ROMA, Italia,

Rome is a really amazing city, 4 days there was a rush to try and see everything!!! We came in kind of late so, we didn’t do much the first night, In the morning we got up early and Saw La basilica de San Pietro in the Vatican City, got a free tour in English and learned a lot about the art and history, then we took another tour of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, There is nothing more amazing then seeing the Raphael Rooms leading up to the Chapel and then The chapel itself, There is so much symbolism within the paintings, for example, A cardinal was mad that all of Michelangelo’s people were naked on the wall, So, He painted the cardinal in the corner of the main wall with a snake biting his balls and a donkey ears to symbolize bad taste in art. The paintings and statues in the Vatican are amazing! After that we got some authentic Italian pizza, took a break and then walked around Rome at night, it is really a completely different feel at night, Checked some ruins and the basilica at night.

On Sat. We went to Circus Maximus - (an old chariot racing stadium)the largest spectator arena in the world during its time holding around 375,000 people now there is not much left, walked through the ancient forum were all the important temples and palaces used to be in Ancient Rome and up onto the palatine hill where Nero’s golden palace used to be, and down to the Coliseum. I bought a book called Rome now and then and its amazing to imagine how Rome used to look in its prime, and it makes you wonder what happened to the city that would make it all ruins because it looked as if it would have lasted forever. Inside the coliseum they used to hold not only matches between gladiators but also hunts against different animals and occasional animal vs. animal showdowns. One time the hunters were going against 30 elephants and after they killed off the first 2 the remaining 28 stampeded in a heard at the wall and collapsed a big part of the coliseum. During another hunt which seemed to be getting a little boring the Emperor Commonus (gladiator) jumped into the stands and started slaying spectators, and they other side erupted with cheers, Commonus also killed 30 men with a club in tribute to Hercules inside the arena, most were already severely injured, so he would kill 5, stop, drink some wine, kill 5 more, have some bread etc. There was like 6-7 couples taking wedding pictures at the coliseum and as we were leaving and checking out the illegal street vendors selling Gucci, Prada, & Louie purses, sunglasses watches etc. The Indian Street vendors got into with the Black street vendors a fight/skirmish broke out one Indian guy’s face was bleeding under his eye and was holding a solid glass souvenir block thing as a fist pack ready to go knock out the other African but his buddies held him back and the other dude got away, what was once a block market quickly turned into a empty street as the Indian gave chase, and everyone selling quickly vacated the area.

That night we checked out the Spanish steps, The Pantheon and The Fountain de Trevi all amazing sites, we hung out at the Fountain for a few hours and talked to some Italians. Had the best ice cream in the world and called it a night after getting lectured by some Yugoslavians about liking the Sacramento Kings and not the Lakers.

Sunday we went back to the Vatican and listened to the pope bless the entire square for 30 minutes. Then returned to the Pantheon and went inside, really quite amazing, continued are walk passed all types of monuments and then ended up passed the Forum and at the Pyramid.

Our Last day we tried to go to the top of the Vatican but lines were so long, so we went back in one more time and checked out some of the art we had missed walked to the Spanish steps and checked out all the real Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada stores and had some really good salmon pasta before the trip home.

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Published by damato: 2:00 AM
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