A Last Minute Trip to Rome

Biographical article about travelling to Rome as a student.

     Generally speaking, travel beyond your own country whether it be for work or a holiday, business or pleasure is well planned and thought out, weeks if not months in advance. This ensures that you have all arrangements sorted out, all scheduling issues solved and enough spending money to allow yourself to complete your work and/or relax in the sun and/or snow. It is not something planned on a whim, without much thought other than ‘why not.’ This does not mean it never happens.

     When one of your friends suddenly proposes a trip to Europe a week before your both due to start back at university, I imagine most would decline in a calm and respectful manner such as ‘No! I have to prepare for exams.’ As was the case with everyone my friend asked before me.

     When I replied with (as you might guess) ‘why not’ we set to work with the difficult task of deciding where to go: We didn’t have a lot of time so it had to be somewhere with a lot to see within walking distance of the hotel. We didn’t have a lot of money so it had to be somewhere cheap and we didn’t have a lot of experience travelling in foreign countries so it had to be somewhere we could easily find our way around. In the end, we decided all that research would take too long. So I devised the fairly brilliant solution of searching a list of holiday destinations in Europe on google and asking my friend to pick a number between one and ten. Thus we ended up going to a city that was impossible to find your way in, a capital and therefore very expensive and somewhere with far too much to see in the two days we were there. Rome. And I can say it was the best impulse decision I have made in my life.

     After landing at Ciampino airport on the outskirts of the city, on time and in the right plane �" which in of itself was a small miracle considering we thought we were flying out of Luton when in actual fact it was Stanstead (two airports that are 45 minutes away from each other). We made our way to the bus that would take us into the centre of Rome. After a brief period of waiting and a very confused conversation with an Italian bus attendant the two of us along with about 30 other holiday goers piled into this bus. Within ten seconds I realised an intrinsic difference between our two cultures. If a pedestrian stumbled onto the road in England, we would stop the car and honk the horn whilst muttering under our breath. In Rome, they apparently just keep driving until either the pedestrian gets out of the way or is crushed under two tonnes of steel and one very grumpy bus driver.

     The journey into Rome was pleasant enough, apart from the stream of pot holes and the apocalyptic snoring from my friend who had somehow fallen asleep almost as soon as sitting down. Although, this did not bother me for long as the sound of his snoring was immediately overshadowed by the pure scale of Rome. Every building I could see from that cramped bus window was almost unbelievably beautiful, even small supermarkets seemed to be carved into crafted stonework. This was equally true of our hotel.

     Now, to be honest, the hotel we had chosen was based purely on practicality rather than comfort, so we were happy to be surprised that a grand staircase and exquisite marble flooring welcomed us when we entered. This happiness didn’t last long however as we soon learned that our hotel was only the top floor and that the staircase was so grand that it made the moving staircases from Harry Potter look like a small stepladder that was missing two steps. Despite this unexpected and certainly unintended exercise we reached our goal, unpacked and walked out of the hotel ready to experience everything Rome had to offer.

     As you can imagine, being in Rome, our most anticipated destination was the Colosseum. As anybody who has been to Rome can tell you, it is incredible. By far the most breathtaking structure I have ever seen �" which is epically impressive considering there is only one fifth of it left. What these people may leave out is that because everyone can tell you about the Colosseum it means EVERY one visits it. This fact led me to learn one very important thing about this particular ancient wonder of the world, it takes about an hour of waiting just to get the ticket you need to get into the queue for the Colosseum.

     Despite this wait as well as the extra eighteen euros we had to pay to get in with a tour, the bitterness which had collected in my stomach -- like the suspiciously cheap pizza we had eaten in one of the many Irish pubs dotted around the city �" was washed away just by seeing the inside of the Colosseum with my own eyes. Even with the hundreds of tourists taking photos and the three separate gift shops, being able to touchstone which had endured for nearly 2000 years and see sights from the top of the Colosseum which the Roman people would have seen was nothing short of a privilege.

     Not every holiday needs to be about relaxing or business. Sometimes a trip, even one as impulsive and poorly planned as this one, can teach you something you would have never have learned if you made the ‘wiser’ choice. From Italian driving etiquette to living history and everything in-between (which in our case was mostly getting lost). I learned a lot during the short time I was in Rome, but perhaps the most important are that it is almost always the last minute decisions, the times where you say to yourself ‘why not’ which stay with you for a lifetime.

Author's Note

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Reviews

[Gee]

Enjoyed the read Alex. Was in Rome February, stunning city even if they rip the arse out of you for everything. A surprise, architecturally, around every corner.