With less than 6 hours until the new year of 2019, my thoughts drift back to Rome. (It doesn’t take much). Our first new year in Italy was in Rome twenty years ago and Piazza del Popolo was packed with Italians and very few tourists. We found a niche between some columns on a small portico on one of the churches, (it’s the one of the left as you look at the photo) and we spent hours watching the crowd work itself up into a frenzy as midnight approached.
Piazza del Popolo is The People’s Square and especially popular on new year’s eve. An Egyptian obelisk, called Flaminio Obelisk, sits in the centre of the piazza. Grand churches flank the huge space. Laser lights flash “Buon Anno” over the facades of the ancient buildings which have witnessed hundreds of celebrations – and now another is in process and we’re here.
There is an impressive view of the piazza from the terraces of Pincio Gardens overlooking the square. But on this night the view of the crowd and the fireworks at close quarters is amazing. We feel part of something big! Joy and excitement is palpable and contagious! We love Rome and we love Italian people! And prosecco!
At midnight bottles are smashed onto the cobblestones in the middle of the piazza, in the middle of the crowds. Fireworks are launched around our feet. We sing and dance. If this is a tradition, it’s a fun one. We’ve seen many piazzas around Italy after new year which are littered with broken glass. It takes weeks for the glass to be picked out of the paving.
What a way to start our trip.
Rainer Maria Rilke said, “And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.“
We all face a year that is full of things that have never been because the year has never been. We hope those things will be positive for you, and that you will make memories that you will be happy to look back on.
