Travels Around Roma Part II: The Colosseum and the Forum Ruins

I actually visited il Colosseo and the Fori Romani before my first travel break, but I haven't really gotten around to posting it until now. Oh well. This is my favorite area in Roma, becuase nothing is better than the Colosseum where the gladiators fought. This is also the mythical locatoin (the Palantine Hill) where the great Roman Empire was founded, and Caesar and Augustus and lived here. The Roman Empire had their Senate in the Roman Forum, and Augustus' Forum was of course here as well the housing of the Vestel Virgins. The cremation place of Julius Caesar himself is here, as well as important Triumphal arches and probably a lot of other significant stuff that I don't even realize. Enjoy...


This is the view directly across the street from the Colosseo metro stop. And I remember taking this the first time I saw the Colosseum. Its truly amazing and cannot be described with words. It's just right there, and nothing compares to seeing it in person. Everyone should go.


This is a view of the underground tunnels under the floor. Some of the ground level can also be seen in the picture. The Colosseum was built over Nero's Golden Palace, which had numerous passagways and paths. The original seating is now gone and the Colosseum would have been covered in marble. Some marble is visible today but the general strucure still remains. If only the Lakers could play here, then my life would be complete...

This is me in the burning sweaty heat giving a thumbs up, which is what the Emperor of Rome gave when he wanted the gladiator to die (don't believe the movies).

This is a relief from the Arch of Titus, which was built to commemorate the sack of the Temple of Jerusalem and how the Romans brought back the riches to Rome.

And this of course is a cat enjoying the shade in the Colosseum.
This is the Arch of Constantine. It has too much intricate marble decoration and historical significance to describe, so I will just let the internet describe it for me here.

This is the room where the Vestel Virgins were kept. It is closed to the public but use your imagination. I am assuming it was a grand room full of marble, just like everything else.

This is inside what was the Senate building, but now houses famous statues. This statue is of none other than Julius Caesar himself, dressed in his traditional imperial garb. Although there were other statues in the building I liked this one the best, because it is the most significant and as it is said Caesar could move mountains if he wanted to.

Here is a view of the Roman forum, or more accuratley what remains of it. Back in the day the buildings would have been unneccessarily tall. Think 10 stories tall, because the ancient Romans were more skilled architects than anyone else in the world and their cement used a secret volcanic ingredient that made it stronger than our modern concrete is now.
This is where Caesar was cremated and as legend goes rose to the heavens and became a Roman god right then and there. People still place flowers in this holy site to honor Caesar himself. A grand altar to Caesar made of marble and built disproportionately high was built, but that sadly does not survive today. However the gist of it does, and this is a special place in Rome for me.

Here are more ruins from the Forum.

This is literally the Augustus' Forum. Once again imagine a very tall marble and façade in what would have been the glory and pride of the ancient Roman Empire.

Another more complete view of the Forum, with the famous three standing colums ruin in the left of the picture.

This is the veiw from the outside, withe the Colosseum being to the left and the Palatine Hill behind this view.
Here are some pictures I took a couple of months later in night vision from the Capotiline Museum (another post) of the Roman Forum, which I had to include here. It is really amazing. I wish I could be like Augustus and live on the Palatine Hill and also rule the Roman Empire in my spare time...


Here is a view of the Roman Forum in the pitch dark night using night mode. The Arch of Constantine, the Colosseum in the background, and the three columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux (mythological twin brothers who helped the Roman army to victory and announced the victory at the forum).

This is another view of the Forum with the Palatine Hill and other ground ruins visible in the background and the foreground.
This is what I actually saw when I took this picture in regular mode by accident.

And this is reality with night mode. It almost looks like a painting or a surreal image, but I really like this picture because it reveals a new world and new colors and objects.

Travels Around Roma Part I: Celano

This is a short yet sweet account of my site visit to the small Italian town of Celano for my Culture and Identity class. Celano is a small town built around a lake, except that there is no lake. It was drained in the 1950's and the land was sold to peasants. Celano has one famous landmark, which is the castle up in the hills. The head of the government wanted to live in the castle, but Celano wouldn't allow that. Thus Celano was neglected by the powers that be and today it is still a small town which strongly connects with its past. Apparently a lot of Celanese people live in Rochester, New York and many have left the sub-urban confines to other cities for better work. It is also worth noting that like most Italian towns, they speak in their own Italian dialect, which is slightly incompatible with standard Italian. It's often the opposite of formal Italian. My professor lived in Celano for a while and so visited some friends at a local bar where he had lunch and he translated for this old farmer friend of his who was telling us stories of the lake being drained. Apparently he told us in class later that the old man knew we were from Rome because my professor makes the same site visit from Rome every year and thus the old man was trying to speak to us in standard Italian by using the opposite of what he was saying. Instead of saying "I have hunger" as it is in standard Italian Celanese says "I am hunger", but in a shortened way that it would be said in standard Italian. And of course when the old farmer was speaking to us he tried to use standard Italian by saying the opposite of Celanese dialect, and he often spewed out completely wrong phrases. My experiences with Italian linguistics is a another blog entirely, but I found this amusing. And now some description of what I saw. They are slightly out of order but oh well.

1. This is a local university at Celano and also a symbol of government corruption. Apparently this university costs a lot of money to upkeep it but it gives out useless degrees and is only there because the mayor of Celano had political ties with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. I am not at all surprised at all by this.

2. This is the medieval wooden oak door to the local church.

3. This is a view of the former lakebed from the bus on the freeway heading to Celano. The lake wasn't that deep when it had water in it but it had a large area.

4. This is the view from inside the church.

5. This is a view from behind the castle.


6. This is a view from behind the castle as well.


7. This is a picture just to the left of the picture above.


8. This is a burial site inside the church, because of course churches were graveyards before the advent of cemeteries.


9.This is a view, albeit a bad one, of the castle. It is kind of big but not huge.
10. And this is a final vista from Celano. Italy has beautiful views....

Paris/London Vacation: London

Now onto London. I've been sick for these past 2 weeks on and off so blogging hasn't been my primary concern. But I'm recovering now so its a good time to catch up since I'm slightly losing my voice anyways. After we took the Chunnel from Paris we arrived at London at King's Cross/ St. Pancras Station. Sadly, I didn't run through the wall between platform 9 and platform 10. It was kinda late and I was hungry so I ventured outside and had some KFC. It's expensive but good. It was such a relief to speak English finally! English English English!!! My roommates were in the train station taking a nap so I just ventured out. Immediately I met some people studying abroad in London just hanging out. Then while waiting in line I met this man with a thick North London accent I think. At first I didn't even know he was talking in English, but he wanted to know where he could buy a 5 piece chicken piece. I told him to ask the cashier. Soon after he got into an argument with the cashier and he was obviously drunk, and everyone at the place knew it. After it was my turn I went to the cashier and gave him a nod of recognition knowing he just had to deal with the guy before he, and he returned the nod back. After that I ordered my KFC, ate it, walked around a bit, and returned to St. Pancras. We had to sleep there until we checked into our hostel tomorrow, and it was cold but I made it. The next morning as I was going to the ATM I got "randomly" checked by a police officer. He explained that the 7/7 train bombings were in Waterloo station not too far from St. Pancras and its their policy to perform random checks. It also might have to do with the fact that I hadn't shaved in a while, was wearing a black hood, was carrying a backpack, and I look like I do. I'm pretty sure it wasn't random but after the cop saw me carrying my American passport he became a lot more relaxed. Then the next morning we took the Tube, as the Londoners like to call it, to the Kennington stop and made a short walk to our hostel. I still have trouble seeing how the cars drive on the wrong side of the street and using the Great British Pound, which is almost double of a dollar. That killed me.

Anyways we eventually got to sightseeing. Due to some technical problems with my camera memory, I didn't take any pictures while I was in London but I'm sure there are some pictures floating around somewhere. The first thing I remember seeing is the biggest Cathedral in London, St. John's Church, which was nice. However once you've seen one church, you've seen them all so its no big deal. But right in the view we could see the Tate Modern Museum with a sign that said "Free Entrance". I liked the museum. It had a lot of modern art even with some Picasso and some impressionist art, but some of the modern art is just newspaper clippings and I doubt if its really art. There were also a lot of interactive games and things and a lot of schools were there on field trips with their uniforms. It's also weird to see people who are asian, black, etc. all speaking in British accents. I like the British accent though. Its quite proper.

Then to make a long story short, I saw the London Bridge (at least the part of it that remains. Apparently a lot of it is in Arizona), Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Green Park right next to Buckingham Palace, another park which I forget the name of, the Tower of London tour Royal Jewels with their huge diamonds, and chatted with some locals. I also went along the street where all the well-known shops are and I visited the London Burberry store and tried on their clothes. One jacket cost 1000 GBP. I also visited the famous 3-story toy store Hamley's, which was fun. They have a lot of toys so it was fun to check them out. There was also the Ferrari Store, the Hugo Boss store, and other nice stores. I also had fish and chips multiple times. I felt like a true London bloke. Eventually the vacation ended and after some fiasco with the flight home I finally made my way back to Roma from my one week vacation break. Next up... travels around Roma and my next travel break to Spain. Stay tuned...