ROMAMOЯ - Terzo Giorno

So our alarm went off about 4 hours after Emiley and I had laid down to sleep...hey you only live once! We got ready, went down for another hearty breakfast, and made our way to the metro station. So Rome has almost 3 million people living just in the city and only 2 metro lines...weird right? I asked my Roman friend why that was and he said that every time they try to expand and start digging, they hit tombs or ruins of some sort so they had to stop at 2! Never really thought about that, but it makes perfect sense. We got off at the Colosseum stop and when we walked out of the station, there it was right in front of us. If you recall, we saw it from a slight distance on our Vespa tour but now we were standing at the base of it. It was massive! And so, unfortunately, were the crowds of people waiting to get in.We decided to do another "skip the line" + a tour so we would get the most out of it. After waiting about 20 minutes, then getting stuck in the crowd anyways, we finally made it inside.Our tour guide was so informative! He told us it was finished in the year 80 A.D. and back then was known as the Amphitheatrum Flavium. In its first inaugural season, Emperor Titus demanded that there be 100 days of partying within the next year, in attempt to appease the gods. You see, after his father's reign, months of disasters ensued during his first year including a plague and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. We learned that admission was always free to the games and it was even a family environment! 700,000 people have died in the Colosseum, but yeah, it's a great place to take your kids. There were, however, 3 groups of people who were not allowed in to watch the games.

1. Ex-Gladiators: thought of as unstable and a possible threat...do you know how hard it is to be an ex-gladiator?!  Most glads didn't survive past 10 matches, and the average age at death was 27.
2. Gravediggers: no clue on this one.
3. Actors: they were the absolute lowest class in ancient Rome.

Arch of Constantine

During the games sometimes the crowd would get showered with wooden, hollowed balls that contained prizes such as gold coins, exotic birds, or even a lottery number for a bigger prize. There were over 1,000,000 animals killed in the Colosseum during its prime, and Rome in fact wiped out entire species of animals in all of northern Africa! The Colosseum even had a type of sunshade that when opened, allowed for air filtration so that the stench from the blood and bodies wouldn't get too overwhelming for the crowd.

 It is also believed that the bottom part of the Colosseum could be filled with water. Supposedly there was a re-enactment of a famous sea battle there. Slaves were put on 2 micro-ships and were forced to battle it out for entertainment. They had to fight until they were either dead, or killed all the men from the other ship. Brutal entertainment they had back then, huh?


Interesting facts about the Colosseum:

• Heated Floors - There was an extensive underground area lit by flares that warmed up the wooden floors.
• Elevators - Human-powered elevators were used to bring wild beasts up through trap doors in the arena floor.
• Arena - Arena is the Latin (and Spanish) word for sand. The battle floors of the ancient stadiums used to be topped with arena (sand)...but why? To soak up the blood from the brutal massacres.
• Telemachus - Christian monk who was stoned to death when he threw himself into the arena to try and stop 2 fighting gladiators. This led to the abolishment of gladitorial fighting in 404, though animal hunts and other brutal forms of entertainment went on for many more decades.
• St. Ignatius - First (and only?) saint to die in the Colosseum. He chose to die for his religion in front of tens of thousands of people rather than die in a less public place.
• Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down - Myth. If a thumb was shown at all by the emperor or other judge, that signaled a swift slit of the throat to the deafeted by the winning gladiator. Thumbs in (just a fist) signaled a release of the defeated.
• Pope Benedict XVI leads the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum on Good Friday.
• Over 600 species of plants have been found in the Colosseum. Many are exotic and from far, far away.
• 50,000 spectators could go in and out of the Colosseum in under 8 minutes.
• The south side collapsed during a earthquake in 1349.

Ok ok enough history...it's just so interesting! Not gonna lie, I definitely stopped blogging to watch Gladiator, thus the reason it's being posted on Sunday night rather than Thursday night. Gladiator isn't totally historically accurate on many counts, but it's still a great movie!


The ticket we bought at the Colosseum also included a tour of Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill is the hill on which Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus in 753 B.C. The word "palace" actually comes from the word Palatine. There's actually a long legend that goes with the founding of Rome but I'll try to cut it short. Romulus and Remus were supposedly fathered by the god of war, Mars. Their mother, Rhea Silvia, put them into the Tiber River to escape from being murdered. The river god carried the twins downstream until they reached Palatine Hill (Rome is the city of 7 Hills if you didn't know). There, a shewolf nursed them until they were found by a shepherd who took them into his home. After a few years the twins knew they weren't like regular people. They left their home and decided to go back to the Tiber and build a city that was destined to have world influence and fame upon the Palatine Hill. So they did just that. Romulus ended up killing Remus for one reason or another and from then on Romulus ruled as the first king of Rome. He not only created Roman Legions and the Roman Senate, but he also added citizens to his city by abducting the women from a neighboring Sabine tribe.

 Interesting side note - if you're married, did you carry your wife/get carried over the threshold? That practice actually stems from the rape and kidnapping of the Sabine women by Romulus.


Anyways, so on Palatine Hill today there are lots of ruins. Oddly enough though, only 40% of the Palatine Hill has been excavated; 60% remains untouched underground. In 2007 archaeologists thought they found the "lupercale", which is supposedly the cave where the shewolf nursed Romulus and Remus. It's not open to tourists, but you can google it.

Ancient Courtyard...imagine this surrounded by walls of marble.





Little toe of a statue in the ancient palace...it was HUGE!

 At one time, during Domitius' rule I believe, his entire palace was covered floor to ceiling with multi-colored marble. Not much of that marble exists today because the Vatican took most of it, and it's a good thing they did too. It wouldn't be as preserved on Palatine Hill today as it is in the Vatican. They did leave a few blocks, though, but they just looked like white stone. When our tour guide poured a little water on it you could see every color instantly. It was almost like magic! I can tell you no one thought they were going to see that multi-colored marble glistening when the water cleaned it.


From the ruins at Palatine Hill, we walked to the Roman Forum which is an area surrounded by ancient government buildings of Rome. The Forum was crucial to ancient Rome, but perhaps the most notable thing that occurred there was the public burning of Julius Caesar's body.




Church were St. Lawrence was believed to be martyred.



Temple of Divus Romulus, 5th century A.D.
Bronze door and lock are the originals.



Basilica of Maxentius, 4th century A.D.




View of the Forum




Temple of Vesta, 4th century B.C.




Newest excavations in progress.



Arch of Titus, 1st century A.D.



After spending a good couple hours at Palatine Hill and in the Forum, we decided to head back to our hotel. On the way, we got gelato (yum), bought a few souvenirs, and went to the Pantheon. Unfortunately all three of our cameras were dead at this point so we have no pictures of the inside of the Pantheon, but it was amazing! It was commissioned to be built in the 2nd century A.D. as a temple for all of the ancient Roman gods, but in the 7th century it was transformed into a Roman Catholic Church and that's still what it's being used as to this day. Inside where the tombs of many people, but I thought the most interesting one was the tomb of Raphael. If you remember from my blog post about Friday, you remember that Raphael is one of the most important artists in Roman history, if not all time.


We rushed back to our hotel, changed, then walked to St. Peter's for mass. When we got there, we weren't quite sure where to go because it looked the same as it had the day before when we visited...no pews or anything were set up in the center. We finally saw a small gate where people were going through past the Baldacchino (high altar) so we went in. If we hadn't gone to mass at St. Peter's, we would've missed out on quite a bit.

We got to see the back of the Baldacchino which had a tabernacle and chalices all made of pure gold. There was also a golden bust of someone, but I'm not sure who. Beyond the Baldacchino there were pews and the altar that we were never able to get a clear picture of. I couldn't take my eyes off of it the entire time we were in mass. None of us had our cameras, so I'm just going to have to post a picture from the net. This altar is called Cathedra Petri or the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter. The base of the altarpiece was made of multi-colored marbleand standing on the marble were four larger-than-life bronze statues surrounding a giant chair. The two outer statues represent Doctors of the Latin Church: St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, the two inner statues represent Doctors of the Greek Church: St. Anthanasius and St. John Chrysostom. Above the chair is a heavenly host of angels among rays of light and clouds, all surrounding a golden alabster window with a dove in the center. The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, the soul of the Church.



Cathedra Petri...click to enlarge & zoom.

After about 10 minutes, the mass began with the choir singing. The celebrant entered from the left, followed by about 20 other cardinals/bishops/priests. I wish we had known who he was, but there wasn't really any way of finding that out. The entire mass was conducted in Latin (and a little Italian I think). He greeted us at the Baldacchino (which would be behind us) and began the mass. When the litany began, he began to process around the basilica followed by the men he entered with and the people attending mass. The choir was chanting the litany and when I realized we were supposed to process behind the celebrant, I was thinking it had better be a long one because walking a circle around the interior of St. Peter's was going to take a while! And who knows if the litany was long or if they kept repeating it, it was all in Latin. I would say it took a good 10-15 minutes for all of us to do the procession and walk back to our pews. There were visitors inside the back of the church but the guards had them clear a path for everyone. It was quite an experience processing around St. Peter's behind cardinals of our Church.

One of the coolest things about being Catholic is being able to go to any church in the entire WORLD and understand what's going on, no matter the language. St. Lawrence in Monett, Missouri celebrated the exact same mass that my mom and I did at St. Peter's Basilica.

After the readings the homily was pretty long, especially since we hadn't even sat down for a substantial amount of time the entire day. I may or may not have dozed off but I wasn't the only one...Mom nudged me at one point and pointed out one of the priests sleeping! Oh well, it's not his fault. He was pretty old and Latin could put anyone to sleep. You know, I've heard that you can actually learn things if you listen to them while you sleep. Maybe I picked up on some Latin...

Mass ended and all 3 of us definitely went in peace. We decided to find somewhere to eat even though it was early (7pm) for us Spanish students. We went to an Italian restaurant where we got 3 courses and a bottle of wine. It was pretty good, but all in all I just wasn't impressed with the food in Rome. I think you have to go other places in Italy to get true Italian food. We got a little lost on our way back, but I, with my excellent orienteering skills, managed to get us back safe and sound. We all decided to stay in and visit with each other since it was our last night in Rome and mom had to get up pretty early. The bartender at the hotel (who was obsessed with us) saw us when we were walking in and said he had a surprise for us. We followed him and he took us to the roof of the hotel which we didn't even know existed! We had a great view of St. Peter's and the western half of the city, and it was a beautifully clear night.




Goodnight, Rome. Until next time....


Rome was definitely the most amazing place I've visited in my entire life. If you get the chance, you must go. Heck, start saving NOW for a trip in a couple years if you have to...just GET THERE. I absolutely fell in love with the rich culture and history of the city, and of course the religious environment, too. I'm actually going back with 4 other friends April 8-10 (I know I'm crazy) so hopefully you will see some new pictures of places we didn't have time to visit my first trip. 

Lisbon update coming this week...I DO have classes and homework that should be taking priority over my blog but if you know me, you know classes and homework don't take a priority over very many things in my life :) Love you all and God bless!

Part of Palatine Hill