On tour to Rome!

It’s 4am in the morning, the birds are chirping, and the alarm you set last night after having a few beers has begun ringing. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift from god, as you recalled in your head after wandering about yesterday’s hangover. Time is up to get out of bed and stop wasting another minute as you have a flight to catch to Rome. The alarm set at 4am was for the reason that on your last visit, you missed your flight and failed to meet your parents. But now, the day has come, the day you truly dreamt of, going to Rome; not just Rome but the place where battle took place, the very place where Titus Caesar, Commodus and Hadrian fought in rough battles and entertained the crowd; The Colosseum. Everything you knew about was inspired after reading ‘The Roman Colosseum’ by Elizabeth Mann.

The flight is at 7:30 am, which gives you 2 hours to prepare yourself and get ready. After getting out of shower, mom calls you to ensure that you’re on time and ready. After you hang up the phone, Instagram starts popping up and you open the app and start scrolling for 10-15 minutes. ‘Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes’ you say to yourself silently. You start giggling at yourself, then place your palm on your face with that same giggle and tell yourself “Ok enough, I have to reach there on time, no excuses”

The airport awaits, and you begin arguing with staff about your luggage weight as it comes to your notice that the bags are OVERWEIGHT. “Not another trouble for god sake!” The staff demands you to open your luggage but you refuse at first since you do not want to open it in front of them, maybe a sign of shyness? You don’t want to reveal your items inside as they might have a weird impression about you. Eventually you decide to open as time is ticking and your flight is mysteriously staring at your face. The personnel come across your uncanny photographs as your glare away from their sight as they start to chuckle. The next thing you’d know, you had to discard some items which left you frustrated. The majority of items that you got rid of included your American foods which you took in case Italian food didn’t suit well. The absurd pictures of you that you thought you’d frame were also sent back home through an acquaintance. Finally you stepped into the plane and rested your neck on the seat showing a sign of relief. The flight takes off and you pray to god your flight lands safely. You also pray that you don’t have any further issues which previously occurred as you joke to yourself. You take out the book out of the mini backpack and start reading about the beauty of the Colosseum. In fact this is your third time reading and now you are off to your destination. From book to movie you felt in your heart, realizing how authors’ books get transferred in the form of a movie in modern time, and now that you’ve read this book, you are going to make a movie out of yourself by actually feeling the experience of visiting the Colosseum.   

“Cabin crew, please take your seats for landing” you wake up as soon as the flight attendant announces the landing. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have just been cleared to land at the Naples International Airport” you exit the plane with a fat smile on your face and cheeks puffed out. Now you make an exit to the airport and enter the cab as you head towards your hotel. A man greets you whilst you're checking in which makes you feel weird and awkward since who welcomes their customer inside their own room, but it was an experience you never witness as you are now in Italy. “Camera check…, shades check, my new Tissot watch also check!” You head to sleep early, however, after reading the book uncomfortably under your blanket.

The sunrises, you rise and day kicks in. Out you go like a bird released from a cage, heading towards freedom of destination. You enter the road trip bus along with several strangers just as curious as you, taking pictures, talking about the monument, the history and more. A few miles ahead, and the vast structure appears in front of your inflated eyes. You release a WOW from your mouth, place your hands on your head as a sign of ‘I can’t believe this’

Now it is only a few meters away as you exit the bus and move towards the line where you’ll enter after the approval of the ticket. Minutes turned into hours due to the massive line ahead of you but you stayed still and consumed the heat in today’s weather. Finally, there are only two people in front of you. As you make a step forward and hand your ticket to the security, you can see his face very disturbed and uncertain. He called his assistants and had a little chat about my ticket.

Curious as you are, you spoke up and asked “Is there any problem sir?”  

“Yes sir, we have identified this ticket as a copy. Do you have the original with you?”

“What! This is the original” you exclaimed but within you a doubt of fear arose which made you continue saying “…right?”

“Unfortunately no sir. We need the original version of the ticket” the security mentions.

Your mind reverts back one day before the flight. What were you doing? Think! Yes, you were drunk that night. Attention to details. You kept knocking on the door of your memory lane. And then you realize that you’ve made several copies of the ticket from the original version. You could barely notice which one is the original and which is the copy that night. The amount of copies was so large that you placed the copy version in your bag and left the original back at home.       

The security and the staff made you leave the area as they wouldn’t allow you without the original version. Your heart felt you like it would no longer beat out of this surprise. This bad surprise which you weren’t expecting. Out of every possible issue that the universe has built, this one was upon you? Your mind wanders off thinking why did this have to happen. “If a problem were to occur, I would rather go in and get a heart attack and die but I just wanted to get inside of the Colosseum” you cried. The fact that you thought about saying that showed how desperate you are to enter the venue. You would rather die inside the Colosseum than not get a chance to enter but live. This has really gotten into you.

You re-enter the hotel with a heavy soul and weak mind. Nobody to speak to, so you phoned our mum and spoke to her the whole night and explained to her what hell happened today. As you continue to speak to your lovely mum, you realize that you miss your parents. All these time you’ve looked to have fun and dreamt about visiting the Colosseum and when you visited it you could enter because of the tickets. The last time you were supposed to stop by your folks, you missed the flight, it was a year ago from now and you didn’t even bother booking the next flight. You thought to yourself, if truth be told, was this all important to you; the trip. As it happens your mum even called you a couple of times to ensure if you were happy and ready to go to Rome. The Colosseum required a ticket to enter but your parents’ house is always open to all, especially you. There is no ticket to be accepted at your mum and dad house right? She cared about you and now it's your turn to return the favor. You mused all of this after you ended the call with mum, and made a decision that you will visit them this weekend.

Well you are in Italy for now, so why not order a pizza. At least it'll add sugar to the tea which is mistakenly filled with salt. Mama Mia!