A couple years ago I stood on the roof of the “wedding cake”, aka “Altare della Patria” (Altar of the Motherland) or “Il Vittoriano”, to spy, for the first time, a bird’s eye view of Rome, a city I had grown to know over the years, stealing away to her streets whenever I could (which was never often enough). There’s something about the layers of ancient ruins and renaissance architecture and cars and vespas and cafes and metro stations one can’t capture without standing where the gods would have been watching in Caesar’s time. It is really a beautiful experience. And down the elevator, rife with enviable views of the ruins from a closer perspective, is a cafe, selling delicious sandwiches and antipasti, wine and espressos. If you ever find yourself in Rome, it’s an experience you cannot miss.
