by
Ryan Clement
On this day many years ago, I was in Rome.
My soulmate at the time, Sue, and I went over to Rome for the Easter period. Our hotel was in walking distance of the Colosseum. It’s a memory that remains with me and shall forever. We had this lovely walk down and up as we approached the iconic symbol of imperial Rome.
We arrived early on Good Friday and left late on Easter Monday. After arriving at our hotel, we had something to eat and then went for a leisurely walk. As we approached the Colosseum we saw a congregation of people as far as the eye could see, literally. Being tourists and not wanting to miss out, we somehow managed to weave our way through to as far as we could get, which, to be honest, wasn’t very far! OMG! We could see Pope John Paul II, which got the holiday off to an unexpected start.
There is a second part to this blog, which I shall pen later, but as a spoiler, it involves my son. I told him this story about going to Rome etc., so he asked to see some pictures. I warned him of the ‘poor’ quality of some pictures due to my camera at the time and that I was too far to get clearer pictures of His Holiness; not to mention it was dark! When he viewed them, they were met with both excitement and a noticeable, but subtle hint of horror 😮 I had to explain to him how things were done back in the day, pre-digital.
He looked confused. 😳 I might as well have been explaining in another language what a vinyl record (single or LP) was (45 or 33⅓ RPM), what were cassettes (TDK or BASF or, having a headache to decide whether to buy a C60, C90 or, if brave enough, C120!) or what a VHS was. But I shall leave that there for, like I said, a later blog.
Back to Rome. It was great and one of my favourite holidays at the time. I recall walking around on Easter Sunday and on another day, simply chilling on the Spanish Steps.
Recently, I had a couple, very dear to me, run the Rome Marathon, which I watched in part on tv in the UK. It brought back many fond memories of a great time in the Eternal City, as the runners ran past places I had visited all those many years ago.
I sense Rome may be calling me for a refresher that’s long overdue!
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Ryan Clement 