Today Candice and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary! I have to admit that Rome is a pretty wonderful place to celebrate anything, but it seems especially appropriate for an anniversary.

When Candice and I were married in 1982, I was a poor graduate student in Atlanta who found time during my spring break to get married and take a honeymoon trip to Prospect Hill – a 1732 farmhouse bed & breakfast outside Charlottesville. Our first anniversary was actually celebrated back at Prospect Hill, as we were there while finding housing before our 1983 move to Staunton in the nearby Shenandoah Valley. For the first decade of our life together, we would return to the inn for “major” anniversaries – such as the 5th and 10th.

Anniversaries changed as the twins arrived, and when they were five we moved to Washington.  During those years we were lucky to be able to find a baby sitter and go out for a dinner.  We did return to Prospect Hill for our 20th, thanks to our good friends Margaret and Oakley Pearson, who watched Claire and Andrew for the weekend.  For our 25th, we found an inn outside Washington for a dinner.  We laugh at the picture from that time (which I haven’t included here!), as it is clear we had teenage twins!  (No other explanation required, but you can use your imagination.)

Things started getting interesting with our 30th, which came about three weeks after hip replacement surgery.  Needless to say, we didn’t do anything exceptional that year (except survive).  Our first overseas anniversary was our 32nd – when we were in Copenhagen visiting Andrew during his semester abroad.  And then last year, we shifted a planned 60th birthday dinner for me at Fiola restaurant (one of DC’s best) to an anniversary dinner after my run-in with the ambulance.

Perhaps the Italian food at Fiola got us in the mood, or perhaps we decided Copenhagen was such a great idea, why not do Rome?!  So we find ourselves here in the Eternal City, celebrating 34 wonderful years together.

A colleague of mine, Tabitha Almquist, suggested Ditirambo as a great restaurant to try during our stay in Rome. We went this evening and had a terrific meal.  We began with a bottle of Cabernet and the appetizer: Ditiramo’s tris (zucchini flower with ricotta cheese, Piemonte’s beef tartare with black truffle and Casteimagno cheese, and smoked duck breast with melon and toasted almonds).  Oh my – what a start!  For pasta, we split a fettuccine with mushrooms and quail, followed by a pork loin that fell off the bone.  We wrapped it up with a “modern twist on the cannoli.”  It was a memorable meal.

Can’t wait to see what next year will bring (in terms of our celebration, the meal, and – oh yes – life!)

Happy anniversary, my love.

More to come…

DJB

Image: Celebrating our 34th wedding anniversary at Ditirambo in Rome