Part 2: The Colosseum, Lunch, and walking the Tiber

So after a dramatic pause, I'll continue my retelling of the monster-day yesterday was.

From Palatine, you head down the backside of the Domition's mansion and you come out on a street that leads right up to probably the most spectacular of the arches in the Forum / Colosseum area, and that's the Arch of Constantine, which is shown to the left. It too, like the other arches in the Forum, is really intricate and describes the battles and triumphs of Constantine, or the Emperor who allowed for religious tolerance in Rome and really paving the way for Christianity to be the dominant religion (and now seemingly the only religion) in Rome. That arch is the same one you see behind me in my picture next to the Colosseum from yesterday, as it sits directly to the west. Enlarge that picture to see some of the intricacies of the sculpting, it's just fantastic.

After we make our rounds past the Arch, the group all headed past the gates, went through the metal detectors and headed into the long corridor leading towards the entrance into the Colosseum. You enter on the bottom level to see the fantastic pillar-work and supports that line the interior, and really get the first true glimpse of the world's original major sporting venue. The seating of the time could hold over 50,000 people in its original setting, and equally impressive, it could empty out in as short a period as 5 minutes. Talk about an exit strategy. The inside really works as a maze, with tons of stairs, doors, and archways leading to ways up, down, and around; you really could take about 20 different ways around and end up at different place every time. If you can't tell, this was probably my favorite place I've been so far, just because it's the combination of everything I've liked about Roma so far: it's incredibly, unfathomably old yet so intensely well-preserved; it's absolutely gigatic, and it's unlike anything that could be built today. This could not be done today, especially not in five years and built out of stone, it just couldn't happen.

It was brilliant. I took a ton of pictures, and I guess now would be a good a point as any to show them off. They start to progress into the upper levels here, and looking down on the Arena (which means sand. . . it used to be filled with sand and was changed in the 200s to not be and instead be filled with the labrynth-like maze that you can see in the following pictures from above. The shape, size, and scope are all just so impressive, it's really tough to argue that it isn't one of the top man-made structures of all time. It takes a good 20 minutes to walk all the way around it, and to think of the ancient battles (think Russell Crowe in Gladiator, it's actually semi-accurate I guess) between man and beast, man and man, and just straight public executions, and that the full 50,000 would fill this place several times a week is just so cool. Now that I've flooded this with pictures, how about a chance for some video, eh?
It really makes you feel small and insignificant in some ways, and I am so glad I've had the chance to see it now. It's one of the defining features of Roman history and architecture, and I could've easily spent an entire day in there, not just an hour or so. The guys and I all liked it so much we decided to eat across the street at a Trattitorria that we knew was overpriced from the get-go, but it literally was right across the street, and with a view like that, who could complain?

Please, excuse my goofiness in this picture, but it's me, Chad (center) and A.J. (left), at the restaurant with the Colosseum in the background. We all had really good food, I ordered a pizza and we split a cheese plate that was awesome, and we each had two cokes a piece, and if you've never been to Europe, they don't list their drink prices on the menu, and they offer to bring you them all the time. So we each had two, and got the bill, thinking ok, they're going to be ridiculous, but like 3 euro per can ridiculous, but NO, it was 6 Euro a can! As in almost 9 bucks! We all had a pretty good laugh about it and I'll totally look back fondly at the experience, but damn, 9 bucks for 12 ounces, it's like 75 cents a sip. Oh well, such is life I guess.

We then decided to walk back from the Colosseum to our apartment in the Prati neighborhood, or about 4 miles or so, but come at it from the South, where we'd yet to go, and just see Tiber Isle and everything along the West bank of the Tiber south of the Vatican. We did eventually make it there, but not eventually handicapping ourselves about a mile and a half by accidently walking east on a road we were supposed to be going west on . . .yeah, not our best moment. But we saw residential Rome, and eventually, Tiber Isle, or this little island one of the bridges runs over the top of and there are a bunch of old castles on, along with some restaurants nearby. I took another cheesy picture here, so enjoy I suppose. I also included one without me to see the island, so enjoy that more if that's your fancy. Andddd that's really about it I suppose, we made it back and I nursed my sore feet, got some groceries and we had a few friends over to just hang out for a while, pretty nice times.

And I'm going to mention this in the email, but I've created a Snapfish account to show off all my pictures I've taken, so if you feel like getting more of a slideshow, then check that out. If not, I'll be blogging regardless, just thought I'd give you more of a glimpse into what I'm seeing.

And, as always, ciao.

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.

Delving Deeper

So yesterday was pretty cool. Saw the Vatican, St. Pietro's Basilica, my study center, etcetera.

Today may have been cooler yet.

I got up this morning and got ready to go to my study center again, this time for some lessons on Roman culture and things not to do while you're here, as well as some information on my classes. I'll talk about that stuff more later, since I'd rather go on about my other fun adventures.

So today we took an Italian Placement Exam that was hysterical since I knew no Italian and I just needed to be placed in the easiest class. However, living among Italians and the language is undeniably the fastest way to pick things up. I still know very little, but in less than three days I've really started to pick up steam. Example: Last night I had some Pizza e Birra, una Nastro Azzurro to be exact. In case you were wondering how Italians eat pizza, it looks a little something like a sandwich, with the cheesy-part of two slices facing together and the crust working like the bread. It's good. And it looks like the picture to the left.

And it's good. Gelato, or Italian ice cream, is buono, but it's nothing all that better than American gelato at this point, although it is literally everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean at least two stands a block. And when it's 95 degrees out, it sounds very appealing at every stand.

Anyway, on to the sight seeing, since it's a lot of fun. Basically, we started out in the center of Roma, at Banchi Nuovi, or literally 'new church,' which is, of course, still 300 years old. That's new by Italian standards and still older than our Constitution. Go figure. But we walked up and saw this beast of a structure, one of the most easily reconized in Rome, the Pantheon. It's breathtakingly old, as in approaching 2 millenia, or 2000 years. It's been updated several times since then, but the original outside has been roughly the same since 125 AD. Yeah, pretty old. And by pretty old, I mean like almost Jesus, Caesar, Augustus old. So you know it's been around a while. By the way, all these pictures get bigger when clicked, so check it out blown up, it's pretty cool.

Inside, it's circular, and has been converted to a Catholic church, just like everything else in Roma. I tried my best to video again here, and I must preface as with everything that it really doesn't do it justice, it just attempts to.
As I continued through the Pantheon, watch the video and look up top to the ceiling. That's a whole. It lets light into the dome, and with light comes water when it rains, and the water falls right on the marble floor, and has been for as long as the dome's been there. It's got little holes for drainage, but the idea that water could be allowed to fall into such a place and still look brilliant after all these years really is nothing short of awesome.

With that behind us, we left for Trevi Fountain, but we got a little sidetracked along the way with the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a Catholic Saint who's church knocks the socks off any church I've ever been in anywhere other than Roma, yet it's not even the top church in a square mile, which is hard to fathom much more beautiful than that. I'll post a few pictures to give you an idea. Sculptures, like the one on the right, are just everywhere in there, and seemingly every one greater and more imposing than the last. It really is something. I have a video of this too, and I'm scared Blogger is going to revoke my posting privileges I'm posting so much media, but there's no cap so I'll just use away and post another I'm sure. One of the coolest things to note while watching the video is to see the ceiling. It's all painted with these beautiful colors and almsot seems 3-D in its' ways, it's just jaw-dropping that this is such a standard church by Roman standards yet be so breathtaking.
It was all just so much and I could talk for days, but onward we went to Trevi Fountain, aka the largest and supposedly most impressive fountain in the world, and the one that graces my blog front. It's pretty awesome and awe-inspiring in its own right, and on top of everything else I've seen today, it's a bit of sensory overload. So much effort, so much work, so much history . . . it's just mind-boggling. And for a full view of it, check the title, but I know some of you like seeing me in these pictures, though I can't imagine why. But so here I am. You're welcome.

And our day wasn't even done! We hit the Spanish Steps, aka 138 steps of pure torture to get to the top of. It was hot and humid and led to quite a view, if that's any consolation (in fact, it almost was). The steps are cool, but the picture I'm choosing to include is from the top, overlooking Roma, so I start the Blog with it today just to give you all a glimpse of the view. Just lots of fun to do and see, it was worth the hot slog of the day out to see it. But the nice part was, we got to ride the Metro home, and what would've been an hour and a half walk morphed into a 10 minute ride and a 5 minute walk culminating in a well-deserved grocery run.

Perfecto. Awesome. Just a day of much beauty and history. I know I can't possibly keep this pace of seeing amazing things, but then again . . .

Until next time, Ciao.

The Start of the Fun Stuff

So this is how Rome really is.

I got up this morning and walked literally 3 blocks to the worlds smallest sovereign nation, the Vatican City. I didn't plan on this being the place I went, but I just wanted to see what was around me. I knew the Vatican was close, but man, it's really, really close. The line to get into the Musei Vaticano was a mile long, and I didn't care if I got in there today, so I just walked around the Walls of the Vatican for a while, until I rounded a corner on this beautiful piazza and started to head toward a pillared, columed opening, look inconspicuous enough from the street.

It was anything but inconspicuous, however.

I walked around there for a while, just taking in the open space for all it was. I'm by no means Catholic, but it was enough to make you feel religious. I mean, wow. It's just huge, monolithic, even, and epin in its size. I mean, not that the pictures can do it justice, but look at the people! They pale in comparison to the fountain, and the statues atop the scaffolding are around 10 feet tall, just to give you an idea. I was just pinching myself, wondering how something so gargantuan and marvelous could be done in times without the kind of modern technology and skills found in workers today. But it got cooler, even, after I headed in to the Chapel itself, in the dome you can see in the picture right next to this. The pillared entrance on the left is the way in and out, leading to the tombs of the popes and saints, including St. Peter himself, along with more stunning artwork and architecture than you could shake a stick at.

I took a video of the interior, and I'm going to try and put it up, but it can't do it justice. It was really just something that has to be experienced to be described fully.



It really is amazing here. I'm meeting some nice people, but I really wish I had someone here I was close to, to share this all with. I'll have the memories forever, and that's what's cool.

In other news, it's still hotter than hell (pun intended, with the Vatican and all. . . hahaha) outside, to the tune of 95 degrees with high humidity, but I'm staying as cool as I can and living the dream, eh?

Hope all is well back home, and maybe I'll leave you with a parting picture or two, just to really send it all home. And, as always, Ciao.

Buongiorno from Roma

I'm in Rome.

It's surreal. It's a blur. I'm really tired but in high spirits to say the least. I'm sure I'll be a bit more composed after a good night's sleep and such. It's very different than I was expecting in some ways, but in an interesting way. The streets of my residence are--no joke--about 3 blocks from the Vatican. I saw the basilica on my drive in (which note to all of you: taxi drivers are totally nuts and go 60 km/h over the speed limit, change lanes without a blinker and rarely settle on one lane. Yeah, I was tired and it was definitely an experience to say the least).

My flights went well, my bag took over an hour to get off the plane and I nearly freaked out at Lufthansa, but it came and I just scooted through and found my booth and came on over to the place where I'm staying. I have a single, but an apartment mate got here earlier and claimed it, got completely settled, and I'm having to be "that guy" that gets it, since it was assigned to me personally and I have the email to prove it. And it's big, private, and not a triple, all good things!

And I went to a Roman market and looked at fruit and watched a person I was sort of in a group with touch the fruit and the market lady absolutely growled at them, since, apparently, you're supposed to wear gloves while touching the fruit. Lesson learned. Oh, and bags cost 5 cents a piece, so that took a bit of a second to figure out, but everything is priced as listed, tax included, and it's pretty basic once you get used to it. French'll help a bit, English is ok, but I'll know Italian soon enough and get by.

But pictures are forthcoming, and the real journey has begun. It's 7:22 pm here and 10:22 am back home, so with that adjustment behind me, it's onward and upwards. The mass bells just tolled from the Vatican and I'm in Roma, tired and worn through, but feel good. Spirits are up. Hope all is well back home, and more to come soon.

Ciao.

Today's the day

So long, Portland.

So long, Oregon.

So long, United States, even.

Hello, Europe.

Hello, Italy.

Hello, Rome.

Today's the day I've been preparing for, and after a semi-decent night's sleep, I am leaving for Rome. Kirsten has been a huge help these past few days helping me get ready and making sure I am prepared to leave the country (i.e. making sure my Mexican food love is satiated for the last time). I am simultaneously ecstatic, nervous, antsy, and even a bit sad to be leaving. I'm really going to miss some people, from family to friends to Kirsten, some things just aren't easy to leave behind, even if it is just for a little while.

But this process started years ago, hoping to go abroad, and manifested itself in reality with my application process starting a little before Thanksgiving last year, and here I am now, passport in hand and clothes in case, ready to leave for over four months.

This is the last blog emanating from the United States for the next few months, and where it really begins to get interesting. In case you were wondering, my flight leaves at 1:05 pm West Coast Time and lands at 11:20 pm West Coast Time, or 8:20 am Rome time, and I should be finished with my travels around 12:30 pm when I finally get to Rome after leaving Frankfurt, then customs, check-in with my program, moving in, and eventually, meeting people, all culminating with my first bedtime sleep at around 10pm Rome time, or 1 pm tomorrow.

So here I go. I wish you all the best and say goodbye, and here's to having a memorable, amazing, and life-lasting experience. Wish me luck and I'll be in touch.

Ciao.

Less than four

I am even closer now to leaving, and it feels unreal to an extent that I'll be leaving in under 4 days. In 96 hours, I'll be in Frankfurt, probably feeling very tired and having to realize that it's only 8am. I don't have any life experience to prepare me for this, and the butterflies are starting to stir just a little, but in a good way. I think if I didn't have those, there would be something wrong. I've wanted to go to Europe my entire life, and my journey to see what I've learned about and dreamed of my entire life begins so soon. I was just thinking about how I've been alive for 9100 days, and for a large portion of those, I've imagined going to see what I'm about to see, and in a mere four, that dreaming will be a reality.

And I can't wait.

I'm going to see Egypt, fulfilling my longest-standing dream that began when I was 3 and decided I wanted to be an Archeologist. I'm going to go to Rome and do as the Romans do, seeing the foundations of government I've dedicated my college career to analyzing. I'm going to go to Greece and see the history of the mythology I've studied since I made a video of Daedalus flying too close to the sun with Andrew Nicholson in 6th grade. I'm going to go to Britain, the origin of the majority of my musical tastes and American Revolution studies sparked my interest in. I know, it may sound lame, but it really is the culmination of years of dreaming, pining, and wishing to go, and my planning is about to pay off in spades in less than four days.

In other news, I finished work today. No more GapKids for Craig! And they paid me in cash to walk out the door and I don't even half to go back, look at me go. KK finished work today too and that leaves us a few days to hang out before we leave. . . I am still coming to terms with the fact that it's going to be over 40 days without seeing one another, but we're going to experience so much, I know it won't be like 40 days of time as I know it now. We get to see Egypt together, Rome, Athens, Berlin, Barcelona, and Basel too, and when you put that all together, it sounds like a pretty damn exciting docket.

But yes. Four days. Keep checking and I'll keep posting. Ciao.