Stella
Day 23 Hooray
We woke up to a lovely breakfast made by the ever so loveliest owners. Ok this will take donkey years. We went out to see the colosseum – it was about an hour standing in line… boring
But when we were finally in the colosseum the view was spectacular. In the very old days they used it to kill people.🤭That’s horrible. We saw all the archaeologists and what they dug up. It was very interesting.
Then, when we had seen just about everything, we went and had lunch . I had some salad and Daisy had some carbonara…mmm yum. Then we went and had ice cream
Delicious. Today was awesome .
Daisy
Today was a fun day because it was Monday and we went to the colosseum. We looked at all the old columns. Some of them had fallen apart.The archeologists were digging up and under the stadium you could see where the Medieval gladiators would fight the animals. After that we had lunch
.
Jac
We conquered another Big European thing today- the Colosseum. We also had a European style wait of 1 1/2 hours in line; and it was a constant exercise fobbing off locals asking us if we were interested in skipping the line by joining their tour, with the promise of saving heaps of time and losing heaps of Euros. We could have started up a subsidiary business, selling “You’re not the first person who’s asked but I’d rather wait” t- shirts (which could also be worn when managing multiple marriage proposals!)
Once in, it was an incredible experience and there was so much history to learn about the Colosseum and its uses over the centuries. It has housed gladiator fighting, been turned into a botanical garden, a fortress, and a place of religious devotion. Rome is comprised of layers of construction and architecture, and the process continues in unearthing these many layers. Many beautiful temples were deconstructed so that other monuments and churches could be built using the building materials. What also struck me was the perfectionism in the design and build of Classic Roman architecture, and how that quality delivery and work ethic has diluted and disappeared over the centuries. Nowadays it’s a given for a builder to come back half a dozen times to redo a dodgy bit of work! Thank goodness no one’s wanting Corinthian or Doric columns in their bathroom refit!
Always good to check the KPIs of our wonderful blog to see that we are maintaining our readership. We are liking the stats so far: Week 1 (667 views), Week 2 (956 views) and Week 3 (736 views). With the recent dip, we want to ensure a final week or so spike, therefore my next blog will be solely devoted to Meghan and Harry’s new arrival and why they chose the name Spencer Charles John.
PS The owner of the key ended up being an Uber Eats guy who delivers to the masses in the Vatican City area.
Dan
As much as we are enjoying our trip away, I have a feeling that the girls are in a bit of a mid-holiday slump. Stella had a bout of homesickness yesterday after arriving at our new place, she announced this morning that she was ‘all religioned out’ and then at lunch time she had trouble finding something to order – “I just want a home cooked meal”. This morning, whilst waiting in line at the colosseum, Daisy started talking about home when making conversation with a lovely couple from Slovakia who were standing behind us. Many topics were discussed; where we are from, places we have visited, where to next and our pet budgie Wavy. Daisy asked me to get out my phone and find pictures to share, and talked longingly about her school, home and family. Tonight she told me that she wasn’t in the mood to write her blog…
I guess I’m feeling a little the same. Here we are looking at the most amazing sights and learning so much about the history and culture of this wonderful country and I’m hanging out for a plate of steamed vegies, wondering how everyone is at home and wishing that I could have my own bed and pillow for a night. I’ll need to make sure we all get some good food into us tomorrow and spend a bit more time talking to the troops about how they are feeling, so that we can re-energise and make the most of our last 10 days of adventures!
