The Roman Forum

I'm struggling to find time to sit and write new posts. This also means that I'm not writing in time to remember everything I've learned. There's so much packed in to each day that it takes over an hour and a lot of google searching to get my facts straight. 

Right now, we're leaving the center of Rome and we're on our way to Pompeii. It's a three hour bus drive, and I hope to use this time to catch up on my writing. For the last two days, we've explored the city of Rome. We first visited the Colosseum, a massive structure located in a part of the  city called the Forum. The Forum is the most historical part of Rome where many of the great monuments have been excavated and are now protected by a pricey entrance fee. I was surprised to learn that many Romans don't the Forum because the cost to get in is too expensive.  

Anyways, the main attraction of the forum is obviously the colosseum. I knew it was huge, but I gained a whole new appreciation for it's size when I saw it in person. It looks as big as Lucas Oil Stadium (I don't know the actual size), and it was built well over 1,000 years ago! I learned that it only took 8 years to complete. Remember when I wrote that the Duomo took over 100 years to build? Yeah, the colosseum dwarfs the size of the Duomo. 

  

These people are taking a special archeological tour on the floor of the colosseum. They reconstructed the floor partially so we can see what it would have looked like when gladiators performed. Under the floor, you can see a maze of walls and chambers. This is where wild animals like lions and tigers would be stored. Elevators using a pulley system (Romans invented pulleys) would bring the animals up to the arena through trap doors. Gladiators or unfortunate prisoners would be already on the floor of the arena either to fight them or wait to be eaten by them. 

The colosseum was built for games. It was free for the public to attend the games no matter their social status. Games also changed. Apparently, there were 3 or so different varieties. One was the gladiator fights. Contrary to what I thought happened, gladiators were actually professional fighters and the people they fought (and usually killed) were prisoners of war, criminals, or disobedient slaves dressed like gladiators. Gladiators were expensive to have around, and were treated like celebrities. Women would even collect their sweat after a show, and use it as perfume. 

Another game was gladiators vs. wild animals. Gladiators would battle with multiple lions, tigers, or bears (oh my!). The poor animals were imported from Africa or other distant countries and then starved before a fight to ensure that they were extra angry. 

The last (and most popular) game was theatrical public execution. If you committed a crime or were a prisoner of war, they'd stage battles or scenes from plays or historical events in which people were killed. You'd be brought to the arena, dressed in costume, and would quickly (or slowly) be executed. You might also simply be fed to one of the wild animals while thousands of people watched (50,000-80,000 people to be exact) 

Sometimes prisoners would survive the fights. If that happened, they were granted their freedom and would walk out if the colosseum through the "Alive Door". 

The corner where the Alive Door was located. 

Latrines. Fresh water ran through the floor. 

The colosseum itself was built by professional slaves. I learned that professional slaves were people owned by the wealthy, experts in specific trades, and treated very well. You'd only be punished if you betrayed your owner or committed a crime. 

20 professional salves would be in charge of each section of archway. Each group of slaves would work in unison so that when a work day was finished, it looked exactly the same the entire way around the colosseum. This explains why it was finished after only 8 years. 

After the colosseum, we walked through the rest of the forum. Here are some of the sights....

The Temple of Vesta. This place has an interesting story. Special women were selected from a very young age to live in this temple as a virgin until they turned 30. Men were forbidden to even touch it's steps. If they did, they were executed. The founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were allegedly conceived miraculously to one of these virgins. When it was discovered that she was pregnant, she was punished by being buried alive after giving birth to twins. The twins survived because a soldier could not bring himself to kill them. Instead, he left them in the wild. The babies were then discovered by a mother wolf, and she adopted them as her own. To this day, the symbol of Rome is a she wolf to honor the mother of Rome's creators. 

The senate house in beautiful condition. This is where Julius Caesar would hold meetings. 

Julius Caesar's alter. This is the location of his cremation. 

Outside of the forum there were more amazing sights to see. 

An ancient condo. This is like an apartment building. This picture shows the actual level of Ancient Rome. It sat 25 feet below modern day Rome. 

Basilica of Saint Peter. 

Temple of Hercules. 

Ciao! 

Florence in a Nutshell

We are going to be on a bus most of the day today, so I actually have time to post a little something about our day yesterday. 

We woke up very early and headed to Florence by bus. On the way, it was very hilly and we drove through the Apennine mountains. The landscape was dotted with villages, most dating back to the Medieval Era. People still live in these villages, taking very good care of their very old homes. 

The ride through the city of Florence was awful. Many of us, including myself, suffered from motion sickness. Traffic rules are very different there. Our guide told us that, despite the fact that there are lanes, people generally drive wherever they can find space. There's a major university in Florence, and students get around using scooters. They squeeze through spaces between cars at insane speeds. Needless to say, I was very happy to get off the bus when we finally arrived. 

We passed a public library, or biblioteca, on our way to the center of the city. It was a beautiful building right next to the water. Our guide didn't want to stop, but she mentioned that the river once flooded and reached the library, destroying many original texts and artifacts. 

Do you like my bright blue necklace? It's an earpiece called a "Whisper ". Our guide made us wear them so she could talk to us while we walked around. I thought they were dorky and screamed, "I'm an American tourist! Please pick my pocket!", so I rarely wore it. She tried lecturing me about it once, but I politely told her that I was fine without it. 

I liked Florence right away because it was less crowded than Venice. It was also very quiet. After we passed the University, there were mostly pedestrian streets, so there wasn't any traffic noise like we hear in Indianapolis. The atmosphere is very calm, and we were lucky enough to be there on a nice day. 

Lunch in the center of Florence. 

Streets of Florence. Look, no cars! 

Tourists put locks on a monument in the jewelry district to symbolize eternal love. 

Police making sure we don't do anything illegal, I guess. 

Our first stop was the church that houses Dante and Machiavelli's funerary monuments, Basilica of Santa Croce. Both men are incredibly important figures in literary history. I studied Dante's Divine Comedy in college. His writing vividly details a journey through the different levels of Hell after death. The modern Italian language originates from this text, and people say that the "most correct" Italian dialect is spoken in Florence because it is where Dante lived. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go inside. Churches close at 5:00, and our free time didn't start until 5:30. I did, however, get a picture of the outside. 

The main event in this city was the Duomo, the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower. This basilica is famous for it's dome, the largest in Italy. I learned that it took over 100 years to build the cathedral, but the dome didn't exist for 25 years after the cathedral was finished. Apparently, there was just a gaping hole open to the elements until a brave engineer named Brunelleschi proposed a plan during a competition between architects. I could go on forever about how it was built, but I wouldn't do it justice. It's just beautiful. First of all, it's enormous. You can see it from anywhere in Florence. On this inside, it's painted with incredibly realistic frescos that look as if their popping out of the walls. This perspective is unique to the renaissance. 

After touring the Duomo, we watched a leather demonstration. Florence is known for their leather goods and gold jewelry. It was neat, but I was more interested in the monuments and sculptures. It was hard for me to believe that I was walking around in the birthplace of the renaissance, a cultural movement beginning around the 1300s. Florence is where you'll see Michelangelo's sculpture of David and see where Dante and Leonardo Da Vinci lived and went to church.   

A private palace built where Da Vinci once lived. 

We spent a day in Florence, but we only scratched the surface. I wish we could have stayed longer because I spent most of college learning about great pieces of literature that were written there. I guess that just means I'll have to go back someday. 

Venetian glass, Gondolas, and Hemingway

Our second day in Venice started at a glass factory where we watched a very talented man demonstrate how to blow glass and sculpt it in to beautiful pieces of art. I learned that to master the art of glass blowing, a person must be an apprentice for 15 years. The glass in Venice is very valuable, as it is handmade, elaborate, and created using fine materials like gold or cobalt. The glass comes in a variety of colors, but the most expensive is red because they use real gold to create it. Purple is also very valuable because the materials needed to create the color are specific to the area. After we watched the artist sculpt glass in to a lovely horse completely free-hand, we were encouraged to go to show room to shop around. Here we saw that a set of red Venetian wine glasses  would cost 1,000 euros ($1,300). We also saw gorgeous chandeliers and other magnificent glass sculptures. I purchased a gift for my best friend and drooled over a red chandelier that would probably cover the entire ceiling of my bedroom. 

Next, we rode a water taxi to another island of Venice, where we visited the Doge's Palace. Now, I didn't learn as much as a hoped about this building because it was packed with tourists, which made it hard to listen to our tour guide. Also, I hate crowds, so I wandered away from my group a few times. Anyways, a "Doge" is the leader of the Venetian republic. From the 1300s to the 1700s, Venice was run very much like a state in the U.S. The Doge was like the president, he was a symbol of power, but didn't really make big decisions. Senators and counsel members ran the show for the most part. 

The palace itself acted like the White House except that it was also a court house and a prison. Criminals would come to the palace, sit (or probably stand in shackles) during a trial, and then go directly to the prison cells beneath the palace. 

Visiting the cells was creepy, but the actual palace rooms were amazing. The ceilings were covered with frescos and gold leaf. We walked up a set of stairs called, "golden stairs" because the gold leaf ceilings made it glow in the natural light. 

You can see in my picture that trying to pose without strangers invading the shot was impossible. 

It was against the rules to photograph the inside of the rooms because the flash would damage the paintings. So, I tried to get some shots of the architecture outside and some smaller frescos. 

Our guide told me that I was the easiest to remember because my coat was such a bright color. 

After the guided tour, we had the rest of the day to explore Venice. It is very easy to get lost because the crowds are outrageous, canals cut through everything, and all of the alleys' names are so long, that I forget them the moment my eyes leave the map. My goal was to find a place called Harry's Bar. Apparently, Ernest Hemingway  loved to drink at this place. Being one of my favorite authors (and one of the most famous in the entire world), I just had to find it and enjoy a drink in the same spot (maybe even in the same chair). 

It ended up taking all day to find it, but while we searched, we had a delicious lunch, watched gondolas float by, and discovered some other random treasures. 

Tomorrow we visit Florence. Ciao! 

Day 1: Overnight Flights and First Impressions

 

Flying overnight isn't any fun at all. I started the trip ambitious. I wanted to read Stravaganza, write an essay for my graduate school application, and have a good night's sleep before landing in Venice first thing this morning. None of those things happened. Instead, I watched two sub-par movies and dozed on and off in very uncomfortable positions. On the bright side, the flight went by fast. 

Our group arrived at the Venice International Airport around 9am (4am Indianapolis time). We were all very tired, and I felt totally overwhelmed immediately as we listened to our tour guide explaining our itinerary. Our guide's name is Laura, and she's from Rome. She's very nice and informative, but it was hard to focus on what she was saying in the hustle and bustle of the airport. People were everywhere and everyone was speaking Italian. 

The first thing I noticed about the people was the way that they dressed. Italian men dress very well. Tailored jeans, expensive Italian leather shoes, and perfectly styled hair is the norm here. Women were wearing heals and lovely scarves. 

After we all found our luggage, we loaded up on to a tour bus that was going to take us across the lagoon to our hotel, Le Petit Palais. The bus actually drove on to a ferry, which crossed the lagoon and disembarked again on another one of Venice's many islands. Again, cars aren't used in Venice. People are transported via boat and then walk everywhere. 

After leaving the bus, we had the afternoon to ourselves. My mom and I went off on our own and had lunch outside at a small cafe. We shared a pizza and enjoyed coffee and cappuccino . After lunch, we shopped, looked at the beautiful buildings, and enjoyed some gelato. 

Back at our hotel, which is right on the beach, we collected sea shells and admired the Adriatic Sea. There were so many dogs on the beach and it made me miss my pups back home. I noticed that no one really used leashes. Dogs were content to run or walk around free while their owners collected shells. The dogs were so well-behaved too! They adopted their owner's laid-back, friendly attitudes towards strangers. 

Speaking of friendly attitudes, I was nervous about having conversations with waiters here because I do not speak Italian at all. The first time I had to talk to someone was in the cafe where we had lunch. I walked up to the counter and the hostess said, "Ciao" (Hi). I replied by saying,"I'm very sorry, but I don't speak Italian. Do you speak English?". She was so nice to me, and said "Oh yeah! English is fine" and lead me to a great seat outside. I did my best to say, "Grazie!" and got over my fear pretty quickly. Our guide told us that Italians appreciate it when you at least try to communicate in their language. 

Tomorrow, we're going on a guided tour of Venice in the morning and then we'll have all day to explore on our own again.