We started in Gaeta and took a bus to Formia, then a train to Rome Terminus, then a metro two stops to the Colleseum. We walked toward the Pantheon. On the way, we stopped and drank from cool water fountains that were shaped like wolf heads. Wolves are important in Rome because there were two brothers who were raised by a she-wolf. The wolf let them free, the kids got in a big fight about what the city was going to be like, and one brother killed the other. The city was named after the brother who won the fight, Romulus.
Italians like to eat their pizza folded in half. Graeme and I had pizza for lunch and ate like Roman-Italians. The pizza is very good here because it is where it was invented. The main difference is that there is more crust,and less cheese and sauce. It is SO good! Since it was so good, we eat lots of it and try to decide which is best.
Now to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a temple for many gods. It is the only building still alive today that was still like it was when it was built. The reason why it is still standing today is that a Pope decided to turn it into a church. It is still a church today. We went out of the way to see it first, so that when we saw other Roman ruins we could understand what they must have looked like.
Next we went to get some ice cream. It was pistachio and chocolate. Pistachio was my favorite (second to my biggest favorite, coconut). The first ice cream I ever had in Europe was raspberry, and it tasted like real raspberries, but I have blogged about that before.
Back to Rome. The a bunch of statues and a bunch of them are nude. Modern statues are wearing clothes. We thought the nude ones were pretty funny but surprizing.
We went to the forum next. There was a temple for Saturn. Inside, there used to be a statue of Saturn (maybe he was nude). At Christmas, you could go in there and pour olive oil on people. Saturn is the god of harvests.
Moving on to the next spot in the Forum, we saw the Temple of Vesta. It was taken care of by the Vestal Virgins. If the vestal virgins misbehaved they got buried alive with a loaf of bread and a candle. The candle was there to give light but also to burn up the oxygen. This happened to 22 people. The Romans were pretty crazy.
Then we moved on to the Colleseum. The first thing that struck me was the view. They took out the floor so you can see the underground where they kept the lions, tigers, cheetahs , and the gladiators. Sometimes gladiators fought eachother, other times they fought animals. Then se moved on to another spot where the emporer would sit. It was near the door where the carriages would come out and scoop up the dead.
They used to all speak in Latin. Now they speak in Italian. The date that I wrote this (above) is in Roman Numerals. Sometimes the old houses have a date, and I am the one who has to read it. I is one, V is five, X is ten, L is fifty, C is one hundred, D is five hundred, and M is one thousand. I figured out that this year now is MMXI.
Today we are resting. We are going to Pompeii tomorrow.
That is it.
If you want a postcard, repond to me and send your address on email. I will write you a postcard that I got (20 postcards for 1 Euro). That was a very good deal. In Majorca, I got one postcard for 75 cents.