Italy - When in Rome!

April 28-May 5

Hello everyone!

School trips can take you anywhere. This year I’ve been to a forest, a site hosting ancient rock art and a collection of Lilongwe’s various places of worship. This latest trip is a bit more adventurous. It’s taken me to Rome.

The Colosseum

Gelato: a way of life in Rome

I help to run the Model United Nations activity for in my school (good to see my Politics and Modern History degree having some use for the £9,000 I spent on it) and each year some of the students go to an international conference to practise their skills. For the first time, our school was accepted into the Montessori Model United Nations (MMUN) conference which is held annually in Rome.

The main MMUN conference is in New York,
where they get to visit the UN General Assembly

Rome is a long, long way from Malawi. One of the students had never left the country – within 24 hours she’d touched the ground in four.

If only it was this simple...we went Lilongwe-Jo'burg-Dubai-Rome

Piazza del Popolo, with St Peter's Basilica in the distance

Being so far away from Lilongwe, as well as visiting such an historical and famous place, meant that we added a few days to the trip before the conference was due to start. This would allow us to explore the Italian capital and take in some Roman culture. Well, amongst a variety of teenager-demanded shopping trips.

Castel Sant'Angelo

The Roman Forum

I have been to Rome before. It’s slightly depressing to realise that my pan-European backpacking adventure, which included a stop in the Eternal City, was ten years ago. This trip is different; no longer am I attempting to survive on a €5-10 per day budget.

Who needs to stay in a place with good showers when there are
fountains all around Rome?

Churches, such as this one by Piazza del Popolo,
are free to enter - that's what I did in 2008

Some of the sights are slightly different as well, as you can see from the pictures of the Spanish Steps below. The blossoms give Europe's widest stairway a vibrant and welcoming air. 

The Spanish Steps in 2008

Poets, artists and poets are often
attracted to the Spanish Steps for inspiration

There are also some places I hadn’t been able to experience properly last time due to my thriftiness. The main one was also the big one. The Colosseum.

Also called the Flavian Amphitheatre, its more common name
is due to its proximity to a gigantic bronze statue called Collosus

Construction started in 72 AD, financed by Rome's
successful Jewish military campaign

The outside looks the same as it did in 2008. This time, however, I was going to enter the hallowed arena. Well, at least stand where others would bay for blood almost 2000 years ago.

The holes show where the metal bars were removed by the
Papal States in order to build new churches

The Colosseum is 48 metres tall

What you begin to realise within the renovated, circular wall is the sheer scale and ambition of the arena. The Colosseum could hold up to 70,000 spectators at its zenith. It would be just about the same number that pack the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff at full capacity. I imagine the roar of the Roman crowd would be similar to that of the Welsh when England’s rugby team come to town. Deafening, intimidating and bloodthirsty.

Some ancient sources say the central area, before the tunnels were created,
 could be flooded to host naval games

Gladiator fights, taking place in the afternoon, were often
financed by politicians hoping to earn favour with the public.
Wonder if that still happens today... #Qatar

That bloodthirsty nature is evident in some of the anecdotes offered as you walk in awe around the bowl, peering down at the underground tunnel system below and pondering the amount of death and destruction that happened in this theatre of carnage. One example is what happened in the lunch interval of a ‘games’. There would be music, some juggling…and the execution of the condemned, who would be left naked and unarmed to face wild animals such as lions.

Before lunch, hunters would tackle wild animals in sets
replicating the places they're from in acts called venationes

The underground tunnels (hypogeum) were built to hold
equipment needed for the games, including animals

It was outside the Colosseum where Rome’s darker side showed itself. A tall, young man came up to me and started trying to repeatedly shake and clasp my right hand. Luckily I had been warning the students all day about watching their belongings, so I noticed pretty quickly that he was trying to unhook my watch. Shouting in his face that I would get the police unless he left promptly solved the problem.

People were also on guard for the upcoming Roma-Liverpool
football match - this crew were doing the preview for the
Premier League TV channel

Being the home of one of the greatest empires throughout history is enough to bring people to Rome in their millions. Lines are large everywhere, making the experience as exhausting as it is exhilarating. Well, for a history major. The students wanted to shop.

Seen as a piece of architectural genius, the Pantheon's
height is exactly the same as its diameter

On April 21st at midday, the Sun was exactly
above the hole, meaning a large beam of
light shone directly onto the middle of the
Pantheon's floor

Where we found common ground was a love of gastronomy. I found my soulmate gelato near the Pantheon at a shop called Giolitti. Black cherry and limoncello. Words won’tdo it justice. The tiramisu I had was also tremendous.

Very much the (black) cherry on top of a lovely day

Tiramisu from Loch Ness pub

Plenty of pizza was consumed as well but I may have found a new favourite Italian food: Scamorza. Baked cheese – arguably a healthier version of my favourite Czech food, Smazeny syr – with an addition on top. I chose salmon. I would choose this again. And again.

This square pizza was in a restaurant called
Gusto - tasty but expensive

Scamorza in all its glory

As well as the hallmark attractions, Rome has hidden gems, both ancient and modern in age. The one which really took my breath away was actually in a LEGO shop adjacent to Via Del Corso. A large fresco of the Trevi fountain…made of LEGO blocks!

Rome city council collect the money thrown in for luck on a
daily basis and use it to help the poor

It's LEGO blocks...

As part of the trip, I also got to visit a place in Rome which is otherwise off-limits: the main UN base for their Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). This was where the students had their final day of their conference, with many of our own reading aspects of the resolutions they’d helped to draft in the splendour of the FAO’s Great Hall.

An example of one of the MMUN committees, hosted
for two days at the Marriott Hotel

Voting on resolutions in the FAO

 Taking a very glass-half-full viewpoint, these youngsters might be making history in the future. How apt that they honed their skills in a city which is eternally historic.

Love you all

Matt