A swig of Rome: Part II

It gets increasingly difficult to talk of a trip as the days pass. Impressions fade and emotions grow dusty. But as I stepped out of the train at Roma Termini almost two months after my first visit it was all different. Despite the sweltering heat I could still feel the slight chill in the wind that evening, see the bright colours the balloon man's cart halted at the traffic light and even the drop of ice cream falling on the pavement beside my feet from the strawberry- vanilla cone of a passerby. I never got to finish the story of that walk.

'Il vittoriano' was not in my plans for that day.
The statue of Victoria riding the quadrigas was visible above the edifices and I walked in that direction. 'II Vittoriano' or the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II was raised to honour Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy near the Piazza Venezia in 1935. The structure is immense and elaborate. But its white marble clashes badly with the surrounding brown and the proportions make it rather monstrous that the details of design are missed by the observer. Near the monument the Italian military was engaged in a public outreach exercise. As I watched a little boy straddled atop an army tank caught me in his view finder, his face disturbingly alight as he blew up imaginary targets one by one.

Worn out by the long day , I started looking around for a bus stop to get back to the hostel. That was how I walked out of the route charted for the day on my map. Distinctly familiar ruins began to appear to my left and I looked up. There, its outline still sharp against the evening sky was the Colosseum! I had strayed, completely unaware, into Via dei Fori Imperiali. On both its sides stretched the Forum.

In a daze, I walked past the constructions and additions by Trajan, Augustus and Domitian.The great among the imperial Romans stared at me in silence from the the stone pedestals on street sides.For hours I strayed on the road even though it was well past the opening hours of the monuments.I suppose there are only a few who chance upon the Colosseum and the feeling is inexplicable. There are tears in your eyes and at that moment you want everyone you love around you to share the sight. But I was alone that day and the day was dying.

But the moment I turned back I knew I would be coming again. For Rome does not give you the option to walk away from her.