Last day in Rome! We had the morning before we had to leave to the airport, so we went back to the Forum that we had missed the day before.

TIP: The ticket you buy to get into all the sites allows you entry to each section ONCE. We knew this already, but what we did not know is that The Imperial Palace and the Forum counted as one giant site..we learned this the hard way when we had to buy a new ticket.

Anyways, cracking on!

The Forum was once the political center of Rome in its years before it was an empire. However as time went on and the political center moved up the road, it became the religious heart of Rome. It housed the largest and most important temples in the city. It was also the place where Ceasar's body was cremated and his funeral held. Fun fact.
It is a lot of ruins these days. All the ruins from all the different time periods are piled on top of each other. There is no real organization like other ancient sites because the Forum was constantly just built on and added on throughout history, and then completely abandoned leaving it to all fall apart.

I really liked seeing all these olive trees all over the place. Olives were the lifeblood of Rome at one point. It was their most important export and involved in most aspects of Roman life.

You can see from the different colored stones that all of this is from different time periods. I tried reading a book chapter explaining when everything was built and got very confused very quickly.
I do know that these pillars are very, very old.

These things cracked me up. On the sign explaining what they were, it said that they were either a brothel....a prison...or storage rooms. Quite a wide range there.
This is an extremely ancient temple that is *partially* preserved. It, like many other buildings throughout Rome, has been saved because it was converted into a Christian church. It's purpose was changed and much of the information within it destroyed, but it has also been preserved far more than it otherwise would have been.
Look! There is even some of the original stairs still there. Much of the marble on these buildings was looted for other building projects at various points in history.
See? This is what becomes of the temples that were not converted into churches....
I love ancient roads and walk ways. They hold a power within them that oozes history.
Another temple that has been reduced to rubble. It amazes me to think that people just let these buildings fall into decay, but then I think about how many modern buildings are built and then abandoned (thinking particularly of buildings built for the Olympics). We like to think that we are so much different than our ancient ancestors, but the reality is we are just the same.
There were a lot of these stone flower carvings all over the place. They were really beautiful. They were particularly around the area that held Medieval houses for a while. Could you imagine making your little brick house in the remains of these ancient temples?
Anyway, I really loved the flowers.
The temple remains were impressive enough, I would love to peek through time and see what they looked like in their glory days...

Next up was my favorite temple! The Temple and House of the Vestal Virgins. The Vestal Virgins were fascinating. They were a group of women who were chosen from the daughters of royalty or nobility. They were, as their name suggests, virgins. They were never allowed to have sex while they served as a priestess. If they did they would be buried alive, even if they had been raped. That is the view of women in ancient Rome for you. However despite this they were without doubt the most powerful women in Rome. It was believed that they held within them the flame of Rome, the very essence of the city. They held not only religious but political power, which was unheard of for women in Rome.

All that is left of their temple where they took sacrifices for their goddess and tended an actual fire that represented the flame of Rome is this...
Behind it was their home. Along the side of it are statues of some of the most important priestesses who lived. Most of them the heads have fallen off, or been cut off.



I can't help but wonder about these women, but there is woefully little information about them. Nothing is really known other than their names.
In the center of the house was a pool of water, which is still there, along with the most in tact statue that remains.

I wish I could have stayed there longer, but we had to head back to catch our flight. On our way out we passed these MASSIVE aqueducts. I could not wrap my mind around how big they were. I have studied aqueducts and knew how they worked, I just never knew there was one that existed on this scale!
Where they go out of the picture is not even the base. It continues down to the street that was around 30 feet below.

After this we headed back to the hotel and out to the airport. We took the train which was nice. I like trains.

By the time we got onto the flight the sun was setting. It was without a doubt the most incredible sun set I have ever seen. The rainbow was literally in the sky. A strip of violent red color ran along the horizon, and as it rose into the sky it went through he other colors of the rainbow. I could not stop staring at it. I doubt I will ever see anything like it again in my life. As we took off I got to see it over the Mediterranean. I knew it was my last chance so I sneakily snapped a (crappy) photo of it.
This poorly shows how amazing it was. It was a suiting way to say goodbye to Rome and goodbye to this trip.

Well that is it for Rome! I know it took forever. Sorry about that. I have been up to other things since then! And I will get to them! Thanks for sticking with me through this!

Hello there and Happy Valentines Day! I do not have a Valentine so instead I am sitting in bed updating my blog.....

Moving on! Day 3 of our trip was MY day! It was the day we did and saw the things that were really important to me! Needless to say I was super excited. I was so excited I almost did not complain about how early Brodie was making us get up!...almost

First off was Palatine Hill, an extremely important hill in the history of ancient Rome. It is the location of the earliest known settlement in Rome, and is covered in the remains of the Imperial Palace. The hill rises right above The Forum, the other of Rome's famous ancient sites. It is also a mere ten minute walk from the Colosseum. As I stated in an earlier post, Ancient Rome was a small place. Here is a spiffy little map showing you all the main sites that made up the center of Ancient Rome. The Forum I described on day one is at the very top of the map, and Palatine Hill and the palace that is on top of it is near the bottom, next to the large field that used to hold the Circus Maximus.

We started with the palace on another glorious day. The palace that stands there now was the palace of Imperial Rome, and was the home of many emperors. The entrance to the site was at the bottom of the hill, so we had to walk up the ancient road to get there.

These enormous structures you see are in fact the remains of an aqueduct system, an ancient method of transporting water. These would have allowed for not only those living in the palace to have fresh water, it would have allowed for them to having running water for their enormous bath houses, toilets, and other such things.
 Further up the hill the aqueducts got even bigger, eventually leading the complex and staggeringly large remains of the lower part of the palace.
This area, *I think*, would have made up where the servants did their work mostly.
This is the view from standing on top of that building! What is is looking out over is a MASSIVE terrace.
From on that terrace was a lovely view that in ancient times would have looked over the Colosseum and away from the drudgery of the city out towards the mountains.
From the terrace, and basically from the entire one side of the palace, you could perfectly see what is left of the Circus Maximus, which was once the largest entertainment building in all the history of the world, but I will get to that later.
Moving into the palace was kind of surreal. I know I kind of mentioned this before, but standing in the former home of some of the most powerful people in history was weird. Again I wondered what my Italian/Roman ancestors would think if they knew that one day, one of their descendants would be standing where I was standing: in the Imperial Palace. It was really an awesome thought.
This place was a labyrinth, and by no means did we see everything there was to see there. It was just so big, and we had so little time! The first part where all the above photos are from were built a little later than the original palace by Septimius Severus. Next to it, deep down below the palace, is the Hippodrome of Domitian.
It is not quite known what this was used for. At some point it was a garden, that much is known. Other than that it might have been a place to exercise horses, or it might have been a place for foot races...who knows. On the other side is the older palace, which was extremely complex.
This cool fountain had water coming out of a modern spout, and above it water coming out of a hole in the rock. How old the fountain was and when it was built I have no idea, there was no sign giving any information. I also stumbled across some decorative flooring. Again, no idea how old it is.


Out on the other side there was so many buildings and passages, most of them roped off from the public. We eventually found our way into what was the main entrance to the palace, which you could see used to have beautiful gardens there.
We eventually got really lost. We went down a staircase and ended up going through these tunnels that were supposedly famous. In one part the ceiling still had the original decoration
We somehow managed to find ourselves on the far side of the hill. This, as it turns out, was the most ancient and sacred place in all of Rome....from an archaeological perspective at least. It was a large open space, with very ancient looking remains on the left, and what looked like storage rooms on the right.

Andrea and I got distracted by these mysterious rooms while Brodie wandered off to the left. Andrea and I got distracted for good reason. On a sign in one of the rooms it told how Caligula, one of the most famous and evil emperors in Roman history, was assassinated in one of these rooms. Andrea and I obviously freaked out.
Brodie found us a little bit later still drooling over these rooms. When we asked him what had been over on the other side of the space he responded with "Oh just the original settlement of Rome or something. Nothing interesting." I darted off immediately to see the site before I could smack him silly for saying something so ridiculous.

The area had the remains of some EXTREMELY ancient temples. So ancient we don't actually know if they were temples.

Slightly below them on the hill was the most incredible and awe inspiring thing I saw the entire weekend.
What you see before you is the remains of the first ever settlement in Rome. I am not exaggerating when I say this is my favorite thing I saw from the entire trip. It was the most magnificent and significant place I saw in Rome. Everything that Rome was, everything that it became, and everything that resulted from it started right here. The events that began in this humble village went on to influence and change the world in ways that still affect the every day lives of people across the globe. This was the only place in Rome where I got emotional. If I had been able to stay there longer I definitely would have cried. I could have stayed there all day. Sadly though, I could not. I highly recommend finding this place though, if you ever get to go. The power of it is immense.

After Andrea and I found Brodie again, and after I yelled at him for saying that place was nothing special, we moved on.

The palace was right next to The Forum, in fact it overlooked it.


That is where we were headed to next. As much as I wanted to stay and explore the palace further, we were running out of time in the day. However, when we got down to the Forum, we were told by that staff that it was closing in 45 minutes, and the line was far too long for us to make it in on time. After a few minutes of deliberation we decided to go to the Colosseum, and come back to the Forum the next day before our flight. So we crossed the street and headed into the Colosseum.

The Colosseum. Who doesn't know about that? Everyone knows it was the arena where gladiator fights were held in Ancient Rome. It could seat 60,000 people, and in its decline after gladiator fights were made illegal, held circuses before being completely abandoned. Apart from people killing people they even had animals killing people, elaborate plays complete with sets that had people killing people, and even naval battles. Later in its life, it also became the location of mass executions for entertainment.

These mass executions were those of Christians. There was a time in Rome where it was illegal to be a Christian, and those who were brave enough to not hide their faith were rounded up and killed by the thousands in cruel and gruesome ways.

For this reason I have always had mixed feelings about the Colosseum, and was nervous about what I would feel while I was there. The lives of so many, not just innocent Christians, had been ended in this place, while people cheered and laughed as they watched.

I am hardly the only person who has felt this way throughout history, apparently, as the first thing you see when you walk in is this:
A memorial cross to the countless Christians who also had their lives taken from them. I was definitely having some conflicting emotions, but then a little bit later I saw something wonderful. Tucked in one of the corners I saw a Muslim woman doing one of her daily prayers while her two friends watched over her. I didn't linger out of respect, but seeing that made me feel so much better.
Even in this place where people were once massacred for their faith, thousands of years later a woman could openly worship the same God. Time heals wounds, and through love and devotion even such a place can be reclaimed from its gruesome past. I thought it was incredible beautiful and extremely comforting.

The structure itself is remarkably intact for everything it has gone through. Earthquakes claimed several large chunks of the building, which gives it the sliced shape we are all familiar with today.

The seats are all gone, as are the original stairs. The stairs that exist now were rebuilt so that visitors could get to the upper levels. The floor of the arena is gone, revealing the complex rooms and tunnels that lay beneath it where gladiators, animals, and other things used for the Colosseum were kept.