Italy and Malta Trip (Day 5): Rome

Breakfasts at hotels are the best! It's good to wake up and look forward to breakfast. I usually skip breakfast at home but it's different overseas. I nearly couldn't find the milk for the cornflakes because the milk wasn't placed next to the cornflakes for some reason. In Venice, the jam wasn't placed next to the bread. Super weird. 

Time to visit all the huge tourist attractions in Rome. First up, the Colosseum! The largest amphitheatre ever built, construction of the Colosseum began in 72 AD and was completed in 80 AD.  

It was raining throughout the entire day. The leather jacket I wore was great since leather is water resistant or whatever, but at the same time, my leather jacket wasn't as thick as my winter coat. So when by the end of the day, I was cold and wet but thankfully, not that miserable. 

It was interesting to learn about executions ad bestias, which meant that the condemned would have to face wild beasts in the arena. And of course, there were gladiatorial combats. Participants were slaves or prisoners, or men seeking glory and fame. The Colosseum definitely inspired video games such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

This is a candid shot! I was trying to close my umbrella and pose for the camera. Anyway, over here, we could see the underground tunnels that held caged animals and other props. 

We headed to the Roman Forum, which was just next to the Colosseum. The forum was filled with ruins of important ancient buildings.

There were sculptures, temples, shrines and arches everywhere. However, at this point in our journey, the rain was pelting down on us like bullets and the path was getting muddy. There were puddles and miniature streams, so I felt like I ended up spending more time looking at the ground than I did looking at the ruins. Moreover, most of the signs in the Roman Forum were weathered and some words were hard to decipher.

Here's the Temple of Romulus (the one with the large green door) and the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. 

Many sought shelter from the rain at the ruins of the Temple of Caesar. To be more specific, they hid in the niche behind the stone wall that used to contain the altar of Julius Caesar. Apart from the ruins, I managed to capture the rods of rain and large puddles of water that constantly got in our way. Eventually, we made it out for the forum and stopped at a restaurant to get out of the rain and to have our lunch. 

After that, we took the train to the Spanish Steps!

This is Fontana della Barcaccia, or the Fountain of the Boat, which is located at the foot of the steps. It was completed in the 1600s and it is still so magnificent! 

Look at the pretty buildings and all those umbrellas.

Everyone was facing the opposite direction and posing with the steps, so to avoid getting random people in your shot, you could face the church instead! Or am I just a weirdo? Why are people not taking pictures of Piazza di Spagna?

We climbed to the top, crossed the road, and climbed up some more steps to reach the entrance of the church. Even though we didn't enter the church, I wanted to see its facade up close! Again, am I a weirdo? I think most tourists just took pictures of the Spanish Steps and left without bothering.

We strolled down the street and passed this monument called the Column of the Immaculate Conception.

Soon, we heard the sound of gushing water. Once we turned the corner, we caught our first glimpse of the Trevi Fountain! It was just a short walk from the Spanish Steps. I've always wanted to see the fountain so I was super excited! The Trevi Fountain is always featured in movies. It seems almost mandatory for film directors to show audiences this particular fountain whenever a protagonist visits Italy. 

I feel like the fountain was bigger than what I had expected and I could not capture the fountain in its entirety, so this was the best I could do! By this time, it was pouring. But there were still crowds of people around the fountain so it was difficult to take pictures too. Legend has it that coins should be thrown into the fountain for luck, love, and to ensure that one returns to Rome in future. I threw in a coin and later, I was glad to find out that the coins are collected and donated to charities that help the less fortunate. 

The last attraction we visited was the Pantheon. The former Roman temple had been converted into a Christian church, and it was our refuge from the rain that day.

Visitors moved around the majestic, circular room and admired the sculptures within. John and I sat in the rows of seats to rest and dry off a little. It had been an extremely long and wet day. The bottom part of my jeans were soaked and I felt icky because my socks stuck to my feet.

Okay, so apparently, we walked quite a distance away from the train station, and we needed to take a bus back to Roma Termini. I think we boarded bus 64, and little did I know that it was also called the Pickpocket Express. The bus was extremely crowded, probably more crowded than it usually was because of the bad weather, and we were packed like sardines. My boyfriend and I were standing in the bus where bodies were pressed against one another. To make matters worse, there were men offering me seats and I suspected that they were up to no good, so I kept refusing their offers.

The "icing on the cake" was probably when I felt a hand on my right pocket. Initially, I thought that someone was doing a really bad job trying to get molest me. I kept pushing my boyfriend in the other direction to try to get away from the weirdo who was touching the pocket of my denim jeans. Anyway, the pickpocket's attempt was in vain because there was nothing inside my right pocket. I think my phone was in my left pocket and I was grabbing onto it to make sure that it wouldn't go missing.

Finally, we made it out and popped into an Italian restaurant, Trattoria D'azeglio, on the way back to the hotel. I liked the salty fries there! Oh, I forgot to mention that it is the custom for Italians to drink wine at meals. However, my boyfriend does not like alcohol and I do not like most types of wine, so we ultimately did not do as the Romans do. At times, my boyfriend ordered soft drinks, and if it was a particularly cold day I would question his decisions.

How could we visit Italy and not have panna cotta? Mmm... I'm getting a little hungry just looking at these pictures!

Incredibles 2 (Film Review)

With Toy Story being the exception, sequels are usually not as good as the original film. Although Incredibles 2 was entertaining, exciting, and humorous, it was also messy and lazy. There were so many new characters and way too many Jack-Jack powers. (17? That's insane!) Yet the premise was quite similar. Helen is the one who gets employed by a villain this time instead of Bob. And the villain is a female instead of a male. Similarly, the villains in both movies want to take down Supers. Isn't all that just a rehash of the plot in the first movie? 

When I watched the Incredibles, the idea of a superhero family was interesting. You'd see Helen using her elasticity to vacuum the floor while Bob lifts the couch up. Dash could sprint across water and Violet could protect her family members with force fields. At the end of the film, the adults trust their kids more. Violet becomes more confident while Dash gets the chance to participate in races. And they gear up to fight the Underminer as a family. In the Incredibles 2, they go through a whole bunch of things just to... learn the exact same lessons again? There wasn't much character development for Dash in this one! (Remember how he placed tacks on the teacher's chair?)

Don't get me wrong. I know that there's a lot more to the movie as well, so this is just the main criticism that I have. They were trying really hard to reverse gender roles in the film -- so much so that I felt that it was forced. They gave some weird, arbitrary reason, based on some statistics (that were probably unreliable), that Elastigirl would be their 'poster girl'. Okay... It's just like how Edna's scene was forced into the movie so that she could help Mr Incredible a little bit with babysitting Jack-Jack. She modified Jack-Jack's suit and created some kind of electronic device to help the family take care of Jack-Jack better, but later in the movie, it gets destroyed. It is always hilarious to watch Edna, but I wish that her scenes were actually important to the plot like they were in the first movie.

If, like me, you didn't realise that Evelyn's full name was Evelyn Deavor, which sounds like evil endeavour, you still would have realised that there was something strange about Evelyn and Winston Deavor. Elastigirl had to face a villain known as the Screenslaver, and it was obvious that the person who had the capability to be Screenslaver would be someone who was in charge of running a telecommunications company! At first, I thought that DevTech was behind the persona of Screenslaver. They could have just been creating havoc so that Elastigirl actually has people to save. However, it turned out that Winston genuinely loves Supers while Evelyn hates them. Oh well. It makes sense that Evelyn is the villain, since she is the inventor while Winston is the seller.

Elastigirl and Evelyn were talking about who was more important: the inventor or the seller. I absolutely loved this conversation. If I remember this scene correctly (sorry if I didn't, but it's been a few days since I watched the movie) Elastigirl says that ideally, the inventor should be more important. (You need to be creative and smart!) However, in reality, the seller is more important. Without the seller, people won't be buying the invention, even if it was great. And I'm sure there are real world examples to back this up. But it is great that they included such a thought-provoking question in the middle of an animated film.

I also really liked the villain name, "Screenslaver". This is such a problem these days. We are all slaves to our screens, whether it is our laptops, phones or tablets. As they say, technology is a double-edged sword. We see all kinds of cool technology in the film. When the family moves out of their motel and into their humongous new house, Dash finds a remote and presses all the buttons. He activates the beautiful water features and also... ruins the couch. The new trains could bring convenience to commuters... but it could potentially kill them as well. The ship that they were on was powered by the latest technology. It can go really fast... but it can also crash into the city. And of course, we can choose to broadcast the good news that Supers are legal again... and we can use that same technology to paint them as threats. 

The main takeaway is that technology should be used responsibly. Elastigirl's motorcycle and Mr Incredible's car were put to good use. Dash's quick thinking (and fondness of pushing buttons) saved his siblings from Supers who were being controlled by Evelyn. As mentioned earlier, we see Edna come up with a device that would predict Jack-Jack's changes but in the end, it gets broken and they don't rely on technology to save the day. With Violet's help, Jack-Jack can still fire off lasers and pitch in. 

Speaking of being responsible, Edna said that done properly, parenting could be a heroic act. We see Bob struggling to take care of the baby, help Dash with Math homework, and deal with Violet's teenage angst. Ugh, I feel for Violet. If Rick Dicker could erase memories, why can't he put them back? (Isn't this like the Krushauer guy? He can crush but he can't un-crush?) In the previous movie, Tony finally noticed her and started to develop feelings for her, but those memories were wiped out just like that. Sad. And it is immensely frustrating for everyone involved when there is a change in the school syllabus. Yes, Math does change. Things get harder for no apparent reason. Why? And as if taking care of a baby wasn't hard enough, taking care of Jack-Jack is a nightmare. This was already proven in the short film, "Jack-Jack Attack".

In both movies, Bob and Helen's experiences show that parenting is mostly trial and error. You can't always know what's best for your child and you can't always get it right the first time. Bob tries to make things right with Violet by taking her to the diner which Tony's family owns, but he makes things worse. He finally gets the hang of one Math chapter but has to deal with the next one. These examples show that parents are constantly learning how to be parents. Like teaching, there isn't a foolproof method of parenting that works for every parent and every kid. Although Violet threw a tantrum and tried to destroy her indestructible suit, she was eventually mature enough to see that her dad was really trying. She took care of herself and Dash, letting her dad sleep for 17 (is it 17 again?) hours!

Anyway, now that Supers are legal again, I hope that Pixar would be able to come up with a new plot if they ever decide to make an Incredibles 3. (Special shout out to Frozone and Void, two side characters whom I like but didn't get to touch on in this review. If there's ever a sequel, I hope they'd return)