Nine Christmases ago, my family went to Rome for a pre-festive trip. I recently saw on Facebook that a friend was doing the same thing, and it brought back lots of memories of how wonderful Rome is in December: the piercing winter light, the huge tree outside the Basilica di San Pietro (see photo above, in the days before I thought about photo composition: we wondered what all the fuss was about - when we got home we realised we'd missed the Pope by about 30 minutes...), luxury treats in the windows of the boutiques on via Condotti and smartly dressed men in wool coats dashing to collect panettones for a Christmas spread.
So, in the spirit of these memories, buon natale to my readers: I hope you all have a very lovely Christmas. Vediamo nel nuovo anno! xxx