Wednesday

Today was one of my favorite days so far! It was much, much cooler than it has been being slightly cloudy, and we didn't do nearly as much walking. We spent half of our time in a museum in the Trajan markets so first let me explain the markets because they are SO COOL. Get ready to be fascinated!!!

They are a bunch of what we think were shops but might have also been used for administration- but built into a hillside using Terrences, so there are three levels in a large curve- because the arched shape pushes back against the hillside. We went inside them and they are all connected by stairways going up inside these huge covered walkways between shops, almost like an ancient shopping mall. They are from the early AD during Trajan's reign so they are almost 2,000 years old, maybe a few centuries less if I'm remembering correctly. Behind them were remains of insulae, basically apartment building where people were crammed. Rome's center had about a million people living in it, and while they reserved lots of space for forums the every day people lived crammed into very high apartment buildings, which probably wasn't very fun.

here's a picture i stole from google were were INSIDE:











































Very cool, right?

The museum had pieces from the different forums set up in these little shop areas, (rooms). The forums were actually large areas separate from the markets. Now, several different rulers built their own forum which was basically a huge open rectangular space with temples and basilicas (law courts), altars, museums, and tons of statues (the important people were honored with these as decoration whereas cult statues that were worshipped were found inside the temples), with porticoes (covered walkways) around them from what I've seen. There is one original one which is THE Roman forum but then Julius Caesar built his own to expand to help ease severe crowding and it became a trend. By the time of Trajan, who is many rulers down the line, they were extremely elaborate, becoming increasingly lavish as the bar was raised by each ruler. I think the forums, in order, were built by Augustus, Vespian, Domitian, and Trajan ( just checked: got it right!) and basically they were all right next to each other with similar decoration to give it a unified feel so they didn't completely contrast with each other but weren't exact copies either. For example they would use the same proportions or dimensions for certain structures, though each whole forum was a different size. They also each had different temples for example, Julius had Venus Genetrix (mother of all) while Augutus had one to Mars.

Then we had a few lectures sitting outside the markets (so cool that we have lectures AT the sites) which covered a lots of ground, one was on Augustus who followed Julius Caesar, his name was originally Octavius (he was the first famous person do do that name changing thing to increase his fame, his new name Augustus referred to the method Romans used to get permission from the Gods to do something, and thus implied he had god given right to rule) and he had a lot of problems in the beginning of his reign with revolts and even some totally failed battles, like his first battle at sea. Luckily the general Agrippa took over that whole fiasco and had a success in the second battle! Despite this, he was one of the most successful emperors and has his own forum of course, as well as that altar of peace I mentioned (which was built when everything settled down) and his mausoleum with his autobiography on huge stone tablets. He was the one who had to fight with Mark Antony and Cleopatra, remember? And he won. Then came the "peace" since he had finally put down all those who challenged his position.

Then we went over the succession of emperors from Augustus wayyy past Septimus Severus, including Gaius, Tiberius, Nero, Vespian, the Flavians, Hadrian, Marcus Auerulius, Nero, and at least a half a dozen others. So we covered a lot of ground! Despite it being a lot of material, I enjoyed hearing about which emperors were meglomaniacs and declared themselves Gods (if done while alive it was totally not cool- most were actually deified after death and that was totally okay, but not before dying!) or just wanted to be gladiators as their empire was getting run into the ground by revolts.

Okay history lesson over:

There is a huge huge soccer match in Rome tonight, Barcelona and Manchester. And you know how Europeans get with soccer, we have already seen lots of Barcelona fans, some with beers already in hand at noon! Even school children are chanting at the people in jerseys and it promises to be an exciting night in the city. A bunch of girls want to go watch the game at a pub near the stadium and while going out into the excitement sounds fun, I dont follow soccer nor do i drink so i dont know how fun a pub crowded with rowdy fans would be. Though I do want to walk around near where the game is and see all the excitement and fans. I'm sure it will be very chaotic and fun!

In other news the pigeons here love me, I got yet another surprise dropped on my bag to my dismay, but people say its good luck. I don't want the luck if it comes with disease! Also getting to Venice is proving very confusing!! I think tomorrow we are going to get on a bus to go to the train station and just ask for help there in getting a train. However, it might rain Saturday so I'm not sure where we stand on that which is worrisome. (edit: checked weather, tis all good to go!)

Also, weird note yesterday for the first time I had meat (chicken) in Rome. i didn't even realize it but I had between switching between pasta and salads while muching on fruit and granola bars all during the first week and didnt even miss the meat!

Yesterday i denied myself gelato so today i get to have it, hooray! You can see how far my self restraint is going! Though with all the walking none of us can figure out why we aren't either buff or very lean and trim. Haha. Uhm let's see, what else... yesterday we got very lost and I did even more asking for directions (exciting) also oh yeah this is importante, well sort of...but I've noticed that all the churches in Rome are breathtaking. On the outside you'd NEVER guess, ever but once you're inside it's so gorgeous and elaborate, with painted cielings and beautiful altars and statues gracing the walls, I mean i thought churches back home were pretty but these are amazing, on a whole different level!

I guess those are the major things so far for today!

EDIT: Just went outside to sit an eat lunch and ALL the soccer fans are out in their jerseys with flags around their shoulders and mobs of Italian children screaming and chanting for Barcelona, we were watching all the commotion when my roommate was like omg this feels like the quidditch world cup (from harry potter) and I was like OMG IT IS JUST LIKE THAT! then of course I got super excited. It's sooo awesome, it's like someone declared it a holiday and everyone is just walking around selling team souvenirs and wearing their team's stuff and just iunno. Its exciting!!! So glad we're here during the huge soccer game!! Its way cool!! We def don't get the atmosphere like this in the US.

Also guy trying to sell us cheap costume jewelery came by TWICE and the second time I was just like "yo, you were JUST here" but not loudly, more to myself but my friends laughed and he finally gave up, whether he understood or not I was clearly like "Are you serious?"

Also there's a street on our walking tour that even google maps cant find. Ha I beat the system, I AM NOT going to search for a non existent street!