TRAVELOG: Roman Holiday… Via Dei Condotti

We arrived Rome and it was raining!!! The trip to Rome via Alitalia was not bumpy, thank goodness (I hate it when there’s so much turbulence– confession: I am a total scaredy cat when it comes to turbulence). Not only that, I had an excellent in-flight meal of ravioli too! Sorry no photo because we stowed our things and when food came, camera was also stowed with the bag. Blah, but trust me when I say that the ravioli was excellente 🙂

We got to our hotel, the Hotel de la Ville, Intercontinental, at Via Sistina. I loooove it. It’s nothing like those commercially large hotels. It’s nice and quaint! There were 2 elevators which were really tiny (like 5 people in the elevator and it looks like the inside of a can of sardines :D). There was likewise a beautiful staircase. I was thinking, hmm… can this baghag walk up a few flights of stairs to go to the 5th floor, where our room was? Hmm… I opted to do the elevator that day haha…

Our room had a nice high ceiling, and we had a mini balcony that overlooked this view.I looove looove waking up to this– even if it’s raining and it’s coooooold!!!

Our hotel was just a few steps (literally) away from The Spanish Steps! How awesome is that? 🙂 🙂 We get to walk down the Spanish Steps every day for the duration of our Roman holiday 🙂 This is also known as Piazza di Spagna.

I love Rome, I love old buildings and the look of old buildings… Although I don’t yet know if I’d like to live in an old building… I like the comforts of a modern living space, but with the look of the old world. Boy I sure want a lot, don’t I? Well, dreams are free, aren’t they ? 🙂

We walked to Via Condotti– THE place to drool over luxurious goods of this world… Ahhh if only money grew on trees…

Jewels everywhere!!
This last photo above shows a beautiful museum-quality micromosaic necklace at Eleuteri. I pegged the necklace at about EUR 3,000. WRONG. It was EUR 26,000 (Php 1.7M). *Dies* It’s awesome!!!

And of course, a side trip to Hermes was the order of the day 😀 But nope, no birkins here, sorry! Although, they did show me a 50cm travel birkin. Not for me, it’s really just too heavy. Wasn’t the whole idea about travel to make things easy– and to relax? Lugging around a 50cm handcarried bag is NOT luxurious. If anything, it gives you a bad back 🙂 *hehehe… ok so I am sourgraping coz I can’t afford to carry a 50cm birkin … haha*

And there’s the travel Lindy. Now that’s a bag I’d love to own for travel. But nah, if I don’t have a money tree, it’s out of the question to own one (unless someone decides to give it to me for free… you know, me wanting to be a professional freeloader and all… Sigh, I can’t even be an amateur freeloader these days anymore coz no one gives anything for free anymore!! *muwahaha*)

Sigh, I love Alberta Ferretti, but I cannot afford to buy her clothes.I honestly don’t like buying expensive everyday clothes. I don’t take good care of them, so I don’t see the need to spend mucho moolahs on them. I’d still rather spend on accessories and bags. I love shopping in those flea markets for clothes because honestly you don’t need expensive clothes to look good 🙂 I would settle for a beautiful Chanel jacket though 🙂 *haha hypocrite!!!* But hey, a Chanel jacket is more useful in the long run though, than say, a Comme des Garcons shirt… *but then the price difference is also $$$ hahaha. Tsk. I am merely attempting to illustrate a point about expensive everyday clothes here.. but I guess I failed to get a point across… hahaha oh well, never mind).

There’s also Buccellati, an Italian jewelry master. Beautiful pieces. They’re not as commercially known as Bulgari or Cartier, but they’ve been producing stunning pieces– signature pieces include intricate gold lacework– this is a technique that’s also been copied by so many, but now you know where that style originated!

Shock shock shock! At the foot of Via Condotti was this shop which sold bags– bags that look like Hermes kellys and birkins… in exotic leather too. I wonder how Hermes (down the road from this shop) feels??

The beautiful Via Condotti *with the view of the Spanish Steps* before night fell…

And we reached the end of Via Condotti, which meant the end for Roman Holiday travelog #1 🙂

x
Mrs.T