Being one of Europe’s top tourist destinations, Rome had gotten pretty used to taller tourists.  Making way for 15 foot tall French and Turkish visitors was part of the daily routine for the average Roman, hell even 50 foot tall Danes were manageable, their literal high and mightiness being less of a nuisance than the high and mightiness in their attitudes. However, few in the city were prepared for the arrival of an American. While staying out of the way of a French person was a fairly easy task where failure would usually result in nothing more than a one sided collision, when this American showed up, staying out of the way was a matter of scrambling to avoid her descending feet where failure meant being squished. The locals were lucky enough that this particular American was very attentive to where she stepped. Paige had always had an interest in the tiny peoples of other countries, fascinated by the idea of being a giant in a tiny city of insect sized people. She was already pretty tall back home in America at a lean 5’11, particularly for a highschool freshman but here in Italy she was colossal at 230 feet tall. To get through the narrow streets she needed to walk with one flip flop clad foot directly in front of the other if he didn’t want to step on the buildings that lined them, buildings that were mostly around knee height but often no taller than her ankle. 

Every step she took in this manner, to her amusement, caused the ground to quake for the tiny locals down below. People scattered like rodents from wherever she stepped, seeking refuge in buildings or just trying to get away from the near building sized feet that threatened to squish them. 

Her first destination in Rome was the famed Spanish steps, or Spanish step as it looked from her perspective. The grand staircase which was currently occupied by more than a hundred people, only went as high as her knee and would only come up to her neck if stood upright. Looking down, she saw dozens of tiny Europeans sitting all across the staircase and decided to do the same. Those occupying the staircase had been nervous of the titanic blonde in the sleeveless white shirt and basketball shorts and when they saw her gigantic behind descending from over 100 feet in the air, pandemonium broke out with people running and screaming, trying to flee from underneath the American’s giant butt and legs in time. ‘Oops’ she said, giggling ‘Hope you don’t mind if I sit’. She sat atop of the (now completely cleared) plateau halfway up, the marble cracking under her weight. Despite being halfway up, her feet were still touching the ground with plenty of room to spare. 

All the walking had made her quite thirsty, opening the fanny pack she had brought with her, she took out a bottle of water and began sipping from it. As she was checking her phone she heard a faint yelling and a tapping on her toe, she looked down at her feet and saw a tiny policeman yelling up at her.

‘No eating or drinking on the steps’ he appeared to be saying

She leaned over to hear him better

‘You put the bottle in your bag, you can’t drink on the Steps’

‘Oh yeah?’ responded Paige, ‘What are you gonna do about it?’ she demanded, tauntingly. As if to emphasise her point she tilted her bottle over the policeman, letting water flow out and completely soaking him and many bystanders while momentarily flooding the immediate area up to the ankles of the locals. The discord she had caused by simply pouring water on to the ground was hilarious to Paige, she had only emptied a quarter of her bottle, what amounted to around 125 mls but to the tiny Europeans at her feet, she had soaked them with gallons of water, ruining clothes, destroying bags and their contents and humiliating authorities. 

‘Whoops again haha, looks like I spilled some of my water, silly me’ she teased. At that point she decided to get up and move on to the next sight, she had gotten some water on her shoes so she left them on the staircase and went barefoot. 

‘Hope none of you guys take em’ she said, chuckling at the thought of those miniature Italians trying to lift her footwear. 

Despite having a vantage point that allowed her to see across the city for miles around, Rome’s narrow winding streets were very confusing. Knowing that the Trevi fountain was less than a minute away, she checked her phone to find it with Google Maps. However to gaze at her phone meant to take her eyes off the street and not watch where she was going. For the tiny locals, the only thing scarier than an American was an absentminded American. No longer were her steps restrained by caution, those in her way now had to make the strongest possible effort into avoiding being stepped on. Her concentration on the map failed to break even when she turned up a narrow back street. Barely wide enough for even one foot, if anybody on the street couldn’t get in doors they needed to run as fast as they could as the American teen unconsciously stepped on anything that got in her way from potted plants to restaurant sign boards out on the street. Even parked vespas. It wasn’t until she felt the metallic crunch of a parked car under her soft, bare sole that she looked down to see where she was going. 

‘Oops, sorry you guys. I must’ve gotten distracted, hope I didn’t break your little toy car’ she said, not really sounding that apologetic. She lifted her foot to inspect the car, a Fiat that wasn’t even as long as her foot was wide. Every window had smashed, the upholstery was completely crumpled and the roof had caved in. The car looked like it had been smashed in a scrapyard.

‘Whoever’s car this is, I hope your insurance premium covers Americans’ she joked. 

The Trevi Fountain was even more crowded than the Spanish steps. As she approached the fountain, she found it harder and harder to step without stepping on often as many as dozens of people at a time. She found that the best way to clear a path was to hover her foot over where she wanted to step and slowly lower it, giving the people underneath plenty of time to escape out from underneath but making sure they moved quickly. The locals, along with the other relatively bigger tourists were quick to make way when they saw the giant American’s bare sole descending upon them. Eventually she was as close to the fountain as she could physically get and she immediately felt disappointed. The fountain wasn’t even as long as her leg was. It wasn’t tall, the statues above it looked like little figurines to her. On top of this there was a 10 foot drop where Europeans could comfortably stand in front of the fountain but her feet would never be able to fit, it made the fountain look even smaller. Paige had heard something about a tradition of throwing coins in the fountain. Instead of going to the effort of taking her currency dispenser out of her backpack she reached into her breast pocket and pulled out two quarters, pretty small coins to her, not worth a lot. But for Europeans those two coins were worth more than some people’s wallets and if stacked on top of each other, would be taller than a fully grown Italian man. 

She reached over and dropped the first in. It was a simple act but the height she dropped it from, combined with the size of it caused those in front of the fountain to be soaked from the splash. When she held the second coin over the fountain those same people didn’t waste any time getting away from the splash zone. When she saw the panic she was causing with just a coin, Paige couldn’t help but burst out laughing again. How easy it was to toy with these tiny Europeans and have fun with them. She raised her arm as high as possible and dropped the coin in. This time the splash made it all the way up to her level, soaking even more people and even splashing on her toes somewhat, which gave her an idea. 

‘You know, walking around on the hot ground takes its toll on the feet, you don’t mind if I cool off, do you?”

She said as she took one step into the fountain. She didn’t put her foot into the fountain with any particular force but it still created a much bigger splash than either of her coins. Almost as soon as her foot entered the water did uproar break out amongst the locals, some began yelling curses at her as she placed her other foot in the water. Some even threw coins and plastic bottles at her. Things that impacted her skin unnoticed by her. It wasn’t long before local police stepped forward to try and enforce Rome’s ban on climbing (or in this case stepping) into the fountains but Paige wasn’t too fazed when she saw them

‘Sorry fellas but how else can a girl stay cool in this heat’ She said to the tiny law enforcement, kicking out and throwing up even more water. 

By the time Paige was bored with the fountain it almost seemed like there was more water outside than inside. Walking again through the streets, she got to take in how tiny everything really was here. She looked down and could see the roof of every building, usually at knee height and they weren’t small buildings either. Most of them were 5-6 storeys high. Locals continued to flee as fast as they could from wherever she went. Though most locals were able to spot her from very far away by this point considering she stood almost 5 times as tall as most of the buildings but even at a walking pace, it was very easy for Paige to catch up to groups of tiny Europeans. She looked down on one small group and decided to have fun by messing with them, when they looked up they saw her bare sole, as big as two trucks, looming over them. Their immediate reaction was to run, sprint away as fast they could to avoid being stepped on like ants from a picnic. Paige let them run for a couple of seconds, let them think they were going to get to safety, they could see a restaurant up ahead, if they could just get to the door. Then the foot slammed down in front of them, heart stoppingly close. As hearts of the locals returned to their chests from the back of their mouths, Paige let out another chuckle and continued walking, having entertained herself enough with them. 

The next place of interest Paige visited was the Pantheon, the former Temple turned grand Cathedral was an imposing structure, the resting place of many significant figures in Italian history from Voltaire to Raphael had been, as the name suggests, a temple for all the Roman gods and the Romans treated as such when building it so that it would be a great and huge tribute to their pantheon. This was less obvious to Paige, for whom it was only hip height. She could certainly appreciate this piece of history, mostly for how cute it was that something could be so tiny yet so grand and complex. She saw the hole in the middle of the domed roof where natural light lit up the interior of the building. When she leaned over the building she found that she could cover the hole entirely with both hands. Unsettled gasps and even a few screams could be heard from within as the Cathedral was plunged almost entirely into darkness. As she was indulging in her latest way to toy with the locals, she, by complete chance, noticed another policeman standing by her big toe, yelling up at her. She had to crouch down to hear what he was saying but he was pissed. 

‘You’ve caused enough trouble today, you need to come with me’ he demanded. 

‘Oh sure yeah officer, what are you gonna do? Handcuff my fingers?’ Paige retorted

That alone was a wishful thought considering her fingers were nearly as long as cars and as thick as tree trunks she looked a couple of inches over and saw were the police man had parked his car. She found it hard to believe any of these hot wheels like vehicles could actually work but she’d seen them in action. She had stood over a main road, mesmerised by the miniature traffic at her feet, she hated to back to the ant comparison but it was like watching an army of mechanical ants on their way out of their mechanical hill. This particular car was only a little longer than her middle finger. she clasped the car between her thumb and forefinger and easily lifted it from the ground. 

‘I suppose you were gonna put me in the back of this?’

She squeezed her finger and thumb together, crushing the vehicle, smashing its roof and slowly turning it into a distorted clump of metal as the local cop could only watch, helplessly

‘Uh oh officer, your perp is resisting arrest. Use your big policeman strength to take her down down. Aww! Is she too big? Well I guess there’s nothing you can do to stop her from doing what she wants’

As if on cue her phone started buzzing, a vibration that locals in the surrounding area could feel through the ground. She checked to see who was calling and saw the number for the tour company on her screen and answered the call

‘Hello?’

Ms Adams’ a stern, feminine voice adressed her through the speaker ‘We’ve been getting reports from local authorities all day about your antics’ ‘B-but ma’am’ Paige’s tone was less confident now

‘Enough Ms Adams, our company is already on thin ice with those two up in Dublin, the hoops we had to jump through there and now I find that you’re assaulting police, vandalising monuments and destroying vehicles?’

‘Sorry ma’am’

‘It’s not me you should be apologising too, you’re lucky the Italians don’t try to shut us down! Now collect your stuff and go with the police, they’ll escort you back to your accommodation’

‘But I didn’t even get to see the Colosseum’ Paige protested

‘I think it’s for the best you don’t’ responded the Company rep before hanging up. 

Paige made her way back to the Spanish Steps where a knee height crane was failing to lift her flip flops from the ground onto a truck that was clearly ill equipped to handle such heavy material. The sight was amusing to Paige and would serve as one last reminder of the height disparity between her and the locals as she bent down and easily picked her footwear from the ground before turning to leave, her feet surrounded by toy sized police cars that bounced ever so slightly with each footstep