Day of Surprises

Jack arrived last night, and apart from getting dinner, we basically didn’t have time to do anything else. After a shit night’s sleep at his hostel, he was transferred to my hostel, and we set off to see some of the major attractions around Rome. I had deliberately left some of the biggest attractions for when Jack arrived so that we would have plenty to do together, which is why some of Rome’s most famous monuments hadn’t yet made an appearance in these entries.

We started at the top of the list and headed towards the Colosseum. After a few minutes of aimlessly wandering around trying to figure out where the ticket booth was, I started scanning the surroundings to see if I could spot it. That’s when a typically Aussie-looking bloke V-lined straight towards Jack and proceeded to tackle-hug him. It turned out to be one of Jack’s mates from soccer years ago. Neither of them had any idea the other was in Rome, and they hadn’t seen each other in over a year. Somehow, on the other side of the world, they had managed to randomly run into each other outside the Colosseum. What made it even crazier was that Jack wasn’t even supposed to arrive in Rome until several days later. We had a quick catch-up with Zac and his girlfriend, Ruby, before eventually figuring out that we should probably leave them and actually go get our Colosseum tickets.

We waited in line for a little over an hour. Unfortunately, it was around midday, the sun was absolutely cooking us, and there was essentially no shade. It was a long hour, to say the least. Getting inside made it worth it, though. The Colosseum had been a major bucket-list item for me, so I could barely believe I had finally made it there. Even Jack was seriously impressed and, surprisingly, was more than happy to read through the information boards scattered around the monument. The views of the Roman Forum and the rest of Rome from the upper levels were incredible. We made our way through both the upper and lower levels, taking our time and reading as much of the history as we could before eventually heading back outside. We were then faced with a decision: head home and rest or push on and explore the Roman Forum.
The Roman Forum was another major bucket-list item for me. Its history stretches even further back than the Colosseum and many of the other monuments around Rome, so there was no chance I was skipping it. I wasn’t entirely sure it was Jack’s cup of tea, though. I think the Forum would have benefited enormously from a tour or at least an audio guide. Some of the written descriptions didn’t really do enough to explain what we were looking at or give much context to the ruins. Combined with the heat, I think this put Jack off it a little. Nevertheless, I was determined to take my time and see everything I wanted to see. The views from Palatine Hill were incredible. It was such a strange combination of ancient ruins in the foreground, with slightly less ancient but still colossal monuments in the background. Seeing all of it together really painted a picture of just how old Rome actually is. As we approached the end of the Forum, our plans to catch up with Zac were suddenly brought forward. He had stumbled across the World Street League skateboarding competition, which was another ridiculous coincidence. It was especially crazy because I had been telling Jack earlier that there were apparently a ton of professional skaters in Rome and that I hoped we might randomly run into some of them.

When we looked through the competitors, we decided we had to go. We figured we would find a good spot, grab a few beers and hang around for a while. The only major attraction we missed in the process was the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, but we knew we would have another opportunity to see that later. When we arrived at the skateboarding event, which was being held with an incredible view overlooking the Colosseum, we managed to find a perfect spot. We could stand against the fence and watch the competition without even buying a ticket. Tickets were supposed to cost €50, but our spot was in the shade, had an excellent view, and there was a café around the corner selling reasonably priced beers. Not buying a ticket probably saved us hundreds of euros over the course of the day. Overall, I ended up with hundreds of good photos from this day alone, so once again, trying to narrow them down to just 20 for this entry was nearly impossible.

The highlight, though, was getting a photo with Chris Joslin. While I was buying the boys a bunch of beers, I noticed Chris had just finished his heat and looked like he could use one himself, so I bought him one too. We briefly chatted about life in Australia and the US before I figured it was probably best to let him recover.

Even now, writing this a week later, it still hardly seems real.

After that, the skating was just about finished, so we headed off to finish the night at a pub. Unfortunately, Jack managed to lead us to a very shit pub that was an incredibly long way from anything else, so we didn’t stay for long. We eventually headed over to Zac’s for a quick drink before making our way home. And that was the end of what was an incredible day - easily one of the best of the trip, and potentially one of the best days of my life. So many completely unexpected things happened throughout the day that somehow all came together perfectly. Running into Zac outside the Colosseum, exploring two of the biggest historical sites in Rome, randomly stumbling across a major skateboarding competition, and then somehow meeting a professional skater I’d been hoping to see - it was one of those days that would be impossible to plan.

Tomorrow was shaping up to be another big day of skating and sport, so it was probably a good thing we managed to have a reasonably early night.Read more