After an extremely early morning in Paris I departed the city of love to head to Rome where I get to meet with my mama. I have been patiently awaiting this part of my trip for weeks and could not wait for it to begin.
My arrival went down without a hitch and I made it to the hotel with time to spare to catch a quick cat nap and freshen up in our cute Romanesque hotel before the expected arrival of my mom. Unfortunately her arrival didnt Go as planned- with a delayed flight out of Calgary by over 3 hours she missed her connection to Rome. This meant another 4 hours in the Frankfurt airport before another connecting flight was arranged for her. She finally arrived in the early morning around 1:30am. I gave her the biggest hug ever and didnt want to let her go. I was so incredibly happy to see her. We talked for a solid hour and could have talked all night but with only one full day in the Eternal City we needed to make the most of it the following day and needed to get some sleep.
First of all I need to talk about the view from our room. We were lucky enough to be placed on the 6th floor and we could see for miles. Our view consisted of rooftop gardens of nearby apartments, St. Peter's Basilica in the distance and endless historical buildings with our garden terrace below. Then what a breakfast spread we got!! Holy there was so much food, with delicious coffee, the sweetest watermelon (which is saying something after I just spent 4 months in Asia- this watermelon was better), croissants, yogurt, cereals- so much deliciousness!! We were spoiled right off the bat, we can only hope our other B&Bs are as amazing as our first.
With only one full day in Rome, which was also my moms birthday, we decided to have a relaxed day but also visit some historical sites. Before departing we decided to take a coffee up to our room to finish gathering our stuff for the day. We weren't sure if we were allowed to do this but did it anyway- then we got stuck in the elevator! Haha so maybe we weren't supposed to take our coffee to go and karma stepped in :P we were only stuck for maybe 5 minutes and we found it quite humorous, though if we had been stuck for longer you could get quite claustrophobic in such a small space- it was heating up fast in there!
So after our adventurous morning with our gourmet breakfast and elevator mishaps we set off for our first historical visit- the Colossem. What an incredible building. This stadium was build in only 8 years with the labour of 40,000 slaves and at one point was completely covered in marble. It would have looked so majestic and beautiful in its time covered in marble. During the time that Rome was becoming Christianized the Church ordered a "recycling" program where the marble was stripped from the building, crushed and made into cement to build and construct churches throughout the city. Clearly that's a good use of marble, don't you think?
The Colosseum was a source of free entertainment for the Roman people. Entertainment consisted epic battles between gladiators or slaves and ferocious animals such as tigers and lions. The arena housed anywhere between 50,000-75,000 spectators who would come cheer on their favourite gladiator and watch him fight to his death. The arena floor was wooden and covered in sand- all the better to soak up the pools of blood. Ick!
After our quick tour of the Colossem we had a guided tour through Palatino Hill where Rome is said to be founded. Here is where many kings and emperors built their palaces. Did you know back in Roman times an average meal would take the royal class 6-8 hours to conclude a meal?! They would lie in their beds and eat until they were so full they were almost bursting. At this point they would get up, go to the corner of the room and purge everything from their body before returning to their beds to stuff their faces with food once again. This would be repeated 3-4 times each meal- today we would classify this as an eating disorder, but then it was symbolic of power and wealth. Crazy right?!
After this we walked through the Roman Forum- a huge area spanning a large portion of the city centre. This area was used as a market place, a religious hot spot and where many many importance political decisions were made influencing not only theRoman empire but the history of many parts of the world. It was a pretty significant spot in history. History buffs would love it!
Of course we had to enjoy some gelato on our first day in Italy- mmmm mmmmm good! Then On our way back to the hotel we grabbed a couple half litres of wine to enjoy in our room and put our feet up before the big birthday dinner. This dinner was D-licious!! :) we ate at a small place called Crispi 19 where we enjoyed another half litre of wine each- we're in Italy we couldn't resist- plus the waiter suggested it!
Needless to say we had a wicked first day in Italy! We are on our first train (which was supposed to leave 40min ago...) and are heading to the Amalfi coast where we will begin our hiking days! We both loved Rome and the feel of this city and of course the fresh water fountains found at every turn on the streets. This was a Pretty wicked aspect of the city, especially for me coming from Asia where water must always come in a bottle. Can't wait for more Italian times to come with my mama :):)
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