ROME!

07/27/2005, 15:45 PM

26th of July 6:10am

WOW! Today we got up extra early. Why you ask. Well, that's because we are going on a tour of Rome. Our bus picks us up at the other bus terminal called Partigiani at 6:30am. We had to call a taxi because the buses in our area aren't running yet.

When we got to the station, we had our first caffe (espresso coffee) at the stand up bar, just like the Italians do it. Mom was so giddy about this. She kept saying , "wow, we just had our first real Italian coffee at a stand up bar!" She was so proud of herself, I would have laughed at her but its still too early for that.

So now we sit here at the bus station eating a croissant and wait for our adventure to begin.

Now I will tell what happened after that because I never wrote it in my journal.

A few minutes after I finished writing that, a cute guy came up to us and asked if we were going to Rome, we said yes of course, and that was when he told us he was our tour guide. Could i be so lucky having a cute Italian names Antonio being our guide?

We then had to go and pick up the other 20 people that were going on the tour. The drive to Rome took about 3 hours, but the country sides we past on the way was wonderful.

When we first arrived in Rome, we had to stop and get a permit for the bus to go into Rome. apparently you now need to have a permit to drive a big bus into Rome.

We then went to the train station where we dropped our bus off and proceeded with our new guide (some lady from Rome) and took the underground train to the coliseum. The tour lady advised us before we got on to " watch your bags and wallets, there are a lot of pickpockets here". We didn't see one.

When we arrived at the coliseum, we were all in awe. I mean this is the Coliseum, and we are standing next to it. After walking around the coliseum, having the guide explain its history, such as, Nero never killed anyone in the coliseum. You are wrong you say, but i am not, you see, Nero died before the coliseum was even built, or that the coliseum use to be covered in marble, but because the romans liked to reduce, reuse and recycle, they used the marble from the coliseum to build and construct other things. So next we figured we would have a chance to go in it. Well, we were wrong. It seems that you would have to pay even more to get in, and we didn't have time to go in because we had a bunch of other places to go see.

So after getting over some disappointment, we moved on to the arch of Constantine. Now, about the arches. There are 3 and they are called the triumph arches because when an emperor defeated someone in battle, they would erect these to show how they did it. On the arches are murals of the battle along with an inscription. A quick note about all of Rome, all of the structures were at once painted in brilliant colors, but because of aging and restoration, you can no longer see the colors. They just are plain marble now. The first Arch, Constantine, was made by the emperor Constantine and that is why its called what its called.

We then passed by the crews of volunteer archeology students doing excavation. It was neat to see history being discovered right in front of us.

We then walked up the walkway and under the Arch of Titus, made for the emperor Titus. Again, it showed what happened in that battle. To the sides of the arch were a beautiful church and you could look out onto the ruins of the roman forum. The roman forum was a big area where the senate was held, and the victory marches took place. It also has the ruins of a state where anyone who had anything to say or preach about Rome, could stand and preach.

Next after the forum, we walked past the Capital Building. This building is still in use and it also hold the tomb of the un named soldier. When you look at the photos, the photo of the capital building with the horse in it shows where the tomb is held. The tomb is directly under the statue of the man on the horse. This statue is showing the un named soldier.

Across from the Capital building is a church which is also next to a "totem pole" of sorts the has the tale of that area of Rome carved in it. It again used to all be painted, and though no longer there, there was a building that went around this totem with balconies at each level so you could climb and look out of the balconies and see the stories.

We then moved on to the Trevie fountain. This fountain has a story. The story is, soldiers from a battle were searching for water when they found a spot where the water was dripping. They lay there knowing they were going to die because there just wasn't a way to get the water faster. Then a virgin lady came, and suddenly made the fountain spring to life. Apparently, only a virgin could have started the fountain. From that site, the Trevie fountain was made to tell the story of the virgin water saving the lives of the soldiers. I must also add that they are fountains all around the city, and each fountain, has drinkable water that is still pure and coming from the streams of from the mountains. It is also said that if you wish to come back to Rome you much sit on the edge of the fountain and throw a coin over your right shoulder. Now you are not to look at how far the coin went because if you did, then the next part would not come true. The next part states that if your coin went 1 meter, you would come back to Rome with a boyfriend or girlfriend, 2 meters and you could come back engaged, 3 meters, you would come back married, and anything after that is left up to your imagination.

After seeing this, we walked over to the pantheon. What a site. This is the only fully standing, not fallen down ancient building in Rome. The dome is a perfect half circle and if you were to build the bottom half, the other end of the dome would perfectly touch the ground. Also, the center of the dome is not built for the reason that if they were to have built it, because it is a perfect dome, it would have fallen in. Another great fact is that the ceiling of the dome used to be covered in bronze, and their were squared of blue in the bronze to represent the blue sky. Outside of the building are these huge 30 ft. tall granite pillars that came from the islands of Rome. But that is not what is so amazing, what makes them amazing is 2 things. 1. each pillar is made from one piece of uncut stone. So they had to transfer these extremely heavy pillars whole from the islands, researchers and historians still to this day have do idea how they did it. The other amazing fact is that each of these pillars are exactly to the centimeter, the same distance apart from each other. That is a huge mystery, how do you lift these gigantic pillars and then also make them the same exact distance from each other?

After exploring the Pantheon, which not only holds the tomb of a king, but also the tomb of the famous painter, Raphael, we were aloud a one hour free time to explore the area.

After an hour of eating and exploring the shops, we all met back, and said goodbye to the lady giving that part of the tour. From then on, we followed Antonio around. He next led us to the piazza where Nero held his circuses and also where he had done the Christian killings. In the center there was a beautiful fountain. The fountain was built to show the 4 main streams coming into Rome. There were also 2 smaller fountains, one on each side of the big main fountain. Again, from the fountain there were taps from which you could drink the water. So remember when coming to Rome, just bring an empty water bottle and then the best tasting water is free.

After seeing the circus square, we then moved onto the castle of Saint Angelo. This castle was built as a mausoleum for Angelo's wife, and he was also buried there after he died. After that the emperors and kings decided to also use it for their tombs until the Pope came along and declared it his. The pope then built a fortress around the castle and stored the churches wealth in there along with his living area. After a while a jail was built in the center of his castle. This was where anyone who disagreed with the pope or wanted more freedom was held. And we thought that the former popes were suppose to be these great guys. Around the 16th century the pope decided to move the St Peters Basilica, and then it became the Vatican city.

As you walk down towards the city you see the great Vatican City, yet you have to imagine what it was like along time ago. Back then, the whole street was not a street, but it had tons of houses sitting there. This added to the affect of coming to the Vatican city because you could not see the basilica until you were right before it.

The first thing you see when you enter Vatican city is the Basilica of Saint Peter. It did not always look this way. It used to be just a small church and then a few centuries after it was built, they decided to rebuilt it in its now glorious form.

To get into the Vatican, you must first pass thru metal detectors. Now with the terrorism, and attempts against the former popes life, they have added extra security. After you go through security you walk into the basilica. Here you have choice, you can either go right and see the Vatican city and explore the basilica, or you can go to the left and visit the grave of our former pope, John Paul. Surprisingly, the queue for the pope was much shorter and moved faster than the line to see the basilica. No doubt because when you tour the basilica, you have also tour the museums and the Sistine chapel, where you also have to pay. I hear the queue is about 2 hours long. And since we didn't have time for that, and we also would have rather seen "papa" as they call him here, we chose the line to the left. It was a great site to see. One candle lit in his name and flowers strewn about. You could only stand there for a few seconds before the guard made you move along. Next was the tomb of saint peter, who was not only the founder of the basilica, but also one of the apostles. His grave was about 100 feet back and behind a glass wall. I tried to take pics of it but all you can see is the glare. Later down the line, they have a model of what his tomb looks like. Unfortunately I could get a picture of that because it also reflected the cameras flash.

That was the last part of our wonderful day in Rome. We then took the bus back to Perugia, where we then went to our flat, fell down, and went to sleep. What a wonderful experience and we are definitely coming back and exploring more.

A Link to the pictures from Rome. there are too many to put on here. CLICK ME!

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