A full day of Roma

Ok, I hate to disappoint anyone today potentially by saying this is the last of jam-packed days of Roma visits. I can safely say that, since today, we seriously circumnavigated pretty much the entire city, no joke. This blog entry may prove so long and epic that it need be broken into two parts, tackling the enormity of the day. This first part will be posted today my time and maybe the second part tomorrow my time, or late night tomorrow, depending when I get around to it. Maybe I'll have time tonight, but anyway-it's beside the point.

Today was epic. Every day here so far has been, but I really felt like today I saw the world anew, if that's possible. It was just so awe-inspiring, hair-standing, and humbling in a way that it's difficult to explain unless you can be dwarfed in the shadow of such history. Really, there are few places in the world that have preserved human history for 2,000 years, and Rome is one of them. Athens is another, where Kirsten is going to live in 9 days and I am going to visit, and Egypt, where we'll go together and see it. Long story short, I'm blessed and I know it.

But today I saw the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and The Flavian Ampitheater, or as it's better known, the Coloseum. We had to all get up early today to make it out and about by 9 to ride the Metro out--and by we, I mean today whole crew of roommates: Chad, from Berkeley, Bert from Santa Barbara, Alex and A.J from San Diego. We all make a pretty fun and different group, and for all of us to keep on a similar schedule to see things has been pretty cool. Anyway, we rode the Metro, or the Subway of Roma, to Piazza Vittorio, about a mile and a half from the Colosseum, and we decided to walk the rest to meet up with our program group who sponsered our trip so we could go for free. We walked through a lovely garden, and rounded a corner only to see something that you can only feel dwarfed by: the Colosseum. It was as brilliant as I'd hoped it would be and as everyone describes it . . . it's just huge. I must preface this picture to the right, as well as all that include me today, that I didn't shower before I left, sooooo I look a little disheveled, but just imagine that it's my being blown away by the enormity of it all and it is actually closer to reality than I could describe. But yes, it's tough to really describe, other than to say it's just so damn big.

We round around the walls, just all laughing about how something this impressive and grand could have been built 2,000 years ago, without the technology and everything we have today, but add on top of that the whole shabangabang was built in just 5 years makes it even more stunning. It really is one of the seven manmade wonders of the world, unquestionably. Easily.

But our tour does not begin within those walls; instead, towards the right of my goofy smiling and towards the Arc of Constantine, which is behind me and over to the left at the Roman Forum, or the original center of the city dating back to over 2500 years ago, so it's pretty old. Yeah, no joke. It was actually mostly buried about 100 years ago and it was pasture land for cattle, and after seeing it, you have to wonder how anyone could let this literally go to pasture. I posted the video with the hopes of giving you a chance to see a panoramic look at the center. The excavations dug most of this all out of the ground and all things considered, it looks pretty amazing.

Among the really cool sights to be seen at the Forum was the spot where Caeasr was cremated after his assasination and Marc Antony's eulogy, and the very spot is still marked to this day with flowers. It's roped off, but you can take pictures and I did, it's just not that exciting to see, unlike the arches that are all over the place there. The Forum was designed Augustus, Caesar's nephew, and so much of it glorifies him and his family, and the arches mark his accomplishments and they're so intricately carved and everything was just beautiful. We spent a good hour wandering through and checking out everything, while our professor who toured with us really kind of just gave us some overview about a lot of what we're seeing. She rambled and repeated quite a bit of stuff, but hey, some of it was cool.

We wandered from there up to Palatine Hill, or pretty much the hill all the important people in Rome lived on due to its proximity to the Forum, the central trade area and place to be seen in Rome. Pretty much, all of the houses have deteriorated, but one has been partially preserved and that's the Palace of Domition. It's mainly ruins, but still pretty cool. The biggest part was the view. This picture isn't really all that great small, but click to enlarge it and check out the Circus Maximus on the left and the rest of Rome on the right, it's really something. There were tons of ruins there that looked a lot like the old bricks they were, and there were large openings just acting like a skeleton of the mansion it used to house. The other picture here is showing a view down to the old gardens and it shows just the sheer size of the whole compound, just imagine if the corresponding house to such a garden, it was really something.

It was after this that we went to the Colosseum. Now, I didn't think I'd make it here today, so I think I'll cut it off, I'm going to meet up with some people for a while before bed, but I'll post the Colosseum excitement tomorrow morning probably, if not later tonight my time.

Also--I'm making a pro Flickr account for ALL my pictures, and I've taken about 300 maybe so far, but Flickr has a limit on the amount of pictures per month, but the pro account doesn't. Unfortunately, their activation for the pro account isn't working right now, and I am angry with them. I will get all these photos online, I promise, and I'll link you there as soon as I can so you can see everything I've seen, and trust me, it's a lot.

On the next episode of Now That It's In The Rearview, The Colosseum amazingness, 6 Euro Cokes, epic walks, and more videos and photos than you could shake a stick at. So, until tomorrow / tonight, Ciao.