Day 2 - Rome

Today was extremely exciting! We got our first chance to go explore the ancient Roman architecture and other creations. I have wanted to see some of these places my whole life, and today I got to see them. We woke up bright and early this morning at 7:30am for breakfast and then we headed down in the direction toward where most of the stuff we saw today was located.

 First we walked by one of the government buildings. Then we arrived at our first important landmark, Trajan’s Column. It is a column built to commemorate Roman Emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It tells the story in pictures spiraling up all the way around it. Right behind it, there is also the Trajan Forum with ruins of columns and walls.

  We then made our way over to perhaps the most famous place in all of Rome, the Colosseum. It was really incredible to see how big it was especially with the masonry and limestone construction. It is just incredible how they would able to do all of this work and have it last for so long, and we are still trying to come up with better solutions for restoration of these types of construction. Then after staying in the Colosseum for a while and doing my first sketch assignment, we moved on to the Arch of Constantine, which is just outside of the exit to the Colosseum. From there we walk a short distance to Palatine Hill which is where Rome was founded according to their myths and legends. There are a lot of ruins with masonry construction, gardens, and pillars. The scenery around this location really identifies with the idea of the Mediterranean vegetation and landscape.

 After we spent quite a while there walking around and eating a picnic lunch, we traversed down to the Roman Forum. This was like the downtown market area of ancient Rome. There we were able to see the remains the Temple of Saturn, the Temple of Vesta, Temple of Castor and Pollux, Arch of Titus, and other artifacts and artwork from the ancient time periods. From there, we had to walk up a long flight of stairs to get to the Capitoline Museums. There are three museums that are connected together by tunnels, stairs, and elevators. Inside, there were a lot of statues, stone engravings, and a magnificent view of the Roman Forum from above.

The courtyard area there has a replica statue of the real statue that is inside of Marcus Aurelius. The stairs leading and the courtyard are called, “Capitoline Hill” and were designed by Michelangelo. They look pretty cool, but slanted stairs are not particularly appreciated by those trying to walk on them. Haha.

Anyways, we were then finished with our scheduled learning activities for the day and we went back to the hotel to rest and get cleaned up from the hot, sweaty day. I decided to get all of my photos onto my computer and use the gps coordinates that my camera took for most of them and get the labeled so that I could remember all the different things we saw. Then we went out for our first official group dinner, which was very good, and chat for a while. Then we walked around one of the piazzas where they have all sorts of artists performing, both painting and musical, people walking around, and restaurants buzzing. Then Kate and I managed to find our way back to the hotel, and now I will be finishing up my notes for my presentation tomorrow on St. Peter’s Basilica.