Being in Rome has been great! While I love it so much here, all I can think about when I am seeing this sights is how much my dad and Jesi would love it even more. I love to travel and I want to see the entire world, but I am not educated on anything historical. I didnt start liking history until the end of high school and my college schedule didnt allow me to take any classes in history. Jesi and my dad are so smart and know so much about everything that seeing these sights would mean so much more to them. I hope that they both make it to Rome or Italy sometime soon!!
Today I took the metro over to the Colosseum to start my "Caesar Shuffle" but while I was looking a bit confused trying to read my map some guy asked me if I wanted to join a tour. I was a little reluctant at first, but when I looked up at the Colosseum and saw how massive it was I didn't think that I could tackle it by myself, so I joined the tour. It was a really good thing I did because it was only 11 Euro and a great Italy woman gave the tour of the Colosseum and then a really great Australian girl gave the tour of Palatine Hill. It was well worth the money. Without hearing their insider information everything would have just looked like a bunch of rotting brick. They gave so much information that I could not even digest it all, but nonetheless it was super interesting.
The Colosseum is massive. It was interesting to see how the Colosseum looks now compared to what it would have looked like when gladiators were actually fighting in it. Today I learned that when the Pope's were building Rome they decided to take the limestone and marble from the ancient sites instead of spending money to get new products. This is the reason that all the ancient sites are in brick instead of looking more like how they did when they were built. If the pope's would not have done this then many of the site in Rome would look not only better but their structure would also be more secure. I thought that was pretty crazy!
Palatine Hill was very cool. I knew nothing about it before going on the tour. For Palatine Hill going a tour is really a must!! Otherwise it would look like just a hill of dirt and maybe a circus if you could picture it. Pataline Hill is where the Emperors of Rome built their house. It started off one house on the hill (that had three tops) and over the years the house was added to until the people of Rome created the word "palazzo" or palace for it because it was the huge house on Palatine Hill. In the end that palazzo was built to be so large that the top of the hill was flattened and the palazzo walls perimeter was one mile long. Only little pieces of that palazzo exsist today and it looks nothing like it would have. The pope had all the marble recycled into the Vatican and St. Peters. There is only a little marble still on the ground and some marble pillers broken in a pile. We poured some water on the marble to clean it and the colors of it were amazing. It would have been such a sight to see it back before it was torn up. Also on Palatine Hill is a circus where they used to have Olympic games and carriage races. Just 3 months ago Communi di Roma opened up Augustus house for tourists to see. That was really awesome. It was pretty small but amazing. The house has some of the oldest frescos and mosaics in existence. They were beautiful! From the Palatine garden there is a beautil view of the Forum and since it was so hot and humid out I decided to not walk through the Forum, but rather use my guidebook to look at everything from the view. I will go through it next time I visit Rome. From the view I was still able to see most things like the Arch of Titus, Basilica of Constantine, the Forums main square, Temple of Julius Caesar, House of the Vestal Virgins, and more. The Vestal Virgins was really interesting to me. I cannot believe that 7 year olds were chosen to spend 30 years of their life making sure that the candles never blew out. And to top that off that only one woman actually finished her term because life expectancy was only 35.
After seeing all those sights I was exhausted from the sweltering heat and decided to head to the Spanish Steps to grab some lunch. The Spanish Steps were beautiful but there were too many Chinese tourists bumping into me so I got some pasta at this little outdoor cafe in a cute little piazza. Then I wandered off into the "window shopping" triangle of Rome. It was just like walking around Rodeo Drive. Nothing too special, except for the gown in the Dior window.
After returning back to my side of town, near the Vatican, I stop in the TIM store and got an Italian cell phone. So...any of you can call me with international calling or a calling card. My number is 366 5268107. But before you dial that number, if you are calling from the US, you need to dial 011+39. Okay, well I hope you all are doing great and having a wonderful summer!!
<3
Below:1. view of the Forum from Palatine Hill 2. View of the Forum from Palatine Hill and the three huge arches are the Basilica of Constantine 3. Me on the Spanish Steps 4.and 5.Palatine Hill- pieces of the remaining palazzo 6. the circus 7. pieces of marble (while marble from italy, yellow from spain, purple from Egypt which is rare, Augustus had it all outsourced to Rome and the vatican has 80% of it at 20,000 euro per square inch) 8. Me trying to take a picture with the skyline 9. Casi di Augustus' fresco 10. Outside of the Colosseum 11. View of the inside of the Colosseum (the stage would have covered all of that brick. the brick goes two stories deep and that is where the animals were kept and the slaves who were forced to fight for their masters) 12. Me inside the Colosseum 13. The shopping Triangle in Rome
No comments:
Post a Comment