The days are starting to blur together as we move close to the end of our time in Rome. It is hard to imagine that after all of this amazing time, it has only been 3 weeks, and we still have another 3 weeks to go and then a week in France. If the next 3 weeks are the same as the past 3 weeks, I'm not sure if my senses can take it. This has very easily been one of the best times in my life, and to say that it is yet to be doubled is beyond comprehension. Lets hope my poor mind can handle it!
Anyhow since the last time that I blogged, we have done a few things. On Monday a couple of my friends and I went to the Castle Sant' Angelo, and a couple other spots we wanted to see before we left Rome. The Castle is actually built on top of what was Hadrian's tomb from Ancient Rome. The Pope's during the Middle Ages decided that they needed to build a fortress to defend against their enemies (how many religions have to build fortresses to defend against their temporal enemies?). Since it was also made for the popes to live in, it is rather lavish on the inside and they also have a rather large collection of art and military pieces because of the fortress's ability to store things. The view was also very nice from the top of the castle however it was no Vatican or Victor Emmanuel. All things consider it was nice and worth it to go to, allowing to see how Rome has history on top of history.
After that stop we found a pretty cool outdoor market where we did a bit of shopping for friends, family, and even ourselves. After looking through all the cool things we moved on past the Supreme Court of Italy which we took plenty of pictures of. We really couldn't go in or anything, so we just took pictures of the front of it. On our way we then crossed back over the Tiber and went to Mausoleum of Augustus. This was built to house the remains of the first emperor of Rome, who was also the most successful politician in history. While this was really cool to see, it was rather run down, and it is closed to the public because so many people try taking things from it. It was still very cool to see something that has stood as long as Christianity, and something so important. After we took some quick pictures of the Mausoleum, we went to the Alter of Augustan Peace which was right next to the mausoleum. It cost money, which it really wasnt worth that much to go see, but again it was cool to see something that old, important, and relatively in good shape. Oh yes it slipped my mind but the alter was made by the Senate to commemorate the peace that came after the civil wars that was won by Augustus.
After the Alter we went to the Piazza del Popolo, which was really nice, and very large. It was also very nice because the church that is on the Piazza was in Angels and Demons as one of the Alters of Science. So that was very cool. It was a very nice small church, with some very nice art, including lots of skeletons. It even had some Bernini works, and had two of the most famous Caravaggio paintings in existence; The Conversion of Saul, and the Crucifiction of Peter. Those were worth the trip to see. That was it for that day.
Today we went to the Ancient port city of Rome, Ostia Antica. This was a lot like going to Pompeii except it was slightly smaller, had less tourists, and was more well preserved due to not being under a volcano. We went to see pretty much all of the important places in the city, as our tour guide was an amazingly intelligent human being (he got his PhD from Stanford in Classics) who knew just about everything there was to know. He took us to the burial tombs of the city, the fireman's barracks, the city gym, the forum, a bar, and the public baths, all were very cool to see in such a preserved state. After climbing around the ruins for a couple hours with him most of the group went off to go to the beach, however myself and some others went back to siesta and get food. It was a good day all told, and I got my first sunburn on this trip. Yet I'm already tan enough where i cant even really feel it, and I have no idea how I lasted 2 weeks without burning here, its a miracle you ask me. Anyhow have to get off to class so I will post later today after we tromp around the forum again.
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