#38 Exploring Ancient Rome and Return to Milan
Saturday was a jammed pack day. The first monument I visited was the Coliseum. Some costumed centurions wanted me to take a picture to them and pay them a tip, but I refused. They asked why I was crying which was strange because I was in a good mood and not crying. I went inside the Coliseum and looked around both the stadium and the museum of the Flavian dynasty inside the stadium. The Coliseum to the day has been an inspiration for modern stadium building and is an impressive structure. After the Coliseum Matt and I headed to the Forum. The Forum was filled with the remains of the old Roman market places and republican centers of government. It also had a hall of marble statues including a tunic made of red marble. The Forum also included the Palatine hill was where the imperial palace was built. I found it interesting how much ruins have survived the past two thousand years. As a fan of Roman history, I spent hours looking at the ruins of the Forum, the Palatine hill, and the Circus Maximus on the other side of the Palatine Hill (the word palace come from the name of the hill).
I then picked up my jacket at my hostel and then headed to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is in the best shape of all of the Roman remains as it was converted into a catholic church that includes the tombs of some old Italian kings. It was an interesting building, but I did not find it interesting as any of the other ruins I saw.
We then went to the Trebi fountain and back to the Piazza Navona. These fountains reminded me of resort pools and Jacuzzi and suggested Matt should apply some his artistic ability to designing modern pools and architecture.
Before dinner we decided to do something very appropriate for Halloween. We went to a chapel/tomb that was decorated by human bones. It was interesting how the artists were able to arrange human bones to create elaborate designs. This place was extremely creepy to see the remains of hundreds of people becoming decorations. The proverb at the end of the chapel saying “We were once like you, but you will be like us” added to the creepiness. Instead of tiles, each piece of the floor is also a tombstone so you walk on the dead while you look at the dead.
After the crypt, we ate spaghetti carbonara for dinner. It was delicious and tied the Naples dinner from the night before as the best pasta I have had in Italy. We then walked to the Spanish steps and climbed them. Then Matt showed me the pilgrim’s gate, the Barberini house, several Egyptian obelisks, Augustus or Marc Antony’s mausoleum, and some other sites. After a long night I headed back to wake up for mass at the Vatican the next morning.
The next morning I arrived to the Vatican for mass. Catholics around the world flooded St. Peters as I pushed my way towards a view of the Pope. I usually lack enthusiasm (pretty wrong of me) for church, but a once in a lifetime opportunity seeing and sharing mass with the Pope actually made less impatient towards church. After mass, I left to have a pizza for lunch in the Vatican and boarded the train back to Rome. It was the last train that I would ride in Italy (other than the metro) and I took notes of my Roman weekend.
Monday and today (Tuesday Nov 3rd), I took two midterms and studied for them. I feel that I aced my first test and the second one was much harder, but I still feel that I did well on the test. I also e-mailed my professors about missed classes associated with visiting my grandmother’s 80th birthday which is a very important family event. I also returned to work on the finding a finance job front with more follow ups and new applications. Now after a hectic few weeks, I plan on relaxing the next few days until I leave to Africa on Friday.
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