Roman Holiday

I love Gregory Peck. My girls love Audrey Hepburn. I think we all have the movie Roman Holiday. Forget all the art and history, forget the Colliseum and the Forum, I really wanted to see some of the movie locations for Roman Holiday. I think we were able to make it to 5 locations. I really regret that I didn't have time to watch the movie before I left for Italy. I can't tell you how I felt standing at the Trevi Fountain in the same spot where Gregory Peck tried to take the camera away from the little girl and she yelled for her teacher. I just stood there and almost started to cry. I got goosebumps thinking about how he stood there so long ago. What a classy man.

One of my favorite stories on this trip was meeting three students from China. We were looking for Gregory Peck's apartment. We found it but it had scaffolding all around it. I'm standing there complaining that it was under construction then this young Chinese man asked if I was looking for "Number 51". I told him I was and I was so disappointed. Kim and I found out that these three "kids" were exchange students in Germany and they had a week off and were spending it in Italy. I said, looking at the girls, "So are you Roman Holiday fans too?" Then one of the girls said "No, he is". This young man had set out to see as many scene locations as possible. He was looking for the Wall of Wishes. I hadn't planned on seeing that because it looked to far from our hotel so I didn't write down the location. I did have the website with me with a map to the locations and he took a picture of the website address. Kim and I were surprised how well these kids spoke English. In fact, one of the gals had absolutely no accent whatsoever. They said that speaking English was a requirement for studying in Germany. We really thought the kids were Americans. I started to talk with the young man while Kim spoke with the girls. I'm like "so are you a Gregory Peck fan too?" He said "No, Audrey Hepburn." I thought that was so cute. Meanwhile, Kim was helping the girls with their Italian. The only word they knew was "Ciao". She wrote down some helpful phrases like "where is the bathroom?" As we were leaving, one of the girls said "Have a nice.....Roman Holiday." I wish I had taken a picture of the kids. They were so cute and so nice. I hope that they do well in life.