When in Rome

sun coming in from dome in Pantheon

View of the forum 

Some columns still standing after earthquake 

Yesterday around one in the afternoon we arrived in Rome. From Florence to Rome we took the train, and best of all we sat first class! I had never been on a train before and I would say that for my first time it was a pleasant experience and I would totally do it again. Today was our first full day in Rome and we a had busy morning. We met our Private tour guide, Mia, in front of the colosseum at 9. It was so nice to have Mia with us because I think we got more out of it than if we would have been alone. It is very easy to tell that Mia is very passionate about what she does. During the tour of the Colosseum she would act how fights of the gladiators went using water bottles as swords and she had a book that would show how the sights look today compared to back then... Very different!  Mia is in her early 30's and we think she has been giving tours for 7 years. She is very very knowledgeable about everything. She answered all our questions right away and knew the answer to every single one. Her father is italian and her mother is american. Her first language is italian and her second is english; however, her english is so flawless you would guess she has been speaking english her whole life! She is so great!

Best view of Colosseum

Inside of the Colosseum

Hunter and Alison listening to Mia

In the Colosseum the emperor would bring in animals from al over to have them fight against each other or have a gladiator fight them. He wanted to show the people of Rome his wealth and everything they owned. If they brought in a bear from a certain forest they would also get trees from the same forest to put in the arena with the bear. It was a BIG show for the people. The thing I found most interesting was that the gladiators didn't just sign up. They were actually slaves and the emperor bought them, sent them to school to learn how to fight and then would choose them to  be in the arena to fight.

After the Colosseum we visited the forum. It was very interesting to learn that up until 80 years ago half of what you see today was buried by 25 feet of dirt and silt. Even today you could still be standing on treasure buried in the ground and not even know it! In the forum there are little bits and pieces of columns, temples, statues all scattered about. After the earthquake much of the stuff was stolen but after they found everything under the silt a rule was in place that you couldn't take anything anymore. Therefore since they don't know which pieces belong to which place they left them on the ground and many people use them for places to sit on. (see pictures above)

For our last part of the tour we went to the Pantheon. It is an old temple that is now used as a church. Today 80% of the Pantheon is still left from when it was first built. It is very impressive and I am still pondering how the were able to build the Pantheon without all of our technology that we use today. The hight of it is equal to its diameter and coolest in the top of the dome ceiling is left open to the outside. It is basically one giant whole in the ceiling. The Pantheon acts as a sundial and when it rains there are drains in the floor so it never floods. Very impressive!! (see picture above)

Tomorrow we have another tour with Mia in the morning and we will be seeing the vatican and surrounding areas.