#186 Roman holiday
It’s bizarre to feel happy twice at the same place with such tragedy in between. Nineteen years minus thirty-six days ago, I felt happy here too.
I asked the boys a few months ago where they wanted to go this week. Trevor immediately said Italy and Greece. I offered three days in Rome. He agreed. I could have picked anywhere in this country, but I didn’t hesitate.
In May 2005, Janne and I took our first trip together. We went to Florence, Rome and Rimini in a shoestring budget. We stopped by Rome and stayed in a camper park which undoubtedly was the worst sleeping place we stayed in. However, we made the best of our days in this city.
I’ve always loved history. The fact that we were standing on a place that had been a city for at least 2700 years (and likely longer) made a mark on me. A highlight of the trip Janne and I made was to go to the Colosseum and the archaeological area around the Palatine Hill. There were too many things to be excited about here: language, fonts, archaeology, stories.
Yesterday, our first walk was around the Colosseum and the archaeological area. Trevor loves history too. He said that those arches are much bigger than he thought. Daniel had fun feeding pigeons and reading Roman numerals. They are clearly my children and this makes me happy.
I explained to them about how these buildings have stood here for two thousand years. They asked about that ancient language, and I say that Latin is where Spanish came from. I didn’t want to bore them telling them about concrete as, even today, it is not exactly known how Romans made it. Janne would make a sleepy face when I narrated to her the book about the history of concrete (yes, for real).
There is this spot that I had to go to. I stood there so Janne could make a photo of me (that photo is lost). It was a very hot day in May. It was the first time we realized that we were similar for traveling. We didn’t like to stress and took everything easy. We disliked queues and loved just sitting to chat and have a glass of wine. She made me happy.
They say all roads lead to Rome. Just like that, all my memories always lead to Janne. And I am grateful for feeling happy twice.
