When Julie and Dave Rafter were young, they decided they were one day going to make it to Rome. Not Roma, Queensland, as Dave had joked, the Sydney couple were going to make the trip to Italy.
Only at that point they had an infant, a toddler and a little blonde daughter about to start school, and were barely into their twenties. They had just bought their own house, the four bedroom place with the yellow walls and a picket fence, and were up to their ears in debt.
But they had a home, and they had a family to fill their home.
Over the years, Julie saved her silver coins and put them into a Rome fund. Only every time she thought she was getting somewhere with their savings, they spent them. all necessary evils (Rachel's braces, fixing the window Ben had cracked a cricket ball through- invoking the 'no cricket balls in the backyard' rule- Nathan's school uniforms), but evils nonetheless.
So they decided to put Rome on the backburner until their last baby moved out of home. They'd still be young (one of the benefits of having children young), and would enjoy it more knowing that their kids weren't wreaking havoc at home on their own (not that Julie would be brave enough to leave her kids at home on their own while they were millions of miles away, nope. Rachel would kill her brothers. Or Rachel and Ben would gang up and kill Nathan. Either way there would be a fatality and she wouldn't be around to play referee).
But the day their baby Ben (who was technically their middle child, but in their family he qualified as their baby), their eldest, twenty five year old Rachel, moved back home. And only days later, their youngest and his wife joined them.
And then, to join the crew, Julie's aging father Ted.
To top it all off, Dave was laid off.
Because when it rains, it pours.
Their house was once again full. And their Rome fund was once again empty.
After feeding her family a lamb roast that first night with an again-full house, Julie came to terms with the fact that she would not make it to Rome, at least not in that lifetime.
