May Twentieth, 2012 –
Today we started a little bit later than normal so that was a good start to Rome. We left for the coliseum, which was a massive public stadium that held everything from speeches, gladiator battles, animal hunts, and even sea reenactments. There wasn’t much of the original structure, just the North side that is left to see today. Luckily the French helped save the coliseum by placing bricks on the sides where if they hadn’t it wouldn’t not still be standing today. Another crazy thing was that how dark the actual stone was that hadn’t been cleaned. The tour guide said that it was from all the pollution in the air that caused it. We got a pretty good tour and were able to get some good information and great pictures.
After the coliseum we grabbed some quick food and then continued to another tour of the Palentine Hill. This was where the emperors lived and the rich because they believed that the air was much cleaner on the hill. I got to stand right on top of where emperors would sit in their thrones when they spoke and had meetings with his subjects.
Later we went to the Roman Forum and this was the center of Roman culture. While we were there we saw a bronze door and porfiri marble from Egypt. The door was the oldest bronze door that still worked lock and everything. On the sides of this door it had a column on each side. These were the Egyptian marble that is a deep red color and they are worth 130 million Euro’s a piece. We also saw where Julius Cesar’s remains are buried which was amazing since people still place flowers there today.
Our last stop was the Pantheon which was also quite amazing with its shear size and the dome that they were able to accomplish such a long time ago.
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