Day 22

5/28/13

Buongiorno!

Today was Rosie’s birthday! Happy birthday, girl!!

I woke up at 7:30 and took my time getting ready before going downstairs for free breakfast at 8. I had a big sugary donut filled with chocolate and some scrambled eggs. Healthy, I know. We all ate together and that was nice since we didn’t have to worry about all paying together because that’s when it gets messy. I also made a sandwich using ingredients from the breakfast bar (a roll and two slices of cheese) for later.

We didn’t leave the hotel until 11:15 so I basically just sat in bed until then going through all the pictures I’ve taken so far. There were a lot and I didn’t even get through all of them. I also made the mistake of listening to my friends’ bands and it made me kind of homesick, so Ana Maria and I listened to an episode of This American Life and I felt okay again.

We all met in the lobby at 11:15 and began walking. We made a stop at Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains) to see Michelangelo’s famous statue of Moses. It was glorious. There were also some cool skeleton statues in there as well as the chains that St. Peter was tied up with prior to his execution, hence the name of the church.

After we left the church we walked to the Colosseum. The way we took to get there made it so that we turned a corner and it was just there, colossal, in front of us. It was pretty bone chilling. It took a while to get from where we were down to where we needed to be to get in, but we made it after some time. Then we made one lap around the building, I ate the sandwich I had made at breakfast, then we went in. Man, it was magnificent. It was so bizarre too, because as is the case with most people, I’ve known about this place my whole life but never really imagined what it was like to really be in there. It’s just weird. I don’t know how else to describe it. Really just think about what it would be like to step through your TV or computer screen into a place you’ve seen hundreds of times but never actually grasped as real. That’s what it was like.

When we got in we went straight for an area where there are a bunch of fallen down columns in shaded alcoves. We got one almost entirely to ourselves. Dr. Zaho lectured us about Rome itself and then the Colosseum. As we were sitting in Rome. In the Colosseum. Again, bizarre is a good word to use. Or even better: surreal. After that we wandered around more or less together as a whole group. I got separated more than once because I would stop to look at something and the group would magically disappear. It was just incredible to be in there; it was so different than what I had imagined throughout my life.

Here, I’ll give you some of the history of the Colosseum as I learned it today. It was built from 70-80 AD by Emperor Vespasian and it was called the Flavian Amphitheater. Upon its completion, it was celebrated by 100 straight days of inaugural festivities, including animal fights, gladiator fights, animals fighting gladiators, and more. The Colosseum held 50,000 spectators in its 4 stories of segregated seating (segregated by class, of course).

After we left the Colosseum we sat outside it for a while just snacking and people watching. When we eventually got up we began our walk of the Forum. It was awesome. We just casually walked through ancient ruins and peeked into archaeological digs that were being excavated as we passed. We reached the Arch of Titus on this walk and Geoff presented his research on it. We had been told we needed to fill around 20 minutes with our information; Geoff talked for a solid 45. It was great though, he covered a lot and gave good details. So after learning everything there is to know about the Arch of Titus and details surrounding it (propaganda began in Rome; arches were art and architecture, etc), we continued our journey up to the top of the Palatine hill, the spot where Rome began.

It was beautiful, of course. There were flowers all over the place (lots of posies and daisies), popping out of ruins. Dr. Zaho hated it because there wasn’t much to see at the top and it was confusing to navigate, so we went back down fairly quickly and continued to walk the Forum itself. That was so so so cool. There were ruins just at our feet and pieces of ancient columns to sit on all over the place. And more flowers. It’s wild to think about how old those ruins are, but I also wondered about the trees surrounding us in that area. They could be just as old, if not older. When I get wifi again I’ll definitely research this.

So we finally finished looking at the Forum. We looked in one hut where Julius Caesar’s body was burned after his death and I swear it was Yoshi’s House from Super Mario Bros. for Super Nintendo. Anyway, we got lost on our way out, followed a path, and got stopped at a dead end. It was like a maze. It would have been hilarious if I wasn’t so hungry and tired. So we eventually made it onto the modern street and it was time to make the one mile (I’m estimating here) walk home. I can see how that sounds super easy and chill but I hadn’t really eaten since 8:30 that morning and it was 4:30 by this time and I had been on my feet in the sun all day. So I dragged myself back to the hotel the best I could, stomped up the stairs, and plopped on my bed. I immediately took my shoes off and removed my sweaty clothing before just laying back and doing hardly anything until 7 when I got ready for dinner.

Dinner tonight was made possible by my wonderful friend Patti Silveira who hooked us up with a reservation at the Hard Rock in town for Rosie’s 22^nd birthday celebration. We all got all dolled up and took cabs from our hotel to the restaurant where we were greeted by the guy who controls the music in the place. He told us that he would play whatever we wanted, so we all made our requests. I chose Countdown by Beyonce. It played right when I got my food so I was dancing around while trying to shove a huge veggie burger into my mouth. Everyone got to hear something they love so that was great. At the end of the meal, Rosie got a huge happy birthday sung to her and they brought our table multiple brownie desserts to share and it was delicious. The best part about dinner, though, was having the ability to say hi to my parents and message Patti to give her a big thanks for making it all possible. We got free wifi in the restaurant, something we can’t get in our hotel. I took the time to talk to my parents and a few friends, check Facebook, and tell everyone what was up. It was a sad moment when I had to walk away from that comfort of home.

We all (well, the majority of us) got back into taxis and came back to the hotel. As I did before, I came right upstairs, changed, and sat in my bed. I’m giving my presentation on the Pantheon tomorrow so I have to go over that and make sure I’m prepared. Everyone else is in the biggest hotel room we have playing an Italian card game. I’ll be a free woman tomorrow night so I’ll probably dominate that game then.

Good night!