That dome just to the left of the center is the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, in the Vatican City. For the better part of the afternoon we just sat around in the shade and watched the world go by, then headed back to the hostel with the grand plan of tackling Ancient Rome on our first full day in the city.
For those who are unaware of the specifics of Ancient Rome (as we were when we arrived), the major ancient Roman ruins in the city are the Colosseum and the Roman Forum/Paletine Hill. A couple that we met in Venice recommended doing the latter first, because you can buy a combined ticket and bypass the line for the former. If you do go to Rome, the extra 2 euros to do both is worth it if only to run past the line at the Colosseum.
The Palentine Hill and the Forum were interesting, but it was blazing hot the entire day which made it hard to really enjoy fully. A couple pictures from the morning:
The Roman Forum, the main plaza of ancient Rome.
The ceiling of one of the very few buildings we were allowed to go into. I was absolutely amazed at how well the frescoes in the buildings have survived.
Mosaics that may or may not have been outside to begin with. It was kind of hard to tell where there were buildings at one point and where there weren't. I'm thinking that this might be a fun thing to try the mosaic patchwork on, seeing if I can make them look exactly as they are here, cracks in the stones and all.
After we spent several hours at the Forum, we rested for a while eating lunch, and then headed out to the Colosseum.
It was amazing, the first building of that scale I've ever seen that wasn't modern, or that wasn't religious in orientation. Apparently the games were free, but each attendee was issued a ticket and a seat, and assigned a specific entrance gate, just like modern sports games. The system we have now is actually based on the Roman system, which is just incredible to me.
Most of what you can see in the bottom left you couldn't see when the Colosseum was in use, as it was underneath the floor of the arena. One of the coolest things I learned while I was there is that there was a complex system of awnings for shade that could be rolled out or retracted, and that sailors were hired to run the rigging for the system. Just one more picture of the Colosseum,
I was in an artsy fartsy mood when I took this picture, and I think it turned out rather well.
Just a couple final things before I sign off for the day. I thought this window was interesting, mostly in that it was quite different from others typical patterns I've seen thus far.
And finally, we met up with some friends to have dinner and ended up at a restaurant that was also a club. I went to the bathroom and felt compelled to document this:
The toilet seat and toilet cover are clear. Now, I'm not sure who made this decision, but I'm willing to bet that whoever it was does not have to clean the bathroom. I mean, it doesn't take a huge amount of imagination to figure out how much potential for mess there is with a toilet seat cover clear enough that it was giving me a little bit of a headache before I realized it was there, especially in a club setting, and even more especially because it was a unisex bathroom. I can't even imagine how many times a night they have to clean up after some guy that didn't realize the cover wasn't up before he let loose.
Anyhow, after that lovely digression, we head on to the sights and sounds of the Vatican City for the next two days. Ciao!
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