{"id":2530,"date":"2017-02-09T22:01:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T22:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=2530"},"modified":"2017-02-09T22:03:38","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T22:03:38","slug":"full-immersion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=2530","title":{"rendered":"Full Immersion"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a full immersion baptism into planning for Rome, not just a sprinkle of water and swipe of oil. I am now a Patron of the Vatican Museums, dues paid and paperwork submitted. It took contacting the central office (Vatican City) the local chapter (Atlanta), and a delightful chat with the North American Chapter President, but the deed is done. They have been, one and all, very welcoming. I\u2019m receiving a pin and packet of introductory material. If only there was a magic decoder ring too. If you are wondering if going to these lengths is worth it, take a gander at the Vatican\u2019s Youtube Channel<\/a>\u00a0– it is a goldmine of inspiration.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve asked for and received tentative permission to sketch, though they are asking which pieces, exactly, I have in mind. I sent a polite and humble email in response, the gist of it being, can I let you know after I\u2019ve seen what is there? I admitted a preference for sculpture, still life and animals. I attached a photo of one of my sketchbooks because, yes, it\u2019s worth a thousand words.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I assured them I am the soul of discretion and not disruptive. I have a feeling there will be some knots in this skein of silk, but once I am there and the guards have seen me at work, I don\u2019t expect any real difficulties. All good thoughts to that end appreciated.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been moving all the pieces (venues) around on the board (calendar). I was dithering over tours, when Context Tours sent an email announcing a 20% off flash sale. I ended up booking a day trip to Tivoli, Hadrian’s Villa, and gardens of Villa d’Este <\/a>\u00a0close to the end of my trip. Should be warmer weather then, and less chance of rain. I’m joining a group tour, but they limit their groups to six and have very qualified docents.<\/p>\n

I pondered several food tours, but the descriptions (mostly sampling gelato, espresso, and pizza ) just weren\u2019t that compelling. I\u2019m betting that\u00a0between the people I know, the ones I meet, my three hosts suggestions, and apps like Katie Parla’s Rome<\/a> and Eat Italy<\/a>\u00a0by Elizabeth\u00a0Minchilli, I\u2019ll have all the recommendations I require to dine well. Over the next few days, I’ll add places to eat to my homemade Rome Google Map.<\/p>\n

The other tour I picked up from Context was the Palazzo Colonna<\/a>, which I had no idea existed. Somehow it was not on my radar, but oh my word.
\n\"\"<\/a>Seriously, how could I have missed this? Besides private tours, it’s open to the public on Saturday morning. I got tickets to see it the first Saturday in Rome, because once will definitely not be enough.<\/p>\n

Stumbled across Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit<\/a>\u00a0a 2016 BBC documentary on Youtube. I love these indomitable, fierce, British bluestockings. I\u2019ve been listening to her SPQR, A History of Rome <\/a>on\u00a0audiobook. Fascinating stuff. Puts that extra spring in my step at the gym I am in training for those seven hills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a full immersion baptism into planning for Rome, not just a sprinkle of water and swipe of oil. I am now a Patron of the Vatican Museums, dues paid and paperwork submitted. It took contacting the central office (Vatican City) the local chapter (Atlanta), and a delightful chat with the North American Chapter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[26],"tags":[148,182,244],"class_list":{"0":"post-2530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rome","8":"tag-sketch","9":"tag-tour","10":"tag-vatican","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/sketchbook.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-EO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2530"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2537,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions\/2537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}