When in Rome...

Our first three weeks of work were full of trainings. It all started with an experienced hire training, followed by an audit methodology approach training (fortunately this was just a recap, proving that we have learned things over the past 4 years), followed by a technical excellence training in Rome, and finally followed by a financial instruments training in London.


Naturally, we (as well as all the other ex-pats) took full advantage of the training in Rome. Rome is one of my top 3 big cities in Europe, despite not knowing a lick of Italian. Since A-K had been to Rome twice and somehow not made it into the Coliseum, that was priority number one. Fortunately, it did not disappoint and A-K can add it to the list of Seven world wonders that she's visited. Here is proof positive:

After the Coliseum, we toured the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. This was much better on a guided tour than A-K and I just walking around looking at rubble. :) The history of Rome is incredible, not to mention I am obsessed with the Piazza Venezia building. There are so many artifacts and historical ruins! It is like Egypt, they just have too much, so they just put them places. For example, A-K and I sat on a Roman pillar ruin that was being used as a bus park bench.

Our next objective was clear: Delicious Italian food plus gelato! We walked from the Forum all the way to the Spanish steps and found a great little place to eat. There is just something amazing about good Italian pasta with delicious sauce. An Italian meal just isn't complete though without gelato! (I think we got four each while on a 2-day trip!)





We also took a side trip down to Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius with Valerie. Mt. Vesuvius was very impressive. The crater caused by the eruption seemed to be 1/2 mile deep. Being the green activist that I am, I used a goldfish bag that had been thrown on the ground to collect a bit of volcanic sand. :D





Pompeii is phenominal! An entire city, impeccibly preserved, all due to a volcanic eruption. The historic site is massive! We walked around looking into rooms, that by normal standards, would have been masterpieces by themselves, but we not even given consideration on the tourist map. Because so much of it was left in tact, you could very easily see what the city would have looked like back in the day, not to mention that there were plasters of people's skeletons that had been covered in ash.





Naturally, we took too much time enjoying the sites and didn't quite leave enough room to make a leisurely walk back to the train station. So, we introduced Valerie to the "we have 12 minutes to make it to the train station" 1-mile run. For some reason she is a bit more reluctant to travel with us now. ;)





Thanks Deloitte for having training in Rome so we could explore!