Sights and sounds and feelings permeate southern Italy. Four days in Rome and near Bolsena to come... 

This couple sat down at a nearby table as I sat having a "special big caffè" - the kind that locals say will electrocute you (they haven't met me!). 

Their love was a dance. 

Their music the streets of Rome.

I couldn't resist.

I will take you on a journey through Roma.

But the first thing one must never miss in the Eternal City is caffè. Whether in small coffee houses or hosteria, coffee in Rome is an existential experience - it is that good. And when you return home and flip on your own machine, steam your own milk or brew your own expresso or ristretto capsule, there is this not-quite-as-good funk that settles in as you remember the ecstasy of a Roman delight.

Still...it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all!

Four days in Rome, and I flew away knowing that I had been at the center of the world. There are stories to be heard; stories to be told in the quiet scratching of heels on cobblestones deep in the Farnese at midnight; to be felt in the cool echoing of abandoned catacombs at dawn. And I return...