this was a day we were told would be very long and difficult. many of the buses and the trans were on stike. so we had to walk a long way away. we met our guide who's name is John Paul in English, but pronounced japie, at the wedding cake building, which I don't actually know what it was. it was right next to the old forum, the imperial forum, and we could see the colosseum. we toured the old forum. which is where the old senate building was and other significant ancient buildings that are now pretty much nothing but ruins. except the buildings which were converted into churches. they were the only ones that survived the multiple rebuilding and tear downs that occurred during the years. we walked around and heard many different stories. and we looked up, and realized we made it the colosseum. we took a group picture of ourselves all in svsu gear outside the coliseum, and as soon as the picture was done, threw off our shirts because it was so hot outside. it is easy to distinguish who are tourists and who is a local by looking at what people wear, but since it was so hot, our entire group decided we would look like tourists in tank tops and shorts just because it was soo hot. after lunch of a hot dog (on pinnini (flat bread) ) and gelato, we heard about and toured the inside of the colosseum. WE ACTUALLY WENT INSIDE THE COLOSSEUM!!! it was awesome, and even grander then what I imagined. from the colosseum, we left to head to the baths of caracala. this is like the social place that many used to be around, it is also the spot we all were able to finally go to the bathroom. it was a really interesting place to see the ruins and how intact they were and how smart the Romans were with their bath heating system and such. after the baths we decided to add some of what we would have done the next day, that day. this included seeing st. Clemente's church. this church part was built in the 11th century. the church was burned and redone, with various pillars and marble taken from other marble architecture. the next layer down was part of the original church. this had one of the original paintings with the some of the first recorded words written in italian instead of Latin, it said "hurry up you bitches" there was another floor down, which was a roman building, that was thought to be a house, then converted into an area for the cult type guild dedicated to Mithras. then there was another layer below that that was a public building, and thought to be a mint. and yet, we went another layer down into a house that was from the first century. its crazy to believe that the ground floor used to Be here and the ground went up so much higher. on our way back we walked by the imperial forum, which is where agustus built his own forum or square. we were left to go our own way, and a few of us ended up at the restaurant Andrea (our cooking class teacher) owned. we ate at about 6/7 and we were the only ones because most people don't eat until 8 or 9pm. we also received the student discount for a 4 course plus side dish and wine meal that was only 10€. it included a pizza elephant ear bread Thingy, bruscetta, bread, pasta and olive oil, and desert of ice cream and coffee. it was good, and I ate all my pasta so I'm doing a good Job of eating like an Italian! we were still hungry, somewhat so we walked farther in town to get gelato, and when we got to the place Sullivan mhad blight us some, the workers got super excited and just started handing is different flavors on spoon: then they kept adding flavors to our cones. sooo gooood!!! that's all for this day! (Friday)pic 1. Me in colosseum 2.the colosseum 3. Walking along forum into colosseum 4. Eating my hot dog outside colosseum 5.Renee and I on bus coming back from
Our busy day 6.the wedding cake building 7.&8. Imperial forum 9. The baths of caracalla 10.Titus triumphal arch 11.me with the view!
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