I thought I had seen the best around Europe, but over here the more you explore, the more you are surprised. The experience was simply beyond description, which incidentally reminds me one of Tom Hanks famous lines: "Life is like a box of chocolate, you'll never know what you're going to get!". And so I say, traveling is much the same because at the conclusion of our journey that year, Rome came out as a mouth-watering fine dark chocolate, much to our surprise.

(Vatican City - a travel journal excerpt)

We started hitting our way going to Rome at almost midnight; a schedule we chose for practicality and convenience reasons. As soon as we located our private cabin in the train and after putting away our luggage overhead, my eye lids surrendered to the heaviness of it. Within seven hours of travel from Venice to Rome in that wee hours of December, our bodies found a much needed rest, albeit temporarily.

With the train starting to slow down, I was able to glance at the terminal signage, "Roma Termini". It was between eight and nine in the morning.

Once we disembarked and started heading in the eastward direction, a bathing bronze sunlight had expanded and flooded the whole expanse of the train platform we were walking towards to. We never escaped from its inviting warmth, but it worked out good enough nevertheless as we braved a rather chilly winter breeze dampening at our exposed cheeks as if it was trying to welcome and assert its presence to every visitor of this glorious city.

Once we refreshed ourselves, we went for light breakfast in one of the restaurants at the terminal. Later, I found out that we still need to make one more inter-city connection to reach the city proper, and so we walked down further into this complex underground subway system until finally arriving at "Tiburtina" station. From there, we would begin treading the ground where Emperor treaded and where Roman soldiers marched.

All the excitement was beginning to build-up within me, eventhough I realised shortly that another ride from city bus was needed to get to St. Peter Square. It was the initial place a guide had agreed to meet us.

The additional 15-minute ride from bus seemed brief and not enough as I began to be helplessly fixated at the city's classic artwork, which is its own self, really - seeing the city's centuries-old structure exhibiting grandiosely their intricate facade reminiscent of its glorious past architecture.

Even the crowd was a treat to watch: a group of veil-clad nuns with rosary beads on their hands crossing pedestrian lane; a seemingly hurried tourist with camera dangling on his neck trying to catch a cab; a captivating busker demonstrating his musical prowess to thick layers of people watching around him, etc.

You see, Rome, admittedly is a city with numerous awe-inspiring stationary attractions, but its transient people, tourists especially, is equally fun to watch as well - this, while our bus slowly did its duty to bring us to our destination amidst the busy and crowded streets of Rome in that early morning.

The sun had just moved up from the horizon so lazily, and so the sunlight emitted came short to cover the wide open area of St. Peter Basilica Square at that moment, except of course from few strikes of sunlight that daggered through and in between big pillars of the Square’s colonnade. TO BE CONTINUED...

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Oo nga pala...

binuksan na naman muli, pahina sa maraming taon kong ipinalagi

yung nagdaang mga taon ng tagumpay at pagkadismaya

bibitbitin ko ba? o ititiklop ko na lang at di na bubuksan pa?

ngunit paano nga ba...?

mahirap mabatid ang hinaharap, kung ang kahapon di ko man lang malingap

pagkatuto ko di matutunton, kapag mata di ko man lang inilingon

tiyak may aral na kapupulutan at sinag pa ring masusulyapan

sa ibayo nang nakaraan, di ko man kailangan ng tingnan

ganito siguro...

ipagpapasalamat ko na lang kaya, mga biyayang sa taas ay tinamasa

yung pagkadismaya at kabiguang natamo

ihahagis ko na lang at ipapatianod sa agos

ganun din ang bitbit na himutok

iiwan ko na lang at lalagyan ng tuldok.

COPYRIGHT RESERVED TO THE AUTHOR. PERMISSION REQUIRED TO REPRODUCE.