A Roman Holiday

There are lots of Kiaras in Italy – 99,670 of them in fact. Which is why we were incredibly lucky to find ours, on a day when we’d blown two weeks’ travel budget on a Vatican tour. After isolating in the UK for eight weeks during that country’s initial hard lockdown we chose the ‘everything included’ option. Enter Kiara, our proud Italian tour guide, Roman born and bred, who within seconds had christened Cate, our daughter, Catarina.

Bernini’s colonnades arched out across an almost deserted St Peter’s Square like two great arms yearning to comfort the people of Italy, who’d been separated for too long. Only the ‘nobles of the streets’, the rough sleepers of Rome, were here now, come for a hot shower. A few steps away Palazzo Migliori, the ‘palace of the poor,’ offered them shelter, food and some dignity. It was a poignant scene at