When In Rome

Real Romans! Ty in front of the Colosseum before our tour.
Wow, Rome has been AMAZING!! We started our sightseeing at the Colosseum, of course. We took a tour of the ruins, with a guide that we could call "Maximus". Unfortunately, the Romans are famous for reusing materials for new building projects, so only 30% of the Colosseum is original. The rest was used to help build St. Peters Basilica for the Pope. Then the Pope felt bad and rebuilt some of it with brick.

We loved the building and have many pictures of it from all angles, this is the view from the main road that drives right past it, built by Mussolini so that his army would look good as they marched by.

If you have ever seen the movie Gladiator, (which we watched in our hostel the day after being toured through the colosseum and told all about the gladiators) it apparently does an amazing job of recreating what it would have looked and felt like during its hieght. You may remember that tigers come out of the wooden floor in the movie for the gladiators to content with. Well, as you can see in this picture, there was actually 2 stories of passageways, elevators and rooms or cages under the arena floor. It was ingeneous design, especially for the time. We also found out that gladiators were the sports heroes of the time and that not that many died. At least not as many as the movies would have us believe. It was very expensive to have the fights, the emperor had to foot the bill and would have to pay the trainer for everyone of his dead gladiators, so there was only about 10 fights a year. I should clarify that not many of the GOOD gladiators died, quite a few slaves did, as they were worth less money. As you can see, we were pretty interested in the Colosseum and the gladiators.

We went to the Vatican city on Wed. for the Pope's address. It was quite the experience! First we were there early to get good seats, and we found them. We were 2 rows back from where the Pope passes in his little jeep twice on his way to the front. Then the Pope gave a Latin, French, English, German, Spanish, Russian and Italian address. One of the most interesting things was that there were special groups there and they would be mentioned to the Pope. At each groups mention, they would stand and cheer and wave things, some would sing, some had flags and signs, it was crazy.

These are the Pope's personal guards. They are Swiss guards and although they look like circus performers they are actually highly trained soilders. I wonder what they think the first time they put that uniform on and head out on duty.

We also went for tours of Palatine Hill, where the Emperors palace was and of the Roman forum, the "cradle of Western civilization". Both were very interesting.

This is a picture of the forum. It is a jumbled mess. First of all, after a fire, earthquake or other disaster, the Romans would just build over the rubble. So, you have layer upon layer of buildings, temples and roads. Also, they often build their new buildings with materials stolen from old ones, so sometimes it is hard to tell where the ruins or artifacts belong. On top of it all, it has been randomly excavated to different depths depending on who is doing the digging and why. SO, this site is a bif puzzle of artifacts and historical stories that are hard to make sense of, especially without a tour guide.

Two stories to end this post.
1. Kelsey has been striking out as far as food in Italy. She was SO excited to come to Italy, as she loves pasta and pizza. Unfortunately she has been disappointed time and time again. Tonight is our last night in Italy so we tried one last time. Everything was looking promising until we realized that they don't accept cards and we don't have that much cash on us. So Kelsey makes a last minute choice to save some money for dessert. Alas, a big mistake, as she read artichoke on the menu instead or Anchovie and hated her fish boney pizza!! All for the sake of saving 2 Euros.
2. We were in what is considered the mother church of Catholisism, San Giovanni. Some people come to this holy place and will walk on their knees up to the front, as it is so religiously special for them. One lady was in the midst of walking the aisle on her knees when we hear, tweetatweet as her cell phone goes off. She pauses on her knees and answers it!! It was hilarious, to see the special moment ruined again!!
Love,
K