18.11.08

Rome and the Coliseum!


Never in my lifetime did I think I would get the chance to study abroad, and when planning for this trip there was only one place in my mind that I knew I had to see either on my own time or through our traveling with the class. The one place that I had been dreaming about for almost all of my life was Italy. Finally we were going and our first stop was Rome. We arrived late at night on Wednesday so adventures of Italy only went as far as finding the most Italian restaurant we could find and testing out the food, which by the way was incredible!

Thursday morning we woke up and headed straight for the Coliseum. The walking distance to the Coliseum from our hotel was not bad by any means and as we approached it. Getting closer and closer to the building it grew larger and more intimidating with each step I took. As we walked inside the excitement I was feeling was overwhelming and unsure of what to expect. We went up in the elevators to get to the higher part of the Coliseum and as you walked out onto the Coliseum to look down at the pits where thousands of gladiators fought, it felt incredible. As I looked around I could picture with my own eyes how it once looked, filled with thousands of people screaming and chanting as they gazed down on the gladiators fighting to the death. The part in which the gladiators would stand was no longer there, but instead you were able to see what was down below those grounds, where they kept the lions and tigers locked up. Our tour guide told us that they do not have a definite number on how many deaths actually took place in the Coliseum but she made an estimate of about a million or so people counting the amount of deaths for each day and for how many years this went on.


Rome was an incredible city, and despite what I had heard about it being a dangerous area I felt as comfortable there as I did in Athens. The city is filled with character from the modern day buildings to the Coliseum or Vatican City that has filled the area with history that dates back thousands of years. Of any place to travel to hands down it would be Rome not only for the historical aspect, but the food was great too!

No comments: