I wasn’t that impressed with The Coliseum

A short tale by a volcanic refugee

On a recent business trip to London, I found myself trapped by a volcanic eruption. Iceland was spewing volcanic ash into the atmosphere and it was preventing me from returning home to my family. It was the first time I realized how much I took travel for granted, especially flight. Anyway, I became very restless and decided that I needed to get off the island.

So began my journey as a volcanic refugee. I tried desperately to order train tickets to Paris online but every time I got to the checkout screen their system would crash. So I packed up my computer and walked to Kings Cross station to find myself in the longest line (cue as they say in England) of my life. I waited three hours to get to the front of the line. Met a girl in line from Australia also trying to get to Paris so that she could continue her journey to Turkey where should would meet her boyfriend. I was able to get a ticket on the 5am train the day after next. From Paris, I would make my way to Rome through a series of connections that took me through rural France, Switzerland and Northern Italy to an overnight stay in Milan. It took 14 hours to get to Milan because one of the trains was the milk run and stopped every 20 minutes in Switzerland. What a beautiful place though, I have never seen the Alps before and they are definitely impressive. Worthy of a return trip for certain. Anyway, the next day I caught my train to Rome where I would eventually connect with my flight back to Toronto via Frankfurt.

I was only in Rome for 1 day so I decided to jump on the double decker tourist bus that gave me the 4 hour tour of Rome including the Vatican. St. Peters Basilica gave me an appreciation for why the Italians do the best stone work in the world. I have never seen so much opulence in my life. But somehow it made sense to be there. Anyway, to my point of being disappointed by a landmark that I had never seen in person – After seeing the movie Gladiator, the CGI special effects spoiled my visit to the Coliseum. I expected something more spectacular. I know it’s a ruin but I found it paled in comparison to my perception from the recreation in the film. Hollywood had screwed with my brain.

I wasn’t that impressed with The Coliseum