Rome if you want to! ♫♪ Part 2

Day 3: 2/4/11

This day was a very lazy day around Rome because the first hour consisted of us getting kind of lost and taking a nice walk and seeing nothing really significant. We went to go see the Colosseum that morning and I bought a piggy that you can throw at the ground and it will splatter but then go back to it's original shape. :) I didn't want to pay the €3 that they were charging, so I gave Brooke €1 to haggle with them and she got my piggy for me!! :D I swiftly named him Piggeotto and it was done! :D I had my rubber piggy and I was happy! :P While walking around we stopped at the Maximus Circus and looked at that for a bit...well Mike and I took a nap on a wall of the Maximus Circus because we are not people who like being in the sun and that day was one of the hottest days that we were in Rome. After meandering some more (we did a lot of meandering, I would say that our entire time in Rome was a huge meander fest because we had no plans to see anything other than the big things) we went and got some lunch! We had a pretty good lunch but they kind of scammed us on the bread, but oh well! :P After lunch we walked for literally a minute and we saw the Pantheon...we ate a minute from the Pantheon...seriously? We only looked at the outside and then walked to the Piazza Navona where Bernini's famous "Four Rivers" sculpture is! :D It was the "water" preferiti was going to be killed in Angels & Demons AND it was by Bernini, who is my favorite sculptor of all time...even before the Angels & Demons came out! The Piazza was so neat because there were all sorts of artists around and there was a lot of beautiful work and really talented people there. :)

We eventually made our way to El Foro Romano and went in. Walking around El Foro was really neat because there was ruins everywhere and later Brooke got a book that has pictures of what it probably looked like in it's prime and what it looks like now and it is TOTALLY different!! I would have never imagined it to be what it was based on the ruins. But, we walked around El Foro for about a good three or so hours and it was a good three or so hours of looking for shade because it was HOT AS BALLS outside. So whenever Avery, Sara, and Brooke wanted to take a a picture or stop to read something, Mike and I would survey the land and look for shade because there is only so much sun us pale kids could take. El Foro Romano summed up = meandering around ruins.

Day 4: 3/4/11

We saw sheep when we were walking to the catacombs. :)

We started this day thinking that we were going to go to the Vatican and go to mass at St. Peter's Basilica, but that dream was swiftly shattered when the woman at the front desk of our hostel told us that the museum was going to be closed because it was Sunday...another avenue in my life where religion has let me down. So, we quickly devised a plan to go to the catacombs and specifically we went to Callisto Catacombs. Before we were let into the catacombs we had to wait about 45 minutes before the ticket booth was open again. I laid in Mike's lap as Mike and Brooke did some form of drawing competition. I was just tired and wanted to lay in the grass and I did just so. When it was time to go in, I was fully rested and we got into our tour group which was full of old people...I said that they are just going down there to take a look at the real estate because they are going to be in the position to buy quite soon...I know, I am a terrible person! But, we learned a whole shit ton of information about these catacombs and it was super neat. The tour guide even made fun of Brooke, Avery, and I because we were taking notes as he was talking. :P 
The Callisto Catacombs are the biggest of all of the catacombs in Rome. It covers 15 hectares and has four levels of burials. There are only 6 catacombs left in Rome that are open to the public. Around 1/2 a million people are buried in the Callisto catacombs and nearly 40% of those people are children. Every time we passed a small hole in the wall I would say "baby...toddler....baby....fetus....baby..." because again, I am a bad person. :P There were also 16 Popes buried here, but they were then moved to the Vatican. During the persecution, the Christians would use these catacombs as places of worship because they were not allowed to have churches above ground but the people who would go there to worship could not stay down there too long because of the shitty ventilation, high humidity, and there was also sulfur in the soil. We couldn't take pictures in there...so no pictures other than sheep... :( 


ONLY ONE MORE ROME POST TO GO!! :)