Roma-Ro-Ma-Ma

Let the games begin...

ROMA!

I am taking a class about the history of Ancient Rome, and for our field trip, we went TO Rome. Even better? My teacher used to be a tour guide so she knows everything about everything- so you would walk by something you thought was just a rock and she'd be like "oh this is...."

 (plus she is really pretty and cool and I wish she would take me shopping cause I love her style)

Our trip was only for Saturday and Sunday, so me and a couple of other kids in the class decided to go up Friday morning to have more time! I am so glad we did :)

FRIDAY:

Wake up at 7 am and wonder why it is I wanted to go to Rome a day early, grab my backpack and head to the train station!

Once we got there and checked into the hostel (more to come on that later) we headed to The Vatican! It was a really pretty day out which was nice, we walked around for a while because our museum tickets weren't until one.

Do you see the obelisk in this picture? (I really hope so)- 

The obelisks in Rome are from Egypt, they were brought there by Augustus when he conquered Egypt in the battle of Actium. They were brought over to show off that they had conquered Egypt. 

Later though the catholic church would plop crosses on top of all of them because they were symbols of pagan gods.

(WOW- I just impressed myself!)

Anywho...

The Vatican Muesum is gorgeous, there were so many pretty rooms and things to see. Naturally the highlight of the musuem is the Sistine Chapel.

Someone should really high five me, or yell at me I am not sure which. They DO NOT let you take pictures, there are a ton of guys walking around saying "NO PICTURE NO VIDEO!" if they see you even try. If they see you even THINKING of trying they are all about your business.

MUAHAHAHA

That is real life. Weird right? I could have stayed in there all day there was SO much to look at. 

You would finish being amazed by one thing and move your eyes and then BAM you are amazed all over again.

After that we were sooooo sleepy and our feet were tired. This was a crisis situation because there was SO MUCH LEFT TO DO! 

Well naturally that called for gelato!

We went to what is apparently a really famous gelato place, conveniently located right across the street from the Vatican.

It was so good. 

For 2 euro I got THREE DIFFERENT FLAVORS IN A REASONABLY SIZED CUP.

Once we rallied and our bellies were full we headed over to check out St. Peter's Basilica. This is the burial place of good ole St. Peter and it has the largest interior of any Catholic church in the world.

It is overwhelmingly and indescribably beautiful. Nothing I say will properly do it justice at all.

 Apparently if you rub St. Peter's feet it is good luck!

( I am not a foot person, but he was a Saint and they seemed pretty shiny!)

You can see in the picture how worn down his feet are from people touching them, 

he's got some alien toes!

We also went to the tombs of some of the Popes which is below St. Peter's. We saw Pope John Paul II's tomb, there were people leaving flowers and a lot of people standing there crying. It was like we were at his wake or something it was sad/interesting.

The Vatican took up mostly the whole day. By the time we were out of there it was HIGH TIME for a nap back at the hostel! My one true wish at the end of that day was that someone would come and rub MY feet because they were SWOLLEN. It was like I had two little balloon feet, I was nervous to take off my boots because then they would swell more and I would never be able to get my boots on ever again!

(clearly this did not happen or else I would be blogging about my trip to the hospital- but it was a concern!)

We went to Pizzeria Montecarlo for dinner and it was SO GOOD. The place was packed and Allie and I shared a plate of veggies, om nom nom veggies! And I got a prosciutto and mozzarella pizza!

Mom and Dad, I tried mushrooms! They weren't that bad! (that rhymed, unintentional)

After that we walked around and made our way to THE TREVI FOUNTAIN!

If you want to return to Rome, you have to face your back to the Fountain and throw a coin in.

I HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE AND I RETURNED TO ROME!!

So I did it again to ensure that I would come back!

SATURDAY:

Okay, so we did not need to meet up with class at the hotel we were going to be staying at until 10:30 am. So we all thought, cool we can sleep in till around 9 and get breakfast somewhere and head on over leisurely.

UHM NO. 

7:45 rolls around and I hear the lovely hostel guy say,

"Hello friends, time to wake up!"

I don't know if you think that by calling me a friend I am going to be nicer about this unexpected wake up call, but that is NOT THE CASE.

Apparently they needed to fix some problem they were having with the gas and we all needed to leave.

GRRRRRREAT!

We just got an earlier start than expected! We got croissants and coffee and sat in a cafe near the hotel and then went to meet our teacher and the rest of class.

The hotel was really nice I really liked it, it had a great shower and I was with Allie and Elise and 

WE HAD A BALCONY! Wooohoooo!

First things first was... THE COLOSSEUM! 

(originally called the Flavian Amphitheater)

The Colosseum was built by Vespasian, and it was built for the gladiatorial games.

People think that it used to be able to be filled with water THIS IS A MYTH!

Nero, the emperor before Vespasian had built himself "The Golden House" and had a huge lake where he had fake naval battles for his own amusement. The guy was kind of a jerk and selfish and spending money just for himself. So when Vespasian came around, rather than taking the house and all that stuff...

HE BUILT THE COLOSSEUM ON TOP OF IT!

So literally, underground and pretty well preserved RIGHT NOW is "The Golden House" and the Colosseum is on top of where the lake was, which is why that pesky little rumor started that the Colosseum could be filled with water. 

It can't!

When the Colosseum was finished they had 150 days of uninterrupted celebration. 

CAN YOU IMAGINE?? 

(I would probably die)

It is so cool! It was weird to think about all the people that fought and died there and how many people came there and watched it all. 

Apparently there were doors STRICTLY for the use of taking out the corpses, spoooooky!

The passages that you see there were underground and they were used to keep the animals away from the gladiators. The whole big thing was to watch the animals go against the gladiators, and if they didn't separate them beforehand there really would be no show.

I still think it is weird that people would just go to WATCH people kill each other or get eaten by animals. 

But hey, when in Rome?!

After that we had a lunch break for like an hour and got to do as we pleased, then it was time for Palatine Hill where the original Romans lived!

We saw where the throne of Augustus was, though it was one of those use your imagination type of things seeing as it was mostly broken down walls and grass. 

We also went into Augustus' house, HIS HOUSE! WHERE HE LIVED! 

Those frescoes are from when AUGUSTUS LIVED THERE! Meaning I got to see the same frescoes that Augustus and who ever else he was hanging out with were looking at! 

CRAZY!

From there we walked through some very pretty gardens and were making our way down to the Roman Forum. 

Around this same time, I really had to pee.

I drank too much water at lunch and it was a serious problem.

A SERIOUS PROBLEM!

 All of these buildings are ANCIENT, it's not like I could use Augustus' bathroom (but how cool would that be!)

The Roman Forum was the commercial, political and religious center of Ancient Rome. It started to develop in 600 BC! And it is in the valley between the Capitol and Palatine Hills.

This lovely building is called "The Curia", and it was politically the most important building. It was where the Senate met, and even when the Senate really wasn't doing too much anymore, it was still a really important symbol politically.

Onto the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. 

This was built in 141 AD by Antoninus for his wife Faustina. Do you see the cross on the top? The catholic church plopped that on there to get rid of the pagan symbolism of the temple.

This big guy is the Basilica of Massentius and Constantine.
It is the biggest building in the Forum and it used to be used for civic purposes.

In Ancient Rome they had ladies called "Vestal Virgins" and there job was to keep a sacred fire burning in the Temple of Vesta. The fire always had to be burning and if it went out, they had to sacrifice one of them, but since it was against the rules to KILL a Vestal Virgin, she had to be buried alive.

See it's things like that, what were you thinking Ancient Romans?!

ANYWHO...here is their temple (whats left of it)

And one last look:

After that we walked back to our hotel, we saw "The Wedding Cake" which was a building built by Mussolini that Italians HATE because it used to represent fascism and they are not pleased about this. Also they do not like the design or the style of the building at all because it does not fit in...

Then it was back to the hotel, I got a pastry at a place across the street and walked around for a little with some of the girls in my class and then took an hour nap before dinner!

We went to an apertivo place for dinner, which means that you buy a drink and then go to the buffet for endless amounts of food. But its not like buffet food that you would think- they have cheeses and little sandwich concoctions and pasta etc etc. It was really cool. 

We also bar hopped a little which was fun, but we had an early morning and more to do the next day so no one went too crazy!

SUNDAY:

We woke up and headed to Piazza Navona! 

Piazza Navona used to be the Stadium of Domitian.

 The fountain there was beaaaaautiful (this seems to be the theme with the whole trip!)

 And it is called "The Four Rivers":

From there it was onto THE PANTHEON, which is the best preserved building of Ancient Rome.

This was a temple for all the Gods, and the exterior was once covered in marble and bronze.

The inscription on it says that Agrippa made the temple. And this is somewhat true, he made the FIRST temple in 27 BC, but the one we see now was built by Hadrian. 

Hadrian left Agrippa's name on it because he wanted to connect himself with Agrippa and was too humble.

You might be thinking, Brig why is there a picture of some windows...IT HAS A REASON!

Do you see the small black rectangle to the right of the window?

THAT IS A DOOR! FOR HUMANS! 

Crazy right?!

Then we went to see the Ara Pacis, which was built by Augustus. This building used to be along a main road and it was pretty much Augustus propaganda because a ton of Romans would see it a lot!

From there we had 3 hours before we needed to meet back up again to get the train!

We went to the gardens behind Piazza del Popolo and then to the Spanish Steps :)

Then it was back to the hotel and to the train!

Class Dismissed!