Rome, Italy - Part I

April 16, 2015

After traveling 528kms we finally arrived in Rome, Italy! This for me was another childhood dream being realized, however, by the end of my stay it was more along the lines of a nightmare taking place in a beautiful landscape. It took us about 2 hours just to get to our hotel in Roman traffic, and was a miracle that we made it there alive. 

Now I don't like to judge people nor their abilities, but Romans drive like maniacs... Roads are made for 2 lanes of traffic, and why they even bother painting lines on the road is beyond my comprehension, as no one uses them. Most of the time when there are two lanes, you see 4 lanes worth of traffic. In Rome, if you don't own a vehicle, you own a scooter! you will see dozen weaving through traffic in every direction which makes it very stressful to drive. Cars then park one both sides of the road or right on the line in between both lanes if there is no more room to be found. People will parallel park and if they don't fit they simply leave the remainder of the car sticking out. Smart cars can park in which ever direction they wish, vertical or horizontal. Pedestrians (which there are a ton, never seen so many tourist in one place in my life) then run across whenever they please as cars never stop even when it is the pedestrians right away (the only way to cross a street is to force the car to stop and let you pass by). Turning signals... I don't even think they know they exist. I can't even begin to express the relief we felt when arriving to our hotel. Small nugget of advice for those who plan on traveling to Rome... DON'T EVER DRIVE IN ROME! Take a hotel outside of Rome and bus instead.       

Although driving into Rome was a tad traumatizing we were still very eager to start touring the city as we saw so many beautiful things on our way in. Our first stop on the list would be the Coliseum! 

When we arrived there was a 4 hour minimum wait to buy tickets and another 2 hour wait to be let in to the Coliseum. We got really lucky and one of the English tours asked us if we'd like to join last minute for a fraction of the cost. Total wait time for us was 15 minutes. If you plan on visiting the Coliseum or any historical building in Rome buy your tickets online, you'll get to skip the lines and it is way cheaper.   

The inside of the Coliseum was exactly as expected, maybe a tad less glamorous as so much has been destroyed (the building is currently being revitalized, you can see both the new and original materials). 

The Coliseum has been demolished but also suffered much damage due to earthquakes. When the building was constructed this was not taken into account. The gladiators would enter through the large archway in the front, and from the sides large animals such as elephants would enter. In the original flooring were trapped doors where animals such as lions would enter the Coliseum. The circular maze is where the servants would work and at each end is where the lions would be caged until battle time. High above is where the men would sit and the ladies would stand. 

The Coliseum was a place for business dealings. while the men watched the battles, their women would go seal their dealings. There is a specific location in the Coliseum called the "Fornicata" which translates to fornication (easy enough to understand what it was used for). One particular timbit of information we acquired that I found fascinating was that originally people came to the Coliseum to see the extraordinary animals not so much the fights. The Coliseum was truly a combination of what we consider today a sports stadium, a zoo and a trading centre. 

Next up was the Roman Forum, a place where the people of Rome reunited to trade goods and services, or to conduct economical and political business. Today the site is mostly ruins, but is being reconstructed. 

This large building was opened in 1925 and is approximately 70 meters high. It was constructed as a commemorative to Victor-Emmanuel II and serves as a museum today dedicated to art, science, religion and rights of early Italian culture.

The sun would soon begin to set, and the beauty of Rome would simply multiply. During the day you see a lot of cranes, road blocking, wires and all the typical construction site gibberish, but at night it is so dark that these elements hide in the shadows even though they are in plain view. We saw many of the same building on our way back to our hotel that we had visited earlier in the day, but they were 10x more elegant and awe worthy. As the sun begins to set the people diminish, however, there are still more people wandering at night than there are during the day in many cities.

This building is known as the Trajan Forum and was the last of the Imperial fora to be constructed in ancient Rome. During the day this building doesn't look like much due to all the construction surrounding it, but at night, the lights illuminate it just perfectly!

Here are the surrounding columns, which have such beautiful architecture embossed upon them and once again the lighting adds a touch of elegance. I took a course in Roman and Greek Architecture during my last semester of school and I must say, although I did not enjoy the course, I learned a lot and it was very cool to be able to identify so many of the things I learned.

The merchandise sellers never seem to sleep! The above photo was taken around 10pm at night, and they were still hard at work harassing traveller to buy their stuff! Every corner you turn to in Rome someone is trying to sell you something. One thing I can say is the next merchant seller that offers me a selfie stick is going to have a sore bum!

We walked down a quiet ally while attempting to make it back to our hotel and found beautiful lit streets with amazing restaurants all lit by candle light.  My photo taking skills were slowly diminishing as I felt very ill. Something I ate earlier in the evening for dinner did not sit well and with 1.5 hours left to walk before arriving to our hotel it was starting to be quite a challenge.

There were so many amazing monuments to take in with captivating stories and years of history attached. I have always been a huge fanatic of Roman and Greek history that I could not be happier to be exploring the city of Rome! Rome, however, will now be forever changed and always have a piece of Sandra! After walking for about 1.5 hours of feeling ill I was brought to my knees with massive pains and was of course sick all over the side of a corner building in Rome.

I knew after being ill that there was something going on with me that went far beyond feeling ill from food. We spotted this beautiful church so we made our way inside, sat had some water and took a breather. There are so many beautiful churches in Rome and they are actually used unlike most churches across Europe that we saw. Each one we entered had enough people to conduct a mass which was pretty cool to see.

This above photo is simply another beautiful street we wandered through (lost) while I desperately hoped we would just arrive to our hotel! By this point I had been sick multiple times and now was having problems breathing and experiencing massive pains. 

This ladies and gentlemen is the last picture I took Thursday night, and is the last moment of joy/city life I enjoyed that evening. We were about 10 mins from our hotel and everything went down hill and well I'm lucky to be alive! 

When we arrived at our hotel I striped down my clothing and jumped directly in a freezing shower! All along I had been having an allergic reaction, without knowing (as this never happened to me before). My ears swelled up super thick, my eye lids swelled so big they were almost shut, my lips swelled so bad that they cracked and bled. My entire body was on fire and bubbling. I looked down at my arms and legs, stomach and backside and red rashes covered me everywhere. The scary thing was they were not just rashes... they were boiling my skin and were moving. My hands swelled so bad that the ring on my right hand that is excessively loose had to be removed as it cut my finger, and my shoes could barely be removed. My air way had almost closed and my heart rate was around 88/100 (suppose to be around 60). My blood pressure crashed and out the lights began to go. Fair enough to say the experience was a tad traumatizing (especially when all the doctors and people helping you only speak Italian), I never want to see or hear an ambulance again, nor do I want to sit in a hospital bed. I was given some heavy drugs and a needle in the bum! The above photo was taken about 3 hours after the meds started to kick in and I still look pretty terrible!

This blog entry is obviously very behind, but given the circumstances I think it makes sense. Almost dying in Rome was quite an experience, one I hope to never experience again! Thank you for everyone who checked in to see how I was doing. I'm eager to hug you all again!

- San