To Rome with Love in under 36 hours

Buona sera! Did I say that right?

OK, good.

I've been talking about wanting to go to Rome since 2004, when I bought a $20 D.K. guide and slapped it down on my desk. "Ever been to Rome?" I asked my then-boss Eugene.

"No," he said, "but I'd like to."

I was reporting for a London-based company out of their New York SoHo office. My world was opening up as I worked with colleagues from the UK and also, remotely, from Hong Kong and elsewhere. I remember a coworker saying to me, when I told him I didn't have a passport, that "there's a whole world out there!" It took me about a week to hustle out and get my first passport - thank you, Ben.

So that brings us to Rome. It only took me 14 years to realize this dream, but it was well worth the wait. I took an Alitalia flight out of London's Heathrow, purposely sitting at the window. Being daylight, flying into Rome and seeing ruins from the plane stirred the giddy child in me. It had been special enough just passing over the Alps.

I stayed at the comfortable and plush Michelangelo Roma, getting a discount because of my Expedia points. I think I spent maybe sixty euros, but that included a generously sized deluxe room with ample tub, divine toiletries, unlimited tea and coffee, and a hearty (meat and fruit-heavy) breakfast in the downstairs restaurant. Staff was incredibly warm and accommodating, helping me get my non-Italian-speaking self safely onto a bus to the Colosseum. Thank you, Roberto!

I dined at restaurants whose names I will not recall, but whose food still resonates on my lips: lasagne for lunch*; margherita pizza for dinner; fettucine a la Romano for lunch the following day. I was on antibiotics, unfortunately, and had been warned not to drink any wine on this trip - phooey, but it was all still very delicious! E'stato delizioso! If you go to Michelangelo, just make your first left and the place where I had lasagne will do for you what it did for me. It's right across the street from a view of the Vatican, too, which will set your romantic heart aloft as you ponder every childhood image you have of His Holiness. For me it was seeing Pope John Paul in the popemobile in San Francisco in the 1980s.

Just wandering streets in Rome is magical - the cobbled, rustic, burnt orange and cream and rose buildings jutting like movie sets, the Vespas racing round the corner, the cigarette smoke wafting from bus stops as young couples clutch each other for warmth. Yeah, I was in Rome in the rain, it happens.

As much as I loved seeing the Colosseum, I really loved going to Musee Vaticani and seeing Apollo Belvedere, something of a mission for my Eighteenth-Century Studies course at King's College London. It was a hassle getting to it - who knew February tourists were quite so numerous and aggressive? - but as you can see, well worth it. The entire museum is breathtaking, even if I missed some of the highlights due to my busy schedule and myopic plan to mainly see A.B. (Rather like my plan to only eat pasta and pizza: next time I'll try something else, maybe something Anthony Bourdain recommends. Rooms start at around 90 euros/night at Michelangelo and jump up to over 160. Photos from the plane - Roman ruins including Colosseum and Swiss Alps. Dinner plate: Fettucini a la romano from Angelino Ai Fori Dal 1947.* Note: In an earlier version, I didn't state the restaurant where I ate that delicious lasagne, it was: Il Postiglione