Back

Steepest decent | Day 94 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Apr 4, 2023· 2 minutes

We are in Rome over Easter to spend time with my sister's family. It is a perfect way to maintain strong family bonds. My sister very often allocates her vacations to spend with us, so we accumulate a lot of wonderful adventures together and get to see each other relatively frequently in the context of the nomad lifestyle of my core family.

Easter in Rome is not optimal for peace and quiet. We knew this, and it is okay. We spend a lot of time with people who are on vacation. This means more restaurants, landmarks, ice cream, and mass tourism than we would have chosen on our own. It is all okay. The priority is always to thrive, and to do so; we need our family relations and our friendships to blossom. We cherish friends and family coming and meeting us, and spending their valuable vacations with our family.

On our second day in Rome, firstly we walked to the Spanish Stairs. We took the photos, walked to the top, read the Wiki page, and visited the church.

On the way, we enjoyed a talented violinist in the street and a sculpture that was hard to understand but on our Rome list.

Then we walked to the Trevi Fountain, only to enjoy the concentration of tourists increasing. The fountain is beautiful. Worth it. But it felt crazy.

At this point, my brother-in-law inserted the concept of steepest descent, as we decided to walk the steepest descent of tourist concentration.

Lovely pause at an almost empty piazza did some parkour, and talked in the sun. Next up is gelato, the Colosseum, and Forum Romano.

Epic Rome in all of its former glory, shining through what is still standing.

Walking, talking, listening to street music, taking pictures, and playing games.

Then the rain came, we had coffee and got wet walking back.

Sometimes I feel like a sheep when in big crowds of tourists. Yet at the same time, I am happy for all the other people who get to visit epic places and enjoy the cultural history or the wonders of nature as long as I can find the steepest decent fast when I need it.

steepest-decen3

Love and light

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

# 94 of my 2023 writing challenge - Read them all here

Unschooling and Parent consulting, conversations, blogposts, and podcasts on family life and learning

Hi, I'm Cecilie Conrad. I'm a trained psychologist, mother of four, radical unschooler and full-time traveller. I have lived with unschooling for over a decade and help other families find their own path – whether it is about homeschooling, unschooling, or the bigger question of how you want to live as a family.

I offer guidance, conversations and talks. I call my work grandmothering – not coaching in the traditional sense, but presence, professional insight and concrete help navigating motherhood and finding your way home to your own values.

Am I the right person to help you? You can book a free discovery call, and we'll talk and figure it out.

Listen to my podcasts

I share my knowledge and curiosity about family life and learning in my two podcasts.

Read my latest blogposts

I am not afraid. I am insecure about how to find my way in this context, how to find solid information in most here-and-now contexts, and how to bala…Read more
The story goes (the one I know) that the Huichol people, who make this sort of art, took the peyote juice to enter a state of transcendence in order …Read more
Everything can be an adventure, even this. For us Europeans, a REAL gated community with a guard, actually several guards, is seriously exotic. We ha…Read more
It is truly overwhelming how fast San Miguel de Allende is unfolding for us. One of the game-changing things is that there is not much ego energy. It…Read more
It was a lovely morning after the game-changing party, convincing us we had finally found the place with the right vibe and the right people to stay …Read more
This was the final drop: We are now convinced San Miguel de Allende is the right place for us to have our winter breaks and find our new community an…Read more
Walking the dogs in the morning was a true pleasure on December first. Hundreds of red flowers called Christmas roses in Danish lined the plaza in fr…Read more
We can not live on tortillas alone. We need art. We need a lot of art. Something to choose from, something to browse through, something to contrast w…Read more
On the second day in SMA, we just took it in. There is not much to say. We worked. We studied. We shared meals. We walked the streets. We enjoyed it …Read more