ROMA day 6

Today we had our first lecture and tour. We went to the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum. These were 3 vital places in early roman times. The forum was where all of Rome used to be. It had the Senate building, the places where little shops used to be. And even 3 temples to different gods. Although it was all in ruins, you could really envision what it used to look like. The tours were led by 2 of the professors I have in class and a man who used to teach with the Rome program. For the tour of the forum and Palatine Hill I had my anthropology professor. She really made everything I would never think was interesting easy to listen about. She told stories about what people would do in the different places back in early Rome. She did a great job at keeping everyone’s attention. After the forum we went up Palatine Hill and saw where supposedly Romulus and Remus lived. We also saw the first settlements of Rome. It was really cool to see that. We also where the palace made by one of the Flavian king was and the remains of it. It was the same family who build the Colosseum. After lunch we went to the Colosseum. I love the Colosseum. It has to be one of my favorite places in Rome. It is so much bigger that it seems on postcards. Even though I had been there before I think I was as excited as everyone else to get inside. For this tour I had the professor who doesn’t teach with SMC anymore. He was really cool too. He gave us a good history of the whole place and even waited around for about 10 minutes while we took pictures to finish our tour at the place where the gladiators used to train. After the tours everyone was so hot and tired. Did I mention that Rome is going through a heat wave right now and the hottest day of the week was today? We just wanted to get back to the hotel to shower and take naps. My roommates and I just ended up picking up some food and bringing it back to the room to eat and had a relaxing night in. Alex and I went on a walk to see if we could find a bakery that she found online. This bakery made American desserts and we really wanted some cheesecake. We found it in the Jewish Ghetto and it was open! Sadly the food wasn’t that great but hey we got a good walk out of it. We ended up just hanging out in our room talking and going to sleep early because Lindsey, Caitlin, and I are going to mass tomorrow morning at St. Peter’s basilica for mass.  

caio bella!