Day 3

This day was a very eventful day we saw the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Vatican, and the Fountain of four Rivers, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain.  Angela and I woke up late, and did barely had time to eat breakfast so we ran to the dining room and grabbed something to bring on to the bus.  We first arrived at the Coliseum, we had to wait a little while for our guide to get the tickets, and this is when I first met “Tri-pod lady”.  Tri-pod lady is from New Orleans and she will buy anything.  Vendors were selling the most random things outside of the Coliseum and she bought majority of it.  This included a tri-pod (where she got her name) and an Asian umbrella; Tripod lady will be included in other blog entries.  Anyway, here we learned about how it was placed in the center of the city and Emperor Augustus built it for the people to give to them what Nero took.  The Coliseum is massive and slightly overwhelming.  It gets extremely hot in the sun and there is little shade.  I thought that it was ironic that the Pope holds Easter mass in the Coliseum and in ancient times, Christians were slaughter by the hundreds as a form of entertainment.  After the Coliseum, we went to the Roman Forum which was pretty close and with in walking distance from the Coliseum.  Unfortunately Kristin, Katie, Emily and I were intensely taking pictures of the Coliseum and lost the group.  It took us a good half an hour and a five-dollar call later to find the group.  The Forum was extremely interesting because it was all in ruins, barely anything was left in-tack.  There we saw where Julius Caesar was cremated.  The Forum was where the market place was, and where the important buildings were.  The mayor/governor still uses the same building that was used by the ancient politicians; they just build over the ancient part starting in the Renaissance.  I found out that majority of Rome was just built over the ancient Rome.  After the Forum we went to Vatican City.  Here we went into the museum that has so many famous art works such as the Laocoon, the Belvedere Torso and many tapestries.  At the end of the museum it brought you to the Sistine Chapel, which was, breathe taking.  It was a tad overwhelming because so many people were packed into a small chapel and you were not allowed to talk or take pictures.  It was difficult maneuvering around people while starring at the ceiling done by the infamous Michelangelo.  It is amazing to think he did all of that in such an old age lying on his back for hours on end.  Some how I managed to not lose the group in the chapel and make my way over the St. Peter’s Basilica.  There I saw the Pieta by Michelangelo and the altar by Berninni.  The Basilica was also overwhelming.  Every inch was decorated and not just decorated but had some sort of theological significance to it.  After the Basilica we went to Piazza Navona to see the Fountain of Four Rivers by Berninni.  Our group wen to see the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain.  Both sites were amazing.  I threw a coin into the Trevi Fountain, hopefully, as legend says I will return to Rome again some day.  I was exhausted after this eventful but exciting day.  We were on our own for dinner today, but everything by the hotel was closed.  Luckily we caught gorgeous Giuseppe and Tyson and they were nice enough to allow us to follow them to a restaurant and eat with them.  The food was even better than the night before.  After dinner I just hung out on the balcony for a little with some girls from the group and apparently we were loud and some Italian lady was viciously screaming at us to be quiet.  So after that I went to bed.