We took the train into Rome. We all settled into our hotels and then wandered out for dinner and to see the Trevi Fountain.
The Trevi Fountain is in the middle of a bunch of buildings. It kind of takes you by surprise if you're just walking around. You come out of an alley and BAM! there it is.
Woo! Lights!
Turns out the Trevi Fountain is a popular destination.
This concludes our adventures for tonight.
Dan had to leave early in the morning and I went off to wander while waiting for everyone else to get up and be ready for the day.
Apparently it was time for this fountain to get washed.
It's the center of a round about for a large intersection.
I found some street art on my way to meet up with our friends.
I found some street art after meeting up with our friends.
We found the Colosseum!
Fun fact: This is THE Colosseum, but a structure like this is called a coliseum.
That's not confusing at all.
Fun fact: This is THE Colosseum, but a structure like this is called a coliseum.
That's not confusing at all.
It was full of and surrounded by people. We did not go inside.
Apparently you could take a horse drawn carriage....somewhere.
What do you do to celebrate a victorious battle? You build and arch. Arch of Constantine.
This one is for Constantine I's victory over Maxentius in 312.
The Colosseum was completed in 80 AD.
Courtney and Josh!
The Colosseum could accommodate between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators.
It has this weird shape because the outer walls only remain for about half of the Colosseum. It would have been a complete oval originally. If you don't know that, it looks like they started building, and didn't meet up when they came around the oval so just decided to make it have a little overlap bit, hoping no one would notice.
This year the Colosseum turns 1,936 years old.
The Roman Forum.
And views from Palatine Hill.
Julius Caesar. Somebody gave him a wreath.
This is the Altare della Patria or the Altar of the Fatherland.
It's a monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II the first king of Unified Italy.
It's also MASSIVE. I think they took the blue prints and made every measurement 1.5 times bigger.
Lion!
This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
It was created after WWI. Above the tomb are the statues of Vittorio Emmanuele II and Roma (the goddess personification of Rome).
There is also and eternal flame nearby.
The plaque says "Gli Italiani all'estero alla madre patria" which translates as"Italians abroad to motherland." I'm guessing a better translation would be "Italians abroad and at home" and is probably a reference to those who died in various wars and battles.
Josh, Courtney, Awesome Photo-bomber, Kerri, and Will.
Our next stop was the Panhenon.
Which is also massive, or at least has massive doors.
Carved stone molding goes ALL the way up.
The tomb of Vittorio Emmanuele II - Father of the Fatherland.
The Pantheon was completed in 126 AD. Since the 7th century it's been used a church dedicated to St. Mary and the Martyrs - which sounds like a good band name.
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It is the world's largest un-reinforced concrete dome. Neat.
Side Note: panorama shots sometimes do weird distortions.
Side Note: panorama shots sometimes do weird distortions.
Raphael's Grave - After Raphael's death in 1520 the artist's body was immediately transferred to the Pantheon. In 1833, during the papacy of Gregorio XVI, the grave was opened to verify the body's existence. The body was found, and the pope gave, as a gift, the ancient marble sarcaphagus where is the inscription: "Here lies Raphael, by whom Nature feared to be outdone while he lived, and when he died, feared that She Herself would die."
Raphael commissioned this statue, Madonna del Sasso (Mary of the Rock), in 1524.
It was created by Lorenzetto aka Lorenzo Lotti.
Giant Egyptian column, because, why not?
A colorful flower stand.
The Spanish Steps were under renovation. The big deal about them is they're a big set of steps that get you from the Bourbon Spanish Embassy to Palazzo Monaldeschi. Woo steps.
We walked up to the Borghese Park and had a great view of Rome. That massive looking building in the middle between the trees is the Altare della Patria from earlier today. We walked from there.
Over on this side you can see the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.
We'd had a pretty big day, at least where walking was concerned, so we made our way back to more central Rome. Courtney found out that a hotel near her's and Josh's did a saber champagne thing every day at 19:00. So we went, because, why not?
I failed to get a photo of the actual sabering happening (they open one bottle by pushing a saber blade against the cork) but I got some photos of the sparkly chandeliers.
After champagne we went off to dinner. Before we split up for the evening we went to see this statue.
For some reason there are also four Egyptian style lions as part of the fountain.
Also with the fountain is this inscription, which I find confusing.
1 - The fountain was charged by Sixtus, not Pius.
2 - four in Roman numerals is IV not IIII.
3 - Why is the "i" in Pius and the last "i" in iiii larger than the other i's?
Anyway, this concludes our adventures for today.
