Rome - Photos - Thoughts

From my Memoir: Packing, Passing, and Letting Go

Today is our last day in Rome. After all the walking we did during the week, my body is aching and I find it difficult to get out of bed. Steph, my wife, woke up first and once she was up, the rest of us followed suit.

As we were living in a rented apartment, I gathered all the items left in the fridge and prepared breakfast using whatever remained. It felt important to use everything we had rather than waste it. I do not like wasting food on principle. Still, I could not ignore how much waste we had produced. Every day, we filled a small bag with rubbish, some of which could go into the recycling bag while other things simply had to be thrown away. Even though I was in Rome, I made it a point to separate the waste.

A question came to my mind: How many resources do we use as a single family every day? I don't know, but even if I knew the amount, I would have to multiply it across millions of families. What does that become? Will there be enough left for those who might come five hundred or a thousand years from now? What will future generations say about the people who lived in 2026?

This trip stirred a deep and, yes, unsettling thought in me. I loved visiting Rome. I loved visiting its countless historical sites. Yet I realised something. Empires rise and fall. Civilisations move forward, often believing they are permanent. Today, the United States, China and Russia are considered modern superpowers. And yet history tells us an important story. Everyone thinks they are invincible, that they will last forever. They don't.

What I find unsettling is that, as humans, we imagine we are the centre of the universe. Yet we don't understand that this is simply our time. It will come and go, and eventually we will all be forgotten. I too will be forgotten. There is a certain sadness in that thought. Out of the billions of people who have lived, only a tiny number are remembered, usually those who shaped history, for better or worse. Figures like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Jean Parisot de Valette, Horatio Nelson, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Steve Jobs.

After breakfast, we packed our luggage and made sure everything was secure with a padlock. I booked the taxi. Before leaving the apartment, we walked one last time towards the centre of Rome. What a beautiful city it is. I have heard different opinions about Rome. Some people say it is nothing special, while others are regular visitors to the city. I belong to the latter category. I will surely come again.

The weather was warm and beautiful. Steph found a shop where she could try different flavours of tiramisu. Tiramisu is my wife's culinary weakness. Alice had her own small mission: to find a particular pesto that used to be imported to Malta but was no longer available. Unfortunately, she did not manage to find it. Gabriel had no plan, so he stayed with me while I enjoyed taking some photographs.

At around 12:30, we returned to the flat to prepare for departure. The taxi was scheduled for 13:30. But at 12:45, the app showed that the driver was already one minute away. It felt too early. We rushed. We gathered our bags, put on our shoes and went downstairs. A driver was waiting. I told him with a smile, "Sergio, airport," and he nodded. We loaded the luggage and left.

Then, at 13:15, I began receiving messages from another driver saying that he was waiting for us on our street. I felt confused. What had just happened? Had we taken someone else's taxi? Well, we were on our way to the airport, and that was what mattered. I stared at my phone, unsure what had happened, and decided to let the thought go. The company managing the app would sort it out.

Thankfully, when we arrived at the airport, the driver did not ask for any additional payment. Everything seemed settled. A few minutes later, I received a notification. I had been charged five euros for not showing up to the 13:15 booking. It was all rather confusing, but in the end, what mattered was that we were at the airport. It had been a beautiful holiday. I enjoyed Rome, and we created some beautiful family memories.