It’s a week now since I posted my June reading post and, shortly after, headed to the airport wearing an outfit designed to transition me from Vancouver weather to Rome’s (linen jacket over navy cotton tank and black washed-silk wide-legged pants) while also allowing me to transport a bulkier piece of my wardrobe without taking up luggage space. (See that here, if you’re curious.)
Since then, I’ve been adjusting to the time change, to the neighbourhood, to the language, and, especially, to the heat. I’ve recovered my suitcase (which spent a few hours in Amsterdam without me — we both stopped in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, but I went from there to Rome; my purple Rimowa was otherwise directed), spent my husband’s birthday with him before he went back home for a few weeks, hugged my granddaughter, daughter, son-in-law. I’ve read, sketched, walked, grocery-shopped, and cooked a few solo meals, had small exchanges in Italian with vendors here and there, and even, a couple of evenings ago, a great conversation (mostly in Italian — they were very patient and kindly interested) with several other women (some ordering “sorsi e morsi; some serving it) at a stylish Enoteca around the corner.
So much more, some of which I shared on my Instagram account; some of which I’ve captured in my travel sketchbook, in text and illustrations; some I’ve scribbled in my lined Moleskine notebook.
But daunting to approach reporting on my week here, in one post or even several. . .
I thought, instead, you might be interested in seeing examples of a phenomenon I’ve noted recently. My husband, who was here for the first month of our rental while I stayed home (granddaughter, dog, etc.) had observed, during our daily videochats, that he was seeing many more older people out and about in the neighbourhood than what he sees at home. Our neighbourhood in Vancouver is home to a younger demographic for a variety of reasons, and I was a bit skeptical about Pater’s generalization. But I’m noticing the same thing he did — I suspect that the demographic in our temporary neighbourhood in Rome skews older for its own reasons (it’s an elegant neighbourhood, less affordable real estate, and quieter).
And on my walk this morning, I was inspired to snap a few photos (discreetly, of course) of the easy, elegant, and comfortable style of women in 60s, 70s, 80s. . . women about my age, in other words.
What I kept seeing is a simple formula: a dress in a striking print or strong colour, of a breathable fabric, simple cut that facilitated ventilation while also providing ample coverage for sun protection. Well-maintained sandals, some sporty, some more polished, some flat, some with a modest heel — but all of them at once attractive and comfortable. Practical bags but ones that also added a visual punch and a summer flavour whether through colour or texture. Only one hat, notably one that is completely congruent with the outfit it tops.
I think that’s all I’m going to say about these. Here they are:
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six, (and yes, Two and a friend, with simple ruffles)
And Seven (this was the most formal — and yes, that’s a scarf at her neck, very polished look, sophisticated with that print-mixing). . .
Five and Seven were both snapped from my table at Grue, a pasticceria not far from “our” apartment. I’ve been having my usual simple breakfast at home each day (muesli, yogurt, fruit, and tea), but it’s the weekend and a treat seemed in order.
Mind you, I hadn’t expected they would have maritozzi there, and I’ve wanted to try these Roman specialty pastries for ages. Whipped cream (light, airy, probably no calories at all ;-)) stuffed in a small bun of slightly sweetened yeast dough. . .
I made sure to sketch it quickly before eating, and then was a bit daunted at how to approach it given that it was brought to the table with no cutlery. So I scooted back to the counter and asked, “Questo maritozzo, si mangia con le mani? . . . which I hope translates as “This cream bun, it’s eaten with the hands?” (In other words, I can pick it up? Really?). Yes, they nodded, smiling, although one young man offered to bring me a spoon if I thought that was necessary, and then brought a few extra napkins over to my table to allay any anxiety. . .
And then after I’d thanked him, and we both chuckled, and he went back behind the counter, I decided to take a selfie. . .
So flattering. . .
And then — probably just to make sure those extra napkins served a purpose — I tried to manage another photo, hoping I might appear slightly more elegant, even with that dab of whipped cream on my nose. . . EXCEPT (have you guessed?) a great dollop of panna splatted right down the front of my blouse. . . and a few smaller drops hit my lap . . .
Luckily, the top has enough pattern on it that I wasn’t horribly embarrassed walking home, although I took it off to wash it immediately, only stopping to snap mirror selfies so you could see what I was wearing while I admired other older women’s style.
I will tell you quickly, that this OOTD is cooler than it probably looks ( the top is of the finest cotton lawn, so light; those pants are the washed-silk ones that I wore on the plane. Pull-on waist, pockets, breezy, and they cover my legs so I don’t worry about sunscreen. . . I do find that the pieces are better for layering and for combining in different ways for variety — but I’m missing the dresses in my closet back home. I did bring one along and have been wearing it, but I have been ogling some of the summer sales. . .
So far, I’ve been diverting most of my shopping energy into sketching. Here’s my illustration of that maritozzo and cappuccino. . . drawn quickly at the table with my pencil, watercolour and collage done at home, while my rinsed-out top dried on a hanger in the bathroom.
Okay, time for my pisolino (nap — but pisolino sounds even more indulgent, no?)
Ciao da Roma,
xo,
f
That was fun . I can remember when Italian ladies of a certain age were always in black but not these days . I love all the colour & especially like the first two outfits . We had lunch in York today & there were many , many tourists wandering in the sunshine . I enjoyed trying to identify their nationalities by their fashion sense . I really envy Italian women their wonderfully thick hair . Hope the sticky bun was tasty .
Author
If it lessens your envy, I suspect that the long hot summer here must have many of those women eyeing their scissors! 😉
That looks delicious! Dresses seem to be the garment of choice for warm weather. It’s so much fun to be an observer in an adopted neighbourhood.
Author
Isn’t it just, Joanne?! I love it!
What a fun post! It felt like I was sitting right there, watching the people stroll by. I’ve been thinking a lot about wearing a dress this summer, but here it is August already, and it hasn’t happened. I think my favorite of all of these is the first one. Such pretty colors! I’m off to search the web for one of those raffia(?) bags…
Author
I love wearing dresses in the summer but I know many prefer shorts or pants as a sportier option.. .
Ah, cream buns, brings back memories of Friday school lunch when we were allowed to buy lunch from the tuck shop. I didn’t know they were a Roman specialty. I wonder how they became established in an Australian school of the 1960s.
Always fun to see well dressed women (including you). I think silk is greatly underrated as an all weather fabric. Light and airy is the way to go for August heat in Southern Europe. Love the heat but not combined with humidity. Is it very humid there as well as hot?
Your sketches must bring you such pleasure, they are really honing your eye for detail.
Author
I think many countries have some version of a cream bun. The maritozzo dates back hundreds of years here, and got it’s name from the Italian word for husband (marito) because a man would give one to his future bride on first Friday of March.
I suspect that the provenance and the recipe of your Australian school might be different.
Yes to silk as an all-weather fabric! And you’re right that it’s underrated.
The power of the dress, and especially the shift dress. Ditching the waistband in the heat is guaranteed to make one feel 10 degrees cooler. My wardrobe of “only in France in summer” shift dresses lies undisturbed this year and is likely to have to languish for more than a full year given non-French travel plans. In the first photo, is that a down jacket I spy in the shop window? Is fashion in Rome already starting to look ahead to autumn? Here the shops are in full “back to school” swing. Since school uniform is a thing here, even the supermarkets have aisles of uniform-compliant trousers, skirts, shirts, polo shirts and v-neck jumpers. What a challenge that cream bun looks to eat! You’ll have to be on the lookout for one of your elegant Italian ladies enjoying one and watching their style in tackling it. The buns look to be in the same vein as the Swedish ‘semlor’, or Lent buns, which my husband adores but are too much cream for me.
Author
Absolutely — NO waistbands in the heat!
It is a down jacket, but I think that many of the shops I see are selling older stock at markdowns. I’m not currently in an area for a lot of window-shopping but I’m still seeing summer reflected — after all, temperatures will likely continue in the 30s for many more weeks. . .
The cream in the maritozzi is whipped to a perfect lightness and there’s very little, if any, sweetening to it; the bun itself is also quite light.
Those dresses look comfortable and stylish, perfect for a hot city. No excess flesh on offer. I am in and out of Leeds at the moment, in extremely hot weather, and there are sights to be seen…reinforcing my theory that, in general, people are more interesting with their clothes on. Including a young woman who had come out but left her undergarments at home, as a breeze confirmed. I’m not sure what goes through some people’s minds when the sun comes out.
Author
Ha! Now that really made me laugh! Perhaps there was a medical situation that needed to be accommodated?! 😉
I’ve always loved italian fashion,so this is so much fun!
Never have tried maritozzi-yesterday visit to one of my favourite pasticceria (Jolie Petit Patisserie) and two cakes -one of them to take home- was a consolation prize
Your neighbourhood sounds great (though not the heat)- looking forward to new stories and photos!
Dottoressa
Author
Did we got to that pasticceria with you? And did you have coffee before you took your two cakes away?
No,it is a new-ish one in a west part of town! And it was with an espresso (too much šlag would be simply too much ;))
D.
Author
No šlag (I know what you mean, in this heat). . . but I knew there would have had to be coffee! 😉
Maritozzi, yum! Fresh whipped cream…I agree it’s light, more than creme patissiere for sure lol. Shall we say comparatively light?
I admire the dresses and the women all look so cool and fresh…but #2’s shoes are too small…it’s worrying me…
Author
Yes, comparatively light. And so much less sweet than that filling in Italian “croissants” — (I’m a big fan of French croissants and not keen on the Italian ones at all — pistachio filling will not change my mind!).
#2, yes, how can she stand it? And how far does she have to go?
I agree with Wendy from N.C. about dress no. 1: colourful and simple at the same time. And the hat is perfect. I never was a great friend of dresses, until I started going to Southern Italy with some regularity. Now I own 4 light summer dresses, all bought at street stalls in Puglia.
Your maritozzo adventure sounds very familiar to me. Whenever there is something in a meal that can be dropped on my clothes, I nver miss the opportunity…
Author
4 light summer dresses — sounds about right? I think I could spend weeks and weeks here in just that. . .
Ha, yes, I grabbed the “opportunity”!
I’m trying to give my small collection of summer dresses more outings this season. I do see more dresses being worn this year by all ages, probably because it has been a hot summer and a dress can really be the best option.
Author
I think they’re really the best option in summer, although I know that some find chafing a problem in hot weather and prefer a pant. I do what I can to minimize waistbands in heat! 😉
Love these dresses–except, as someone who sews, that lack of pattern matching in dress #2 … argh, I can’t unsee it!
I am sewing more dresses for myself as time goes on. This summer in Oregon has been uncomfortable, and we have another 1-2 weeks of it.
Author
I couldn’t help noticing that myself…😬🤣
Looks so hot and the dresses are cool and lovely. Could you soon link back to a previous post where you explored your anxiety about solo travel after so much with Paul? Clearly you adapted and I’d like to reread your thoughts on why it was valuable to push through.
I’ve planned a solo trip to Spain next year to join a Camino and was very surprised to encounter fear. When you initially posted your own anxious thoughts, I couldn’t imagine. But here I am. A recent domestic (US) trip with my husband that was unpleasant (rental car snafu, flight snafus, and both of us getting Covid), has added to my dread and desire to never leave home again. I’d love to reread your thoughts as I sit with these unexpected feelings.
Author
Thanks for your interest, K. Was it this fairly recent post, written after my solo trip to Lisbon, Madrid, and Paris this past spring?
And I wrote this last fall, when he and I went in separate directions within the same overall trip — I had a challenge or two with train strikes and cancelled Ubers. . .
Way back in 2018, there was this post. . . You’ll see a pattern — I seem to have anxiety each time, especially as the trip gets closer and at (predictable!) stress points throughout. It helps to remember this, actually, and to remind myself of what difficulties I surmounted in the past . . . and also of which ones never surfaced, despite the anxious energy I put into anticipating them 😉 I’m not sure how long I’ll continue having the stamina for the ups and downs of solo travel, but remembering the experience and resilience I’ve built in the past seems to help.
If none of these is the post you’re looking for, let me know and I’ll see what else I can find. Meanwhile, wow! Brava for the Camino planning – I’d feel some anxiety planning on the solo walking, absolutely, but I know a number of women 60s and 70s-ish who have done just that – everyone assures me that there is so much camaraderie, so much support along the way. I sometimes think that one of the problems for those of us who have prided ourselves on travelling independently with no worries when younger is that we need to learn to ask for help without thinking it compromises our independence. We need to let go of our egos, I guess, and that can be hard. Being vulnerable takes so much strength! So very brave of you even to contemplate doing this walk. xo
Thank you for this kind and thoughtful reply. Those were the articles I recalled. I’ve been reading here for years (obv since I remember 2015…). One of the posts you linked to speculated about the age of your readership and I expect that of your long-time readers I may be on the younger side, as I just turned 60.
I expect what’s really going on is part of larger shifts, external and internal, all of which are going to challenge my stoic, push-on, don’t stop to consider how you might feel about any of it, you’ve got this! standard m o. (Turning 60 and retiring are the externals; opening myself to fuller experience through meditation and work with Ignatian Examen practice). In theory, I welcome listening to myself with greater compassion and authenticity, but there will be some disquieting surprises I’m sure. Thank you for the companionship on the way.
That’s interesting, this post has also raised similar questions for me, and I’d find the links interesting, not to say useful as I grapple with similar anxious thoughts.