This past week, I have been on a lot of tours around Rome. This Wednesday, we visited beautiful churches, the Pantheon, the Italian president's house, the Trevi Fountain, the Barberini palace, Piazza di Spagna which is also called the Spanish Steps, and the high-end shops surrounding it. I learned a lot about the history of these historical monuments and what they really mean.
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This past Saturday, we met at 9:00 a.m. to tour the Roman Forum and The Colosseum. The Roman Forum was first and I honestly had no idea what it was until we got there. Our tour guide was an archeology professor that was associated with our college. She was absolutely obsessed with this place. The Roman Forum includes the government buildings of ancient Rome. It was basically the meeting place for the Romans. All of the elections, speeches, and gladiatorial matches were held here. The Forum is located in a valley between these massive hills called The Palatine Hills and The Capitoline Hills. The Romans created the city within these hills in order to protect the city and it's people from war. We even got to see the center of Rome. Umbilicus Urbis translates to umbilical which then means it's the "bellybutton" of the town. Our professor was very excited to share this bit of information with us, but it was just kind of weird, but still interesting. This is where Roman leaders would stand for speeches in front of the Roman Republic. Along with these places, we also saw the senate house, the temples, government offices, memorials, and tons of statues. One of the temples was dedicated to a goddess named Vesta. She is known to be the goddess of family. Dedicating this temple to a woman was a big deal because women were not considered leaders. I also remember our professor saying that a woman managed majority of the city, which is also pretty amazing. We were able to walk through these caved secret pathways to the top of one of the hills. The Roman Forum just opened up the path about a month ago, so it was really cool to be one of the first ones going there. The Roman Forum was far more interesting than I thought it would be.
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Next, we went to the Colosseum. The first thing we learned about were the holes. The holes were used for the scaffeling in the Colosseum. Then we walked around the first floor and then the second floor of the Colosseum. Those steps are freaking steep! The poorest people had to sit at the very top of the Colosseum and the richest people got front row seats. The platform is mostly gone, so all that is left is the underground/backstage area which is the maze-like area in the center of the Colosseum.  I was constantly taking photos and trying to wrap my head around where I was standing. There's not much more to say about the Colosseum, it is simply beautiful and I cannot believe I had the chance the visit it!












Thank you for reading!

Meg