much better than waiting for a B&B host or hustling to the breakfast buffet before it closed. Planning lunches around the fresh produce at the local fresh market was a joy. Making dinner “at home” because we were too tired for a fancy restaurant was a relief. Having the ability to do laundry meant we could pack lighter, a gift when traveling. We were introduced to Moka pots and we had the laundry adventure. While irritating at the time, it’s now a cherished memory from a wonderful trip.
I was really into long-exposure photography back then1. I used that technique to accentuate the difference between the mummy-costumed street vendor, whose schtick was standing stock still for tens of minutes, with a pedestrian walking past.
It was our first time keeping daily notes.
We knew that our first trip to Rome would be a trip to remember. From previous travels, we knew how quickly memories fade and how souvenirs like business cards, postcards, coasters, etc., didn’t help us preserve the memories. So we decided to keep notes.
Since we didn’t want to give ourselves a job ~ we were on vacation after all ~ we kept things simple. Our daily notes were just a few sentences, not much more than a collection of details, of what we did, saw, and ate. The notes worked so well for us that we’ve kept trip notes ever since. I’m glad we did. These notes have become a treasure trove of memories that have inspired photo albums and helped me write these postcards 12 years later. One of my retirement projects is to collect our trip notes in a physical book so that we can relive those memories in our golden years.
I loved all the colors of the traffic flowing by The Typewriter. I made a couple dozen photos to see if I could get an abstract composition that I liked.
It was our first time riding a Hop-on/Hop-off bus (or HoHob, as we called it).
On our first full day in Rome, we took a HoHob to get a feel for the city. I thought it was going to be cheesy, but I was wrong. The day’s ride gave us a great overview of the historic center, making planning the rest of our stay much easier. Because our first HoHob experience was so useful, we happily rode HoHobs in Malta, Vienna, Stuttgart, and many other places.
When I think of Italy, I think of scooters. Scooters in motion…
…or at rest.
When I reminisce about this trip, I think about how much fun we had, of course. Reading through our trip notes, I realized I had forgotten some of the not-so-fun parts of the trip, like how unseasonably hot it was. I did not pack any shorts so after a fun, full day of walking and then climbing the 64 steps up to our apartment, I was a hot mess. Fortunately, our apartment had AC.
Remembering the good things (the Pantheon! Gelato!) and letting the bad things fade away (hot mess!) is quite normal. It’s called Fading Affect Bias.
Fading Affect Bias applies to everything, not just vacations. For instance, this past December two pups joined our family. To prepare for them, we reminded ourselves how much work our last two pups were. Even though we thought we remembered how much work pups were, we were wrong. Thank you, Fading Affect Bias. But, just like the trip to Rome and the heat, our new pups are worth the effort because, just like our previous pups, these newest members of our family are growing up to be delightful dogs.
The boys are growing up.
Until next time,
Ciao!
PS ~ If you are new to my photography, you can see more at scottgilbertson.com.
I even developed a website called “Long Exposure Bird Photography.” Although the website is long gone, the photos and stories are here on my website.