Rome

Alright well i will update you on my Rome experience. Firstly I LOVED IT!!! Everyone must go to Rome, preferably now! It is so amazing and incredible. There is so much to see and do, and it can all be so varied.

As i said my first day was spent walking around the Colosseum, and the Roman Forum. The forum was basically like the downtown of Ancient Rome. So now it is all the ruins of temples, churches, buidlings and the colosseum. I went into the Colosseum first and learned all about the history of the place, that it was the first stable structure built for hosting gladiator games. It held 80,000 people and had 80 entrances, and 4 levels. It took 11 years to build, and was completely covered in marble, which in the 15th century was removed, and brought to Vatican city and was used in the Basillica. So that is why it is only the brick outline that it is now, and why it is so much more in disrepair.
I wont bore you with ALL of the details, dont worry. But it was very interesting. I wrote home to the parents, saying it was ironic that all i wanted to do was get out of school and never have to 'learn' agian. And now all i want to do when i am here is research and learn about everything i am going to and doing! Hmmm... sadly i think i see more school in my future. Being in so many foreign countries, where i am the only one that doesn't speak a second language is making me feel very ignorant!! Spanish Class here i come!

After my first day of ruins exploration i decided the next day should be spent combing the city for more touristy sights, as i walked up to Vatican City. I started with the Trevi fountain, however was extremely disappointed to discover that it was not turned on, and the fountain was drained. I decided i would take some quick pictures and try to come back another day, however as i was waiting to get a picture through the throng of people surrounding the fountain I became totally enthralled with a woman who walked past me. She had bright Fire-Engine Red hair cut in a short bob, with a full fringe of bangs. However in perfect striking contrast to the red, she had a large streak of silber gry coursing down the left side of her part! Through her bangs, and then pinned back similar to a skunk stripe. Finding this hairstyle absolutely facinating i decided I must have her picture. So i spent the next 10 minutes stalking her, trying to get her within my camera lens without making it completely obvious of my intentions to papparazi her. As i mangaged to click her into my memory card, low and behold, the water turned on in the fountain.
I hung out a bit longer while the fountain filled and then grabbed my two coins, and threw them into the fountain. One to ensure my return to Rome, and the other to wish on.

The next place I happened upon in my travels was the Pantheon. Now i thought the Colosseum was amazingly old, well it was completed in 80 AD. The Pantheon was built in 27 BC!!! It is now a Catholic shrine, or something. However i am pretty sure there were no Catholics before Jesus.... so like everything else in Rome, the church has taken it over and converted it! ha ha, i guess when in Rome!

After that i finally made it to the Basillica. I checked out where all your Catholic tithing dollars go, in gold statues, and marble floors, and ornate statues! And decided to skip the Vatican as the line was around a few block corners... The Basillica is beautiful though, Do not get me wrong! Just amazingly ornate!

The next day was spent in Orsica Antica, a 1,800 year old city that is in ruins. It is similar to Pompei, however rather than being destroyed by a volcanoe, it was a port city that was basically forgotten and abandoned when the Roman Empire fell, and the coast receded. It was really amazing, but like everything else, seeing as i am not an archeologist, at the end of the day it is just a bunch of old rocks to me. I really cannot imagine what the city looked like, or how the buildings really were. Some stores sell little books that have pictures of the ruins, and then will place picures overtop that show how the ruins are incorporated into the previous structures. Those are defintely helpful, however there tends to be a seperate book for each ruin location, seeing as there are tonnes in Rome, i just cant justify buying 30 books to tote around with me on my adventures through the city. So again more research to do at a later date.

My last day in Rome i attempted Vatican City and the museum again. I decided to go early to try and beat out the majority of the crowd and the lines. My plan could not have worked better. Not necessarily for the time that i arrived, but for the day that i chose. It was a Wednesday, and every Wednesday the Pope makes a public speech in St. Peters Square in front of the Basillica! So as i arrived i noticed huge lines to get into St. Peters Square, realizing the date, i was not interested in fighting my way through to try and get a ticket to watch the Pope speak, so headed directly over to the Vatican, and walked straight in the doors! Fanstastic. I walked through there, and was relieved to find unlike some places that i have been, not EVERY picture was exactly the same, just painted by a different artist. I cannot tell you how many baby Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and a baby John pictures that i have seen! All exactly the same!! Fearing the same from the Vatican i was pleasantly surprised, and ever excited at one point to see a Salvador Dahli picture! Go the Catholic Church for branching out!! I am definatly still a 12 year old girl at heart. I found about a million scultpures of different people, gods, ect, and was not overly interested, however when I found the animal sculpture room (yes a whole room dedicated to marble busts of animals) i was super excited and looked at EVERY one. I was totally facinated by the person who decided to sculpt a giant lobster!! So i am convinced that i have not matured beyone a little girl who loves horseys!!
The Sistene Chapel was of course the finishing piece of the museum. It was truely amazing, however a lot smaller than i anticipated. It is hard to describe how amazing Michelangelo and Rapheal are. They did some amazing things in the Vatican musuems!

After the Vatican i headed to Piazza di Popolo, and the Spanish Steps. I walked up them and counted 134 steps. Then i walked back down, I think that is all you do with the Spanish steps.. ha ha. I had met two American boys the night before who decided that we were all going to go to the Cappucian crypt. This was the creepiest thing ever. It is 4 rooms that have been decorated (quite elegantly i must admit) with human bones. The don't allow pictures, so i cannot share with you the beautiful horror of the place, but there is one room where the whole thing is decorated with femur bones piled on one another, and then human sculls. The ceiling is decorated with rib bones and vertabrea, in a surprisingly ornate design... EW!
The creepeist part was at the end where there were 3 little children complete skeletons and a sign saying
'What you are, we once were. What we are, you will be.' Umm thanks for that. Since i didnt want that to be the last 'tourist thing' i did in Rome, I discovered a beautiful church, which the whole inside had been decorated and carved by Michelangelo. It was so beautiful and so ornate in everything that it washed away the facinating horror of the crypts.
Most of my early evenings were spent at a lovely bakery acorss the street who's soul intent i think was to lure me into obesity. Every day i would go and get 2 pasteries, and a coffee. One pastery to eat, one to go. I made friends with the server there, and after my second visit, i got extra cream puffs sneaked into my to go bag. Yum.
So to the parents who worry that i am not eating enough, problem solved. Italy is fattening me up!