Good King Wenceslas Last Looked Out, on the Feast of Stephen….

Today in Italy is Santo Stefano, the day after Christmas, a national holiday, which gives everyone another day to celebrate with friends and family, to feast (restaurants today are packed) and – as did we – take a long walk, enjoying glorious late December weather.

Our walk was to the Janiculum Hill, a location which I’ve written about other times, notably as one important site for the recent 150th anniversary celebration of Italy’s unification.  I’ve also written about the famous marionette show that takes place every Sunday and holiday, immediately after the big BOOM of the traditional Janiculum noontime cannon.  Our clients come here frequently, often just an hour or so after landing from the U.S., and with lovely driver Gustavo, thus seeing, in the silver morning light, the city of Rome spread at their feet like a magical tapestry.  Romans come here to gaze upon their city and consider the near-impossible beauty of the capital.   Many had come to admire the first snows that blanketed the nearby Gran Sasso and Maiella.

And here is what we saw, a city with not one skyscraper, a dizzying combination of monuments that lead you backwards through the centuries…

We returned home singing, tunelessly, Good King Wenceslas, and wondering whether Good King Wenceslas, rather than looking out on the “snow that lay round about, deep and crisp and even” would not have rather have been with us (just below) on the Janiculum, in the warm winter sun, taking in one of the finest views in the world.