Simple Retro dress (c/o) (similar)
By Mumico espadrilles
Celine sunglasses
Hart and Stone necklace (c/o) (similar)
Mejuri bracelet (similar)
Linjer ring (c/o) (similar)
Mejuri earrings (similar)
Location: Prati – Rome, Italy
The pace of life in Rome is quite relaxed, compared to what I’m used to. Certainly compared to Paris, where the metro arrives every two minutes like clockwork and there’s always a next place to be. Absolutely, in contrast to my day-to-day, which is comprised of back-to-back meetings with rare moments for actual work sometimes squeezed in. The thing is, it’s me. I want to be everywhere, doing everything, at once. (Maybe a bit less so, after two and half years of not socialising, but not really – my desire remains, but my stamina is less unlimited than it used to be.) Especially on vacation. There’s always so much I want to do, and never enough time.
I spent the first few days we were in Rome trying to be everywhere. Ticking activities off a running mental list – not without appreciating them, but always with an eye on what would come next. The whole time, I could hear the clock ticking. You only have nine days left… You only have eight days left… In that time, I want to be able to do it all. So I run around. I rush. And the thing is, it’s all pointless, because no matter what I do, I cannot do all the things. It is not possible, even with maximum effort and organizational skills, to be everywhere at once. That’s just one of those lies you tell yourself, as an inveterate perfectionist and overachiever. If I just do more and try harder, I can somehow find a way to do the impossible.
…but, of course, you can’t.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t – and won’t – keep trying. I was able to relax as the trip wore on, but these snapshots, taken on our second day in the city, capture one of the rare moments in our first days in Rome when I was truly present. We rented the most stunning apartment in Prati (which I will tell you more about soon enough) with an incredible rooftop balcony. The weather wasn’t so perfect that we could be up there every single day – it was shady in the morning, thus not really warm enough, and quite breezy in the sunny evenings – but at the right time, it was a perfect oasis, our own private place to enjoy the city where we didn’t have to share it with anyone. When we were up there, I didn’t want to be everywhere. I didn’t want to be anywhere else.
