Day 71, 4/1/2010

Continuation of Spring Break...

Day 57, 3/18/2010

This was our first full day in Rome. In the morning we got ready. I was a little late getting over to the other building where they served breakfast but not too bad. We used this day to go to the archeological part of Rome. We got up early to head out to the Colosseum. This was the best time because there were less people and we were able to get pictures with less people. It was really nice. We first walked around the bottom level and took a ton of pictures. We didn't have a tour guide so we weren't able to learn much about the place. While we were on the bottom we found a souvenir shop that was worth looking in. There was another one at the top level that had a lot of books. I wrote down a lot of the names of any of the books I was interested in. While we were still on the bottom level because there are two levels you can go up to, we found our first Roma cat of the day. He was so cute, but also kinda grimy from being a street cat. After that we went up the the second level, that is also where we found the second book shop. I was able to get some really nice pictures of the the Arch of Constantine from that level. I was also able to get some nice pictures of the floor of the Colosseum as well as of the country side. Before we headed out Catie decided she wanted some pictures on top of a couple of the capitals that were placed in various places around the bottom level. So we headed down there and she took a couple. We made quite a few people laugh with these poses. We finished walking around the Colosseum and headed out to look at the Arch of Constantine again. This time it was in the day time. Around this time the tourists were their in full. A couple of men dressed up as Gladiators came up to us and asked if we wanted to take pictures with them. It was funny because they had Trisha sit on his lap for the first pictures. I hiked my leg up in the second one. I liked that one better because all three of us were posed better in it. I got a big kick out of the Gladiators. We found out later after seeing more of them that we got the best looking ones. After we looked at the arch again we walked over to the Archeological area where there were the remains of a palace and several temples as well as the Arch of Septimus Severus and the Arch of Titus. Both the Arch of Constantine and the Arch of Titus we learned about in class last semester. This was a very large area. We had to walk around the entire thing. At that last shop I purchased a guide book. So I would actually know what the hell I was looking at. We walked through the area and I took pictures over everything that I wanted pictures of So I wouldn't take so many when Sean came. This was a huge area. It was all different parts of a palace. It was huge and took us quite a while to get through it. Another really cool place that was in this area was the 'hut' that Romulus lived in. It is the traditional place, continuously renewed by the people of the city because Romulus is a founder Rome. When we finished with this area we were close to the Column of Trajan in the Forum of Trajan. This column was yet another piece of artwork we learned about in class. Another thing that I wanted to study but no Trisha and Catie were hungry. So, After that we decided to find some lunch. We were checking some of the restaurants near the column when a lady handed us some fliers to a place nearby with three plates for 12 Euros. It was worth it because we weren't going to spend much for dinner. So we had dumplings, backed chicken and Tiramisu for lunch and it was wonderful. After that we headed out again to walk around and see anything that was worth seeing. We decided to go to the Pantheon. It wasn't that far of a walk. Most everything in the central part of Rome is close together. Close enough that I could walk from one side to the other in about 30 minutes approximately. So we stared on our way and when we got closer we found another area that had ruins but what made this place special is that this is where a lot of the Roma cats stayed during the year. We were looking at them and taking pictures, wishing we could pet them as we walked around the ruins I noticed a place that was open where we could go down with them. It wasn't blocked so we went down. This was awesome because it was a cat sanctuary for the cats of Rome. This is where they are adopted from and saved from the streets. They fix them and feed them. It was really neat. I got to pet so many different cats. They were so cute. We stayed there for a while petting the cats and playing with the ones that weren't scared or angry. After that we headed to the Pantheon. We were HUGELY disappointed when we got there. They had scaffolding down one half of the building front. So the facade was covered. I was rather upset by this because this was my first time to see this building and I really wanted to look at it. It was also closed for evening mass so we weren't able to go in just yet. So we stayed outside and took some pictures. Then before we left to do something else while we waited we found a Gelati shop right next to the building. We got some gelati and for the Catie fell in love with it so much that we went back several time before we left back for Germany. As we walked around we found another Souvenir shop that I sat outside of because I was tired while Trisha and Catie shopped. I found a necklace and earring set that I really wanted there but I didn't get it. I made a promise before going to Rome that since I was going back I wasn't going to buy anything. So I finished my ice cream while they shopped. By then the Pantheon was open for tourists to enter so we went back. This was the best part because we were able to go inside. It was amazing. Another time of actually getting to see what I've only learned about in class. I took a lot of pictures. This was the day that I took so many pictures because of all the places that we went. I loved ever min of it because I love history. I enjoyed getting to see this building very much because of how important it was in my class and how important it was to building innovations. After a little while we started to walk some more. This was when we found a grocery store that was open and we decide to by our dinner. We decided it would be cheaper to get our dinner and make it ourselves than to go to a restaurant and it turns out it was cheaper because of our lunch. It was only 3 Euro between the three of us. After that we headed home we walked down a long street to get to the closest termini to go to our stop and hostel. We stopped by our rooms first to drop off our stuff for the day then we went to the other building to cook our pasta. When we were done and actually ate it, it was kinda nasty but we didn't have much else to do because we didn't want to go buy anything. After that we headed to my room to watch a show that Catie really really wanted me to watch called Glee. After that first episode I was kinda hooked. So we watched it and then went to bed so we could be fresh for the next day.