April 24/19 - Rome

On our way to Rome, our tour guide talked about family life in Italy, besides describing some of the things we would see as we got closer to the city. Typically a son would live with his parents until about age 40, by which time he would have saved (or been given by his folks) most of the down payment for a small apartment. Then he would marry and have his own family. The grandparents provide free babysitting, as well as giving most of their savings to their kids and grandkids. She dispelled a lot of myths about what, when and how they eat. Lunch is at 1 pm when school is finished, and dinner is at 8 pm, even in restaurants. Meals are home cooked and they don’t eat prepared foods. Italians would never eat a whole plate of pasta for their only dinner. Instead they might start with a small plate of pasta, and then two other courses.

We stopped to see St. Paul’s outside the walls of Rome. Inside are pictures of over 200 popes. There’s only 6 blank spots, and the Catholics believe that once all of those spots have been filled, then it will be the end of the world.

Also on the tour we saw some of the Colosseum from the outside, as well as the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

After arriving at our hotel we had lunch, and Michael was thrilled to be able to have a gluten free pizza! He says they’re much better than the ones he usually has at home. Best Western even has a gluten free breakfast menu!

At the Colosseum it was very crowded, and even though we had Skip-the-Line tickets, it still took us about an hour to get in and clear security. They only let 3,000 people in at a time, and approximately 22,000 enter every day! The Colosseum was a stadium where people used to fight each other, and condemned prisoners were fed to the lions and alligators. Some of the stones from the structure have been stolen, as it has fallen into disrepair. It’s hard to image how something this large could have been built 2,000 years ago. We didn’t take a tour, as I had enough trouble walking as it was, and
couldn’t have stood that long.

Upon leaving we also briefly visited the Roman Forum. This was the centre of daily life in Rome. One building has very tall columns, and some of the buildings resemble the Colosseum in style.

I was exhausted at the end of the afternoon. We couldn’t have managed the wheelchair, and so I had to walk very slowly and sit down frequently, thanks to having spinal stenosis. But I still did it, and that’s all that matters. Tomorrow we’ll take the wheelchair as we have much more distance to cover.