The Colosseum – Rome, Italy – Verona Trip 2023

Week 2 – May 20, 2023 – Focus on Learning

Here’s a gorgeous picture of the Colosseum in Rome. You can get a sense of the enormity of this physical structure. My friends and I went here as part of our trip to Italy in 2023. I took many pictures of places like this in Italy, as you can imagine. If anything, I found the trip to Italy to be a learning experience that goes beyond seeing different places, meeting new people, and immersing into the culture.

This was the first trip I took to Europe and with folks where were not family members. I’ve only travel abroad once and that was a trip to Hong Kong for a family reunion. I did travel to Hawaii a couple of times for a conference. Does that count? Nonetheless, going on this trip served as a moment to celebrate self and independence. I’ve never done something so self-indulgent and for myself.

We travelled to three different places in Italy. We went to Verona, Piedmont, and Rome. Thank you to my friends who completely planned this trip. The one friend who was celebrating her 50th birthday organized the travel plans and itinerary, the other (new) friend organized housing. My role in the trip was purely for real-time entertainment and someone to keep track of. I have no sense of direction.

Anyway, our first stop was in Verona. We stayed there for 5-days in a B&B. We walked around to different places, ate great food, and connected with the local people. We just loved Verona and we plan to return to this beautiful city. The bridges, the restaurants, and the local landmarks made this a memorable experience to transition us well to Italy life, slowdown, and enjoy. We did!!

The Verona stay also served as a landing place. The B&B was so beautiful. I feel like that it’s almost foreshadowing my future. I would love to live in a place like this. It was a great place to rest and land while we ventured off to places like Venice and Porto di Desenzano. We travelled to these places by train, but we could not go to Florence due to a train accident the day before and the trains were all full.

Our next destination was to Castello di Montalero (aka. castle in Italy) where we had cooking classes and visited many local vineyards, farms, and places to eat. I just loved this experience and the DREAM devised by my 2-friends 23-years ago as they imagined the “dream vacation” to Italy and make pasta over a crab dinner with a side of butter and a can of Coke in Port Simpson, BC. How could I not join?

After 5 amazing days in the castle and meeting some incredible people from the UK, Ireland, and USA, as well as the family and folks who own and run the castle, we were off to Rome. I mean, this is suppose to be a bucket list travel experience. I can see how it could be and everything is extraordinary big. The scale of things are unimaginable, like the Colosseum, as well as the costs, the hustle, and the people.

Admittedly, going to Rome was not my favourite place to visit in comparison to Verona and Piedmont. I had great food, saw some awesome places, and met some nice people, and have memories I will never forget from Rome, I don’t think I’ll go back. It was a beautiful COUNTER EXAMPLE of what I do value and appreciate. I enjoy the simple things, a slower way of life. Most of all, I enjoyed the people.