Sunday 16 October 2016

Arreviderci Roma



We had a lot of fun yesterday, our last day in Rome together. Our first stop was at the office in the terminal to purchase tickets to the airport for today. The gentleman who was selling asked Billie’s age: 12, I said. Children under 12 have a reduced fare, he told us. She just became 11, I rejoined. OK, said he and gave us the two fares for only 14 euros, about half of what I had expected to pay. Feeling suddenly richer with our left over 45 euros, we headed down Via Corso to check out the Colosseum. On the way we were tempted by a gelato store and enjoyed some quite sumptuous ice cream on a bench parked in front to of the shop. One of the many African fellows who move about the continent making a living by selling this or that, stopped by, saying what a nice-looking, happy family we were. He introduced himself and said that he was from Kenya. He was also a nice-looking, happy sort of guy. He gave the response that we always get when we have said that we are from Canada – a look of appreciation and – “a very nice country.” We agreed. He had two small braided bracelets that he wanted to give us. Knowing that he likely would want money for these, I let him know that we had next to none. He didn’t seem to care. He gave them to us anyway, shook hands while we wished each other well and was off cheerfully down the street. A lovely, open-faced fellow.

Fortified by our gelato we continued on our way to the relatively close Colosseum, joining the masses encircling its impressive girth. Just as in other spots, the entrance and procedures had changed since I was last in Rome. Rather than entering at the second level, we were taken immediately into the ground area of the building. The areas where animals and gladiators had been kept awaiting their turn for combat were all open to us. We had already heard in our hop-on, hop-off commentary of previous days that only 2% of the gladiators sent for combat survived. The other point of interest was that Christians were not in fact sacrificed at the Colosseum though they were martyred in other places in Rome. Billie really enjoyed the whole Colosseum experience. I managed to get a couple of photos of her in various locations. We sat for awhile on one of the interior steps and chatted about the place and its significance.

I had some lunch after we emerged from the building and we headed for home back up Via Corso in the lovely sunshine and cool breezes. We went out again quite a bit later to get some food for Billie and some last minute groceries. I planned on staying up to follow the Blue Jays second game against Cleveland which stated at 10 PM our time. The games have been so tight, even though the Jays lost both, neither has been a rout. I’ll be back in Toronto to see the rest of the series – hooray. We did stay up – the game finished at about 1:30 AM our time and it is now 9 AM. We’ll leave in a half hour for the train to the airport and thence on our way to London; two hours later on to Toronto.

Billie’s flight to Vancouver leaves at 8 AM tomorrow so it will be a hustle to get her up and out there in the morning. She’s been a great companion. We’ve had a lot of fun together. One of the joys of travelling with a kid is that other than in the moments when you must be firm about health or safety, you can just be a kid with them and enjoy yourself all over again. Besides, you don’t ever have to explain to them why you like to have so much gelato.

Thanks for enjoying our little tour of three of Europe’s hot spots with us. All the best.


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