A rendezvous: italic italy

".....should I ask the question like

'what happened then at the spot where 4 of us did the crazy stupid jumping shot inside Colosseum'? or should I ask the question like 'which gladiators that we crossed at the time when 4 of us did the crazy stupid jumping shot inside Colosseum'?"

-- 1 August, 2008.
Rome time: 1716 hrs; Malaysia time: 2316 hrs.
Colosseum, Rome

Yes I don't really like people who try so hard to be philosophical, but I just couldn't hold that feeling when I stepped before this great ancient stadium, The Colosseum.

Colosseum, as our tour guide Paul cheekily pointed out, is not creepy and not haunted at all, although it was practically a killing field during ancient time. However, maybe due to its greatness or what not, it is imagination-provoking for me.

Our first stop to enter Europe was Italy, and 6 hours of jet-lagging kinda made me became uncertain about what really relates between time and space. Along our walking tour exploring the ancient city of Rome, reading the history, imagining what was it like during the ancient time and relating it to what it is at the time being, coming to the Colosseum was just like a denouement to me.

Stepping on the bricks in the remnant of Colosseum was a rather confusing feeling. The time and space entangle here. We used to believe that it's time that defines space, like my step right now upon this brick tells me where am I right now; but what if things work in another way round? what if there are spaces that define a same time?

I jotted down my thought into my journal -- surprisingly I did not have many notes taken in Italy compare to the rest of the countries in our journey -- maybe I was too busy taking photos -- and oh-so-hell-yeah, we had the most pictures taken in Italy compare to the rest of the countries;

..or maybe, we were rushing all the time during our stay in Italy -- "rushing" here means "R-U-S-H---I-N-G". As you could easily perceive, our 'rush' was in 'continuo us tense', because the places to visit are so many, because the time we had was so little, because the summer heat never seemed to cool down, because the restaurants offering 'halal' food were always far away from where we were...

....my point is, I was perhaps too rushed in Italy and I forgot to slow down my pace to feel and sense this country carefully. I mean, Italy is certainly a country that offers most imaginations to me -- and I only concluded this when I was on the top of Palatine Hill of Rome.

Palatine Hill was where Rome founded, together with a very controversial story where I initially found it ironic to be official as a legend for a great empire like Rome to build on --

-- Romulus the founder of Rome was raised by a mythical She-Wolf: Did She-Wolf mean a female wolf or it literary means a prostitute?

-- Romulus' mother claimed that she was impregnated by the God of Mars and she was still a virgin when bearing Romulus: Was Romulus the real son of Mars the God of War or he was just a product of adultery?

..but then I realized, those are not important at all. It's the imagination that matters. Like the true meaning of a journey, it's not about where is our 'planned' destination or where we should be and have a photo captured or have its fridge magnet bought, instead, it's about being there, feeling the switch of time and space and letting the story of the place smearing into us.. (..yup, i still couldn't accept the act of us get to one place and snap a picture then left the place -- just for the sake of making evidence that shows 'WE'RE HERE.'..)

So many myths and so many stories happened around Italy and hence so many imaginations going around at the moment I touched the bricks and looked up to a statue. Regardless of which city we checked into, Rome or Venice, the imaginations supposed to be wild, as wild as a rendezvous where the rush of passion and desperation get us sweaty and lustful.

ps..: I-dun-know-what-kind-of-detail-do-u-want detail:

1. Entrance fee to Colosseum is 11 Euro without tour guide and 20 Euro with tour guide, and by paying 20 Euro you may skip the long queue at the entrance of the Colosseum.

2. ..plus, 20 Euro of Colosseum ticket comes with a package of touring Palatine Hill, with tour guide who will certainly tells you the interesting story about Romulus and his brother Remus.

3. Train from Rome to Venice takes about 4 hours.

4. The islands in Venice are called 'Sections'.

5. Although in most of the traveling guides will recommend you to hang out in St. Marco Section, but I personally love Academia Section.

6. Check out Academia Section before 9 a.m. where everybody in the section is still asleep, wait for the morning bells from church.

7. A 12 hours unlimited touring 'water-bus' costs 12 Euro, including luggage storage.

8. It's kinda hard to find a halal restaurant in Venice -- bring your own food if you care. Note that there're only 2 McDonalds in Venice and both are in the very crowded St Marco Section.

9. If you think my blog post offers only mouthful of useless info and does not help you at all in knowing more details about Italy, visit Fariz's blog for a detailed itenerary of our trip.