‘Magnumificent’ Day

Jac

We had some great adventures on our last day in Rome. We continued our Colosseum “extras” tour, visiting the Roman Forum, including more temples, one of which still had a centuries old working key to the brass door. We also saw some beautiful gardens in the forum which, back in the day, must have been such a beautiful place to relax and take in a rooftop view of Rome. We saw the Trevi Fountain in all its splendour, sat on the Spanish steps, where Stella wrote a song, and also visited the Pantheon.

However, one of the highlights of the day, which had been crescendo-ing from Venice to Florence to Rome, was a surprise visit to the Magnum “build your own calorific masterpiece” in the style and extravagance of the Classic masters. We had seen the Magnum speciality shops elsewhere, but it was never quite the right time to indulge- either we had already had our gelato fix for the day or it was too close to breakfast. So I promised the girls that if we came cross a Magnum shop in Rome, then it was all on.

As the photos show, in the mold of build-your-own-teddy or build-your-own-burger, it was a simple 5-step approach to build-your-own-decadence-on-a-stick:

• Step 1 Choose vanilla or chocolate ice cream
• Step 2 Choose dark, milk or white chocolate and then dip to double coat the ice cream
• Step 3 Choose and roll into your pleasure bits (eg popping candy, brownie pieces, crushed pistachio, chocolate caramel buds, honeycomb crunchies etc )
• Step 4 Drizzle with another chocolate coating
• Step 5 Place Magnum in its box and present for eating
  

All that was left to do was to eat without breathing or talking, wipe our chocolatey mouths and sticky fingers, and think about how many hours of exercise for the burn off!

As we leave Rome, it occurred to me that when the girls return in future years and tread their own travel path, there will be so much more to see and in different ways, as new things are being discovered and Rome is ever evolving. Like driver-less cars, there may also be people-less queues!

Stella

Today we went to the colosseum again, but this time we didn’t go up it we went to see the sites there – cool  We went in a garden called the secret garden. We went up a whole lot of stairs and when we were finally at the top we looked at the amazing  sites. The tallest thing we saw was the great big temple. We weren’t allowed in but it sill was beautiful.

Then we went to the steps of Spain. Mum’s friend wrote a song on the Spanish Steps so I did too. Then we filled up our drink bottles and set off home. Today was fun .

Daisy

Today we got up and had breakfast. Oh yummy! After that we got dressed and had a lovely walk that took a long time – it was almost lunch time. We went to this lovely fountain called the Trevi fountain ! It was really cool and fun – there were loads of people there!

After that we went and had lunch I had a salad with salmon! After that we got a surprise. Mum got us Make a Magnum! I chose a chocolate magnum with white chocolate, fudge caramel and soft coconut 🥥. We were really full after that!

Today was excellent!

Dan

Energy levels were up today and we conquered everything that we set out to do, and more! We walked over 21,500 steps (for Stella that’s around 25,000) / approximately 16km, which was just as well given the Magnum experience we all indulged in!

Generally, I have been surprised at how little I remember of our previous trip here: the forum seemed much bigger, the Trevi fountain much fancier and the Spanish Steps… well I can’t remember them from the last visit at all!  I was also pleasantly surprised that, once we had our bearings according to monuments already visited, the city centre was very easy to navigate. We wandered in and out of ‘Vias’ and ‘Piazzas’ with confidence that we were heading in the right direction and it took very little time to go between our identified sites of interest!

My highlight today was the Pantheon.  As the towering structure came into view, Daisy exclaimed: “Well that’s impressive!”  We spent time, both outside with the frisbee and inside with the hordes, and took it in turns to watch video footage outlining the historical developments of the monument over the centuries. Daisy was most intrigued in learning about fellow artist Raphael. She quickly went and found where his ‘bones and ashes’ were located and told me all about the sunlight coming through the open dome, with the last beams falling on his resting place at the end of each day.  Stella was fascinated with the open roof and how, when it rains, the water just soaks into the floor below the circular opening and goes away.  It was a wonderful ending to a magnificent last day in the Italian capital!