Amalfi coast update!

Well, guess what my friends? Turns out if you get out of the damn main square, it is absolute heaven here in Amalfi.

My favorite moment was watching the 85+ year old well-dressed woman climb these stairs to her home after dinner.

Again, I know I am not original in this observation, but the Italian women of a certain age are just….. a national treasure I suppose. Look at her. Perfection.

And the view does not suck

Lesson learned: just walk half a mile in any direction away from the lemon sorbet stores.

Caio!

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I am lucky enough to have a job in a school where I get a Spring Break— which is of course over the Easter holiday. But although I currently teach math (very successfully, I might add) I do not have enough brain cells left because I thought it would be a great idea to go to Rome during this time. Rome. Easter. The Vatican. Spring Break for schools all around the world. The Trevi fountain — where a cab driver years ago told me that it could be four am on a frigid January night, and it would still be packed.

My intrepid travelling friend tried to warn me, she really did. But my heart was set on something warmer than the current spring in NYC. (See instagram post of March 22 below.) And I wanted Italy.

This is my fourth visit to the Eternal City. I went for the first time — pre-internet — with a friend when they had those “Rome Walks” books, and I don’t remember the crowds being anything but normal. However, that friend might remind me that I may not have noticed because I was too busy being irritated at her slow pace. I am famous for inventing the “any museum in under an hour speed walk.” But that is another story.

Back to the 2024 crowds. I am certainly not original in my shock at the number of people waiting to get into the Pantheon on a breezy Wednesday morning.

But truly, it was extraordinary. Although my husband and friend gamely did the tour, I did this …

And marveled at the sheer volume of humanity passing by one of the coolest structures on earth.

On another day I also saw the Coloseum from the best possible vantage — a city bus window:

So why do people do this to themselves? You KNOW when you go to Venice, Piazza San Marco is going to be incredibly crowded, but you go stand there anyway. You KNOW that the restaurant on TikTok can’t possibly be worth the two hour line, but you stand there anyway. Is it just FOMO or has the Internet just made us all incredibly fucking stupid? I’m going with a combo.

So now I’m off to the Amalfi coast because NO ONE goes there, right???? But before I go, I highly recommend this deserted Rome botanical garden and this very small very uncrowded fountain. Just don’t put it on TikTok.

Ciao!