Stop 1- Roma, Italy
Population (city) - 2.7 million
Day 2/3 Rome!! We have this tiny tiny hostel with as many beds packed into it as possible so moving around's a little dificult, but they did have free breakfast that was not half bad at all, then we're out. Walk over to Piazza Republicana this big square taht was very open, nothing too special, then metro to Colosseum. Colosseum tour, learn a bunch, it's huge! Seated 50,000, was never called the colosseum by the romans it was always the amphitheatre and Colossus was this giant statue of gold of some emperor that was right in front of it (the giant background stone hub for it is still there so you can get a sense of how tall it was, 150 feet, then some king melted down the face to put his own on it, and then in the middle ages it was melted down and hte name given to the amphitheatre. It has a lot of holes in it because it was supported by metal pins and they were taken out for building materials progressively over the middle ages after it was put out of use. The platform where fights would occur wasn't there anymore so you could see under it to all the niches and tunnels and little cages in the ground where they used to keep the animals and the gladiators used to come up on these pulley system elevators. Outside there's a giant fountain that was the victor fountain, the dead had their own exit (the modern day one). It took 3 minutes to get all 50,000 people in and out, also called the vomitarium because it vomited people in and out, and everyone had wooden tickets that plebians got for free and aristocrats had to pay for, and slaves could even come and sit in the top rings, and there were 76 entrances each archway was an entrance. etc etc. There's lots of history there. It was built in the 1st century AD and actually a lot of its not there anymore, it was reconstructed with bricks, which is very sad, but still cool that a lot of it is there. oh yeah other cool thing, there are big square holes in the very top where they used to place wooden beams that jutted out at 90 degree angles to form a sort of awning or roof for the spectators. Ingenious, no? Okay good tour, then walked down to Circo Massimo, where they used to have chariot races and now it's jsut a park for runners, then had another tour of the Roman Forum, stood on Palatine Hill wher Romulus founded Rome 754 BC, saw Emperor Demission's palace on Palatine Hill (the foundation of it anyways) his private stadium, the banquet room, a lot of columns that were half destroyed or on the ground, the throne room, a foot of a giant statue with a toe that was as big as someone's leg today...again everything was decorated in marble and the marble was taken, a lot by the Vatican to build Vatican City, and now its just ruins. Well preserved ruins, but still ruins. Fast forwarding, roman forum was cool because its this valley of ruins all temples, the first ever botanical gardens and aviaires, and this one temple of Nero it's circular with a green door and red porphyria marble colums (emperor's amrble, they exhausted the vein of marble and you cant get it anymore, the Vatican has over 85% of it now..) and the locks and everything still work and they're from pre-0. Saw the only 3 of 35 arc de triomphe's that are left in Rome- Arch of Constantine, arch of Titus, and one other at the very end of the forum, also got a great view of Rome. Then walked up and Piazza Campidiglio, there were a lot of wedding couples taking pictures all around which was cute, saw the Altar of the Nation which has the tomb of the unknown soldier, this giant building with angels riding chariots on top, it had a little exhibition on the Italian civil was of 1870 (risorgimento) but it was all in Italian, on top we ate at a little cafe and also got another great view of the city. We passed up the Imperial Forum (the street leading up to Altar of the Nations) saw the big column Traiana, built for an emperor to celebrate his victories in 107-8 AD but then the statue on top was replaced by St Peter's later on. Across from that there was this semicricle construction in Italian called Mercati Trainei, it used to be the markets and its super well preserved, thenw e kept walking Via del Corso the main street, saw the Pantheon (not the Parthenon as I thought) it was a giant circular dome with the largest domed roof made of brick in the world, and that from 1st centruy AD, it had a giant hole in the middle on top, and inside it was essentially a basilica, the tomb of the second Italian king whose name beings with a U (Umbert?) was there (King 1844-1890 weird years for a second king), kept wakling to Piazza Navona which used to be where the emperors had battleship fights for entertainment. Now it's this giant plaza and it had a huge Christmas market, candy, toys, balloons, chreche figurines, performers (guys juggling fire on a uniycle, creepy old guy with can can finger puppets) found the Fontaine de Trevi and lots of little shopping areas, went up to the Spanish Steps area, these big steps leading up and at the bottom its all high class shopping and millions of people in the streets, giant Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci stores, made it to Piazza del Popolo at the top of Via del Corso for yet another small market, then turned around and went back. Got Italian cappucinos (very very good, beats the French by all means) and gelato pistachio and nutella. Also went in this cathedral of St Ignatius of Loyola that had frescoes covering the entire ceiling and saw a women's choir singing in the street which was nice, lots of squares had typical roman fontains with the obelisk that you see in Provence a lot, then at night we made friends with some guys in our hostel from UConn who were on our tour of the colosseumand we ended up playing cards until bed.
Day 4 ROME! Up early, metro to the Vatican, St Peters basilica (huge) and there were masses going on everywhere the most priests in uniform I've seen anywhere ever, and the guys giving mass were in dark pink cloaks and they'd come up from downstairs at all the random altars and have a group of people following them. It had this amazingly huge altar. Four pillard construction in the middle with vines creeping up it, and it seriously looked like ten churches combined, cherub statues as big as elephants, swiss guards in ridiculous romantic period costumes/uniforms protecting the place with staffs and berets and capes and silly boots, then walked around the huge outer wall of the city that sloped up from the base to form a wall with towers (craineaux) to the Vatican museum, no line! (this would be a trend) We walked around the entire thing waiting for the Sistine chapel and its all the way at the very very end (but there were signs saying Sistine chapel this way since the beginning) so it was a little confusing. It you stand in front of each piece there for a minute you'd be there for 15 years, I'm not sure what they consider pieces because literally every open space was taken up by paintings or statues, the ceilings were all decorated and every wall had an Italian wooden cabinet or some giant fresco. Saw the Map room, Signature Room, Egyptian Museum, jewish stars on the floor of one of the rooms in tile which was trange, lots of Raphael's and Bernini's works, the Sistine chapel of Michaelangelo, (huge for a chapel also very full of tourists also cool to see thathand picture finally although it was super high up. It's part of a series, first god making the earth, making light, water, then adam, then eve, then original sin, then three panels of noah and the flood. Back ourside, saw a Christmas market, had this one stand called pimp selling very colorful underwear (Ross I thought of your hanukkah present) then onto Caste San Angelo this castle that was originally a fortress and was restored by teh popes in the middle ages and has a lot of rooms done by Michaelangelo (our fave)and other famous painters. It was closed on Monadys, but the outside was very cool a very old brick building, round with lots of additions and another giant angel and chariot on top. Also right on the Tybe River, crossed Pont Sant Angelo with lots of statues on it and walked forever near the riverside, passed another market with free samples and honey cough drops, reached the old Jewish quarter and saw this Jewish school and lots of kids running around, ,lots of falafel stands, a little bit of memorabilia on the walls like this marlbe menoral or candelabra and jewish star in one of hte walls but not much, I also couldn't find any bakeries for just plain challah, but still an interesting vibrant area. Up to a fresh fruit market in Piazza Campi a littler square, then all the way back to the riverside quick stop for pizza and on to the Spanish Steps where I finally found the bumblbee earrings I've been wanting the entire semester! Garnet stone sin them. Excellence. After that we roamed around, climbed all the Spanish Steps, saw the Villa Medici which is now the National Academic of France, walked to the Place of 4 Fontains which is an intersection with four fountains, sat in this little park with palm trees and then went back to the hostel, passed some more giant buildings that weren't marked on the way. There's a whole little chinese area around the hostel which reminds me of ABC trading company times a million. In terms of Rome as rome, yes there are lots of vespas, yes they have good gelato everywhere, people are super nice (I mean waiters and service people, they always smile and say hi even if you're just walking by, we even had guys bow down to us to try to entice us to eat at their restaurant) and they have these little Italian crepes which look like giant fluffly donutes, lots of little snackbars, everywhere, good all around. At night got Italian pasta and more gelato (this time mint chocolate chipa dn lemon) and hung out at the hoste. Tomorrow up at 5:45 for the first train to Florence!!!
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