Last year my family went on a short getaway trip to Rome for a few days before Christmas. We visited several tourist attractions such as the Pantheon, Colosseum, St Peter’s Basilica and Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. It was mesmerising to visit some of these ancient sites Christian believers have revered for decades.
Rome is an old city and the history oozed from the buildings, boulevards and squares as we travelled on the buses throughout the sprawling metropolis and to really absorb the culture and the heritage you need to spend much longer than the 4 days we spent there. The food was exquisite and the culinary highlight was a cooking class we attended at an intimate restaurant where we learned to make homemade authentic pasta and tiramisu from scratch as part of a 3-course meal which tasted excellent.
Although Rome is an ancient city many parts are eclectic and I was really impressed with the shopping areas, Tridente, Via del Babbuino and Monti districts where specialty artisan design trendy boutiques are co-located with shops that sell high end luxurious Italian brands, many of which were unknown to me. I spent the last night in tow following my wife and daughter scavenging through the finest Italian leather goods shops looking for mahogany leather bags. This browsing continued the next day in the Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino International Airport where we spent hours browsing the various boutiques looking for any duty-free bargains before our return flight to the UK. I had separated from my family and reconvening with them snaking through one of the shopping promenades I stumbled on some psychedelic trainers.
What caught my attention was that along with the normal ubiquitous waste plastics found in many brands now, they were also made from recycled food waste such as corn, apple cores and peels, and pomance which is a waste byproduct from the wine industry. I was immediately intrigued and picked them up to have a closer look and beckoned to one of the employees to find out more information as I was unfamiliar with the brand. Just when I was about to hesitantly enquire about sizes to try them on, I was instantly marshalled from the shop by my family while the ladies in the shop giggled under the breath. We supposedly had to get something to eat as the kids were hungry. Little did I know that my wife had already bought them for me as my gift which I did not find out until Christmas day.
Since then, I have been in awe with the trainers and have not worn them yet. When I do, I will wear them with pride knowing that there is yet another use for food waste.
Check out the new ID.Eight trainers
You can learn all about the provenance of the trainers at the following website: