{"id":1934,"date":"2016-04-10T01:29:52","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T07:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=1934"},"modified":"2016-04-10T01:29:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-10T07:29:52","slug":"ancient-roma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=1934","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Roma!"},"content":{"rendered":"
On Friday, we were off on two walking tours of Rome. \u00a0\u00a0In spite of it being a slower\u00a0time of year, the number of tourists is, at times, overwhelming. \u00a0Where we haven’t seen many Americans in our month long travels so far, Rome is full of them – by the bus loads! \u00a0We could hardly walk the streets today (Saturday) because it was so busy. \u00a0Traffic appears always heavy and the number of Mercedes’ Smart Cars is amazing.<\/div>\n
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Our first stop on Friday was the\u00a0Coliseum and the Roman Forum (the original “downtown” of Rome). \u00a0Also, known as the “Flavium Amphitheater” (named after the family that built it), it is the most amazing structure when you actually see it in person. \u00a0Pictures do not do the Coliseum justice. \u00a0It was a surprise to find that inside the Coliseum, it is actually an oval structure rather than a round configuration. \u00a0There were 80 arched entrances allowing easy access to 55,000 spectators who were seated according to rank. \u00a0The Roman gladiators (who were usually prisoners of war, slaves, or condemned criminals) put on bloody shows multiple times a day. \u00a0Should the ground become too soaked with blood, it was covered with another layer of sand and the show went on! \u00a0There actually were a few female gladiators, but our guide told us that little has been written about these female fighters.<\/div>\n
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The Arch of Constantine was another spectacular sight, where pictures don’t do it justice. \u00a0 It was located right next to the Coliseum and was the entrance road to the Roman Forum, one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, and ancient Rome’s showpiece center. \u00a0Although it is an impressive site; it is also a rather confusing sprawl of ruins. \u00a0It was the marketplace of Rome were commerce, business, prostitution and administration of justice took place. \u00a0After the fall of the Roman Empire, the forum was buried by the silt from the annual flooding over the 600 years that Rome was abandoned. \u00a0It actually was a cattle pasture during the Middle Ages!<\/div>\n
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After lunch, we met our guide and visited the imposing Vatican City.\u00a0 We were told that the Papal Palace is 9 miles long-a fact that did not surprise us! \u00a0This “tiny” country is truly “enormous” due to its abundance of historical religious treasures. There are 4.4 miles of exhibit halls with about 54 galleries and 40 rooms in total. \u00a0The majority of the museum are rooms of ancient Roman sculpture and Renaissance paintings. \u00a0One of the most impressive areas was actually the Gallery of Maps “Hall”. \u00a0It is a 394 foot long tunnel and it includes a set of all the maps that represent Italy. \u00a0The maps were amazing-especially considering the low-tech way they were made. \u00a0Another interesting area was the Gallery of Tapestries were all the floor-to-ceiling tapestries were designed in Raphael’s Belgium workshop and tell picture stories from Raphael’s drawings. \u00a0The tapestries were quite spectacular and one of the tapestries actually had an optical illusion woven into it.\u00a0 The “animal room” containing life-size stone animals was another highlight. \u00a0We were quite surprised that the Museum was so incredibly crowded in early April. Often, it was impossible to get good pictures.<\/div>\n
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The last part of the tour was a visit to the famous Sistine Chapel which attracts about 4 million visitors a year. \u00a0Prior to entering the Chapel, our guide explained the significance of the Michelangelo’s first commissioned frescoes on the ceiling (which took 5 years to complete and is the most impressive part of the room) and Botticelli’s and Perugino’s paintings on the walls.\u00a0 Upon entering the Chapel, one is mandated to maintain complete silence; however, the sheer quantities of people who were here today made the experience not quite serene and magical.<\/div>\n
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After the tour, we headed to St. Peter’s Basilica. \u00a0It is one of the largest churches in the world and so spectacular it left us almost speechless. \u00a0It is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic sites and can hold up to 60,000 people. \u00a0Today was a remarkable and memorable day for us in beautiful Roma.<\/div>\n
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\"Along<\/a>
Along the River Tevere<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Colliseum\"<\/a>
Colliseum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"It's<\/a>
It’s oval<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\""Locker<\/a>
“Locker rooms” below<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Entrance<\/a>
Entrance to the Forum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Michaelangelo<\/a>
Michaelangelo lived here (along with other wealthy on this hill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Church<\/a>
Church within the forum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rome<\/a>
Roman Forum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Hall<\/a>
Hall of Animals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Only<\/a>
Only statue with “eyes”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Hall<\/a>
Hall of Maps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Hall<\/a>
Hall of Tapestry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Raphael<\/a>
Raphael added Michelangelo (writing on the lower left)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"St.<\/a>
St. Peter’s Basilica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"St.<\/a>
St. Peter’s Square<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One of 100 Swiss guards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"We<\/a>
We were here!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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On Friday, we were off on two walking tours of Rome. \u00a0\u00a0In spite of it being a slower\u00a0time of year, the number of tourists is, at times, overwhelming. \u00a0Where we haven’t seen many Americans in our month long travels so far, Rome is full of them – by the bus loads! \u00a0We could hardly walk … Continue reading Ancient Roma!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Si9J-vc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1934"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1958,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions\/1958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}