ROMA!

well it is pouring rain outside so i decided to stay indoors and update this thing

we took our first trip to rome on friday. we got up at 545 and caught a bus down the cliff to the train station. we managed to squeeze all 27 of us plus 4 adults into a tiny shuttle bus. our train did not leave until a little after 7 am but we spent the free time getting introduced to the train system and how to buy tickets. we arrived in the rome train station at around 845 and waited to meet up with marco. the train station was huge and we had our first run in with a gypsy begging for money.

after marco got there we took the metro to our first stop, the colosseum. walking out of the metro station and seeing the grand scale of the colosseum is hard to explain. we didn't have the time to go walk around inside but im sure i will in later trips. it was amazing to see buildings i have been studying for so long. after the colosseum we walked to the circus maximus which was some what disappointing since it was only a hole in the ground with gravel in it. it seems to be used at a dog park or a place to run. we made our way to capitoline hill ( home of michelangelo's campidoglio ). the capitoline hill is the tallest of the 7 hills in rome and has amazing view of the roman forum and the rest of the city. the last major stop was the pantheon ( one of my favorite buildings of all time and for sure the best stop of the day ). it was built by the emperor hadrian in the 2nd century AD as a church to worship all the gods since rome was so diverse at this time. the catholic church eventually took it over as a church and renovated the interior. the amazing thing about the pantheon is the dome. the entire interior volume ( 142 ft in diameter ) is spanned unsupported with a coffered concrete dome that is 23' thick at the base and 2' thick at the top of the dome. it was the largest unsupported span for hundreds of year.

after the pantheon we finished the official tour and were released to explore on our own. we walked all around rome going to the tivoli fountain ( where we found some amazing gelato ) and st. peters. we went back to catch the 645 train back to orvieto. despite having 15 people trying to figure out where to board the train we missed the first one and had to wait until 945 to catch the last train home ( thankfully we learned our lesson ). 


now if only the rain will stop.

roman forum

pantheon

pantheon interior

tivoli fountain

st. peters