ROME - Part three - The beauty

As it was so long ago, I now remember Rome as a week of beauty. I remember walking the streets with my smiling classmates thinking of how it was the best week of my life to date, and I still regard it as that. It was a week of pure bliss.

My absolute favorite part of the Rome trip did not even occur in Rome.

On an hour long train ride to Ostea, the most amazing site we visited, every single person in the class (and a few other happy travelers) fell asleep. Only me and a good friend were left awake. We sat next to each other, chatted and laughed and secretly took photos of our sleeping friends. Even the two teachers were asleep, something we were not all that surprised about. Stepping off the train in Ostea was like stepping into another world. Everyone was refreshed and vibrant from their afternoon siesta (as by that time it was 12pm) and we walked into the area smiling and ready to take whatever the day had offered.

Ostea is actually a small beachside town outside of Rome, a popular place for many tourists to visit on their travels. The site we visited was a city of ruins, stretching for over a kilometre in each direction. The Disney movie, Hercules, was set in that place, and we could easily pick out areas that the producers had taken from.

Our first need upon arrival was food. We all sat down in the shade and ate a picnic lunch of whatever we had chosen for ourselves in the supermarket that morning. The Austrians ate sausage, bread and cheese, and the Australians ate vegetables, fresh fruits and bread rolls. Unlike their wrong definition of a true Aussie (surfing, meat pie eating, beachside living) our definition of Austrians is completely correct. They eat any meat, especially in the form of sausage or schnitzel, love cheese and bread, and every one of them (well almost) loves to drink a good beer or two.

We played hackey sack with a soft pinecone until our ankles were sore, and then went to listen to the information about the area we were in, given to us by the amazing Swooooobbbsssyyy. To be honest, nobody listened, at all, and instead we spent our time playing games with the rounded rocks found at the bace of the ancient wall we were sitting on.

When the special teacher had finished her conversation with herself, we went for a stroll through the ruined town, and chose a spot to lay in the sun and tan ourselves while listening to another speech, this time given to us by an interested student. This time, instead of listening, people began to drift off to sleep. My friend and I began to have competitions on playing the grass flute, and he and I ended up teaching the rest of the students how to do it. Some of them were quite good by the end of the day.

We also sat in an ancient ampitheatre and listened to stories of great plays performed there. As the ruins were open to everybody, and people were free to walk where they liked, we spent the rest of the day in free time, running across ancient rooves, climbing up and down ancient walls and searching through ancient houses. The sun was out and we were free, a perfect day.

My camera never left my hand throughout that day, and in the space of just five hours, I had accumulated over a hundred photos to add to my memory of the amazing time I spent in Ostea. If there is one place I want to go back to, it would be there.

To be continued