Rome, Italy

When we got to Rome we had to get another driver, but since our Rome apartment was a lot further away than the one in Chamonix we couldn’t take a shuttle. This time we had a guy in a black car that drove like a crazy man. Of course that was my opinion. I am used to my dad’s driving. He is a very cautious driver. He hates to go above the speed limit or come close. The guy driving us was pushing 130 kilometer per hour which is about 80 miles per hour. On the bright side we got to our apartment in about 30 minutes. That night we got pizza just because we were in Italy, and Italian pizza is supposed to be good. Let me tell you, Positive Pie does a better job.

The next day we did our sightseeing. We got up early and took the metro to the Coliseum. There we met up with our tour group for the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. Since we were in a tour we got to skip the line which was lucky because that line was really long. After we got through Coliseum security we saw the thing its self. If you were a regular tourist you were on one side of the arena, but all the tour groups were on a special reconstructed part so that we could see what it used to look like. All the while our guide was telling us about the history of the place. Some of the more recent history was about the cleaning of the arena. The marble used to build the Coliseum picks up dirt and grime very well, so it must be cleaned otherwise it would be brownish black. Once we were in the Coliseum but not in the arena we saw evidence of this. The ceiling was pitch black. They hadn’t cleaned it, so all the dirt was still there.

She also told us about how the name Coliseum came to be. Right before the Coliseum was built Nero had ruled. Nero is arguably the worst emperor of Rome. In addition to many other crimes he was one of the worst dictators in history and committed matricide. He also commissioned a 98 foot tall bronze statue of himself and demanded to be treated like a god. This statue was called the Colossus of Nero, and after his death it was repurposed to worship the sun god. It stood outside the Coliseum for years, and soon the Coliseum, meaning colossal theatre, got its’ name.

Finally she told us about the name arena. Arena floors were always covered in sand. Sand in Latin is harenae pronounced “arenare” then it was shortened to arena.

After seeing the arena floor we went underneath to see where the trap doors and lifts were. All the stuff underneath was better preserved than the above ground because the underground hadn’t been subjected to the elements.

Next we saw the third tier of the Coliseum. Up there we could see the entire arena, so we got the best pictures.

That was it for the Coliseum. Next we went to the Roman Forum where markets and social gatherings happened.  There wasn’t a lot to see there except a bunch of crumbling columns, but it was where our guide told us more about the history of the city.

That was the end of our tour, but we still went on to see some of the other things on our list. The next stop was the Pantheon. I was mostly interested in the architecture of the place. I had heard that the ceiling of the Pantheon was really cool, and it was true. It had been carved with a square within square pattern which gave it an almost hypnotic effect.

Next we went to the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is a big fountain with statues of gods everywhere. Needless to say it was one of our shorter stops.

Our last stop was The Spanish Steps. We didn’t stay long because we were exhausted, but they were basically a big set of stairs. By that point we didn’t know

or care what they were about. We walked home, and I took a nap.

A couple days later we went to Naples, Italy. From Naples we took a short train ride to Pompeii. Anyone who had Mr. Q might remember Pompeii, but if you don’t I’m going to go over it again. In the year 76 AD the city of Pompeii suffered a crushing defeat. The nearby volcano, Mount Vesuvius erupted and coated the city in ash which then solidified into rock. Some of the inhabitants were also coated in ash and died. Eventually the bodies
decomposed and left stone shells of Pompeians. When archeologists found these shells they poured plaster into them, and violá they had statues of the people as they were dying. Since the city was covered in ash for thousands of years it avoided being pillaged, so it is in pretty good condition. My dad had found this app that had a bunch of self guided tours on it, so we did the one on Pompeii and learned about the place as we went. Once we were done we went back to Naples and went to bed.

Our next stop was very different than the others. We went to an island called Ischia and relaxed in a thermal spring resort. Since Ischia is a volcanic island there are naturally heated springs that the resort pumped around into caves and other pools. All day we relaxed in steamy caves. Only one of them wasn’t that relaxing. This one was a square of water with one side heated to 65

degrees Fahrenheit and the other heated to 100. The idea was to walk around it five times. The difference in temperature was supposed to trigger your lymphatic system and make you feel good. It didn’t work.

That was it for Italy. I was sad to leave, but Greece was next. I love Greek and Roman mythology, but Rome adopted many of Greece’s gods when they took over, so their religion was second hand. That’s why I was excited to go to Greece, and see the home of the gods.