A Lost Week Away

Having been together for just over a year, my then boyfriend and I travelled to Rome for my 30th birthday. It was such a cool experience and one that always makes me smile when I think about it. We had very little money and were just starting out in our relationship together. This was a lovely surprise birthday trip.

We arrived in Rome late in the evening and having not paid for hold luggage we had very few belongings to last us the week.

We got the train and walked up the hill arriving at our campsite where we stayed for the week. The campsite was full of the noise of food being prepared, and families laughing and chatting. We paid the €150 for the entire week and were given the keys to our caravan! It had a wire bunk bed with sheets on and nothing else other than a basic shower room. Outside was a picnic table and the stars! It was perfect!

We left our bags & wandered down to the on site shop and bought a bottle of Montepulciano for less than €2, some cured meat and a baton of bread. We sat out under the stars chatting for hours drinking red wine out of plastic cups and eating the bread and cured meat out of the paper bag they came in. This was the same theme most evenings that week after we had spent hours walking round and exploring the beautiful eternal city that is Rome.

Nowadays our holidays consist of 40kilos of baggage checked, a car seat sent down the ‘heavy goods’ conveyer belt and a full day of packing and unpacking whilst trying to keep the poppet entertained. Yes, we have become that family! Those people who pack for every eventuality. From sun to snow and everything in between. More colouring books and ‘go find it’ cards than you can shake a stick at! And I love our life exactly as it is now and wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. But…. in the evenings, 6 years or so later from that trip to Rome, 1 little man, several house moves, a family car and two exhausting jobs from that first week in a caravan in Rome, my now husband and I sit outside on the terrace of a gorgeous villa in Valenciana, under the stars drinking a less than €3 bottle of Temperanillo, eating cured meat and bread and chatting about everything and anything except mortgages and school fees!

Sometimes we all need to go somewhere and get lost for a little while with the people we love.

No recipe this time. Just thoughts x