Our First Tour(s) =D

First of all, yesterday, I didn't blog because it was a day of rest. We had our first day of class, which was interesting. Took notes, probably made some folks angry, the usual first day for me in a James Madison class. After that, I basically zoned out on a tower defense game and read Livy's History of Rome. Sleeeeppp.

Today, however, was our class' first tour. We have one planned for each Wednesday, but 7 in total, so we had to cram 2 for today. Our goal was to complete a tour of Michelangelo's Capitoline Hill Plaza museum and Rome's ancient city, including the Forum and the Colosseum. When I mention these places, google them, they are amazing.

The Capitoline Hill Plaza was designed by Michelangelo for the arrival of King Charles V's arrival after the sack of Rome in 16th century. As such, it was designed as a spectacle of beauty, and is, indeed, beautiful. We found out that the court is designed to cut off view from ancient (sacked) Rome and forcing you to look at the Vatican. Pretty cool. The entire thing is a museum filled with hundreds of statues going through the history of Rome. The rooms they are in are also ridiculously detailed with paintings on the walls and 3D wall sculptures.

The Colosseum was impressive a couple days ago from the outside, but the inside is even more impressive. Our tour guide said many think it's not as big as they were expecting, but I thought it was incredibly big when considering when they built it. We went through the construction of brick and cement mixes with brick lining. It's thought that the Colosseum was actually coated in marble when in full use. We learned that the Italian word for sand is arena, and they put sand on the front-row standing area in the Colosseum, and thus we have Arenas. We saw drawings, or carvings from the audience of their favorite warriors, which put the entire experience into perspective. I imagined being there and watching a battle between animals and humans. I imagined the inside flooded with water for naval battles or naked women for enjoyment. I now want Rome to recreate the Colosseum and hold such events again... for me.

Finally, we had a small tour of the Forum, a center of public life in Rome with several political buildings. We found that Caesar had built a Senate building on top of an older Senate building in order to block off the rest of Rome and further create a rectangular Forum. He also used this building as a grand entrence to the people. We also saw where Caesar was cremated and flowers are still being laid there. His body, however, is somewhere else. We learned a lot of Caesar here. This was the least interesting place, mostly because I couldn't visualize the place, as it's a lot of ruins with little form. It is still oddly beautiful.

After we got back, a group of us wanted to see The Hangover 2. So, we went out, got Gelato, went to the movie theatre, and found that it was only in Italian. So, instead, we got wine. Got to go!

                                                         
TLDR
 - had a tour of an amazing museum.
 - saw the inside of the Colosseum, it was 0_0
 - saw some ancient ruins, learned a lot about Roman history. :D
 - drinking wine... :O