Rome in Heat?

Ello ello, been a while. Taking a step back, to times of greater warmth and more pizza, here's the details of notre excellent voyage a Roma!

Starting off with the Colesum, of course, we practically ran towards it from our hostel, despite being lost, and rather tired from the hot and gross 8 hour train ride through the night with no sleep, but I digress.

Here it is, or first view of the Colleseum, it looks exactly like you would expect, and its more impressive up close, a great way to jump feet first into ancient Rome!

But noooooooo, Chris had to pee before we could go in, and here is proof if he try to deny it. :)

I must also draw attention to the photos, a lot of them are way to bright so they aren't the best, but I like it cause it shows how damn hot it was, easily 35 degrees mid day and I don't think it dropped below 25, but we had air conditioning! :)

We arrived early in the morning so there were relatively few people in the area, which was nice. It was really quiet and gave the place a nice atmosphere, before the fat tourist families started running around yelling at their wives and children.

You might notice that the walkway through the center is gone, well thats if you like to memorize details of ancient monuments like I do... They are doing some renovations and improvements, like adding more levels so you can go to the top and look out over Rome, or sit in some replica seats, but they weren't open yet. For me it was almost just as good to watch them being built.

And of course the ongoing archeology, which I'm sure i was the only one who noticed. Looks like they are doing some tunneling...

And heres the subject, peering out at what was once a place of untold death and suffering coupled inexorably with celebration and joy; the juxtaposition painfully obvious, yet somehow gracefully in its bitter irony, those who fight for their freedom only to have it taken away at the turn of a thumb, how a civilization so advanced can harbor such blatant barbarianism while the greatest science, architecture, and literature builds cities held up by warfare and imperialism by an empire that once stretched from here to London, which left ruins as a tribute to its greatness spread throughout Europe like flags claiming territory, or perhaps like disintegrating tombstones, chronicling, and maybe as a warning to the ultimate fate of those who flaunt hubris...

No, just kidding, I don't that crossed my mind once!

I did walk on one of the oldest roads in existence, to which Chris promptly inquired, "I wonder if its original?"

(its a posed walk, which is why it looks rather awkward)

After visting such advanced civilizations as Sweden, the public transit here was astonishing. Every train car had huge graphity which often covered up the windows! It think they have given up somewhere trying to prevent it.

For not being allowed to take pictures, we sure got some good ones at the bone church! The history of this is just umm well lots of monks died and I guess they got bored. I will be so bold as to say that it was an experience.

Instead of showing you the Trevi fountain, I am showing the clusterfuck which was around it. When you can't approach or even walk away from something due to the mass of people who want to get a picture which will inevitably be filled with other people taking pictures, ahhhh I don't get it. But the fountain is pretty bad ass, and a revisit at night was definitely worth it.

Moving on to the main event, the Roman Forum! For being so huge and impressive and the pinnacle of Roman history and culture, neither of us knew it existed... opps. Heres a view of the Colosseum from the forum, including a triumphal arch, one of many.

I won't show you all of the Forum, so it will be a surprise when you eventually make it to Rome so here is one of the biggest and baddest structures. A bath house on Palentine hill. While an open pit now, it used to be covered, supported by marble columns and buildings several stories high, all decked out in colored marble inlays. Its very impressive just how big of a complex this is. The whole hill is one big building, having been increased in size with each successive Roman emperor.

And now the Piece of Resistance, I mean the best thing. My favorite, the Pantheon! This picture doesn't really do it justice. The people offer some sort of scale, but really its a place you need to visit to understand. Couple that with the fact that it is 2000 years old and it really becomes amazing! Honestly I could have spent hours in there.

Here is the front, with 16 giant granite columns. As you can see, a great day, although I hear watching the rain pour in the roof is pretty cool too.

Rome is an interesting city, as a river runs straight through it, a big river too, and it is bridged by awesome arch bridges with statues and carvings, yet there is no focus on the river at all. For example, in Amsterdam, the canals are obiously very important to the city and are well used and integrated into everyday life. In Paris the bridges are famous for their history and as meeting places, and the banks of the river are always filled with people. But in Rome, there is no one walking by the river, no shops, walkways, benches, or anything. It is almost like it doesn't exist, which is strange...

To finish of this post, here's a nice sunset over a 'mini vatican' as I believe this area was based upon the open round space in front of Peter's Bascillica.

PS. those statue people begging for money are everywhere, like pigeons. Perhaps they serve a purpose like the Peruvian pan-flute guardians...