When in Rome...Day 2

     Our second day in Rome, we were determined to hit all the "big stops"--Palatine Hill, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and anything else that was close by and sounded cool.  It began with a tour of the Forum Romanum, the ancient heart of Rome.

The view of Palatine Hill (the home of all the emperors) from the Forum Romanum.

The Temple of the Vestal Virgins.  The Vestal Virgins were chosen between the ages of 6 and 10 and served a term of 30 years.  The position came with great respect and wealth.  If a man was found in the Temple of the Vestal Virgins, he was put to death immediately.

    

     Then we walked onto Palatine Hill, where the Roman emperors all built their palaces. Out of everything we saw in all of Italy, this was perhaps my favorite place of all.  You could see the structures of the palaces, which was so cool, and there were beautiful gardens at the top.  I just imagined myself as Caesar in some flowing white robes and a laurel leaf crown floating through the gardens.  And the views of Rome were breathtaking.

One of the Sunken Gardens in Palatine Hill, built for one of the emperors.

An intricate fountain in one of the many palaces.

And next we saw the oh-so-famous Colosseum.  It wasn't as big as I expected, somehow, and I definitely couldn't see how you would fit 75,000 people in it (as the exhibit claimed).  But it was very grand and beautiful nonetheless.

The view from the second storey of the Colosseum.

The stadium itself! The floory-thing in the background is where the floor of the stadium would be; the structures on the ground were actually underneath the stadium floor, and would be where gladiators stayed, and where they would keep the beasts for fights.

Then we walked across Ponte Sisso, a footbridge over the Tiber River, built in the late 1400s to replace a 4-th century Roman bridge called Pons Aurelius.

The Pantheon came next on our little tour.  It was my favorite building we went to because it was just so cool.  Built by the Romans in 126 AD, it was originally used for worship of the Greek gods, but in the 7th century, Rome gave the building to the Catholic church as a kind of peace offering.  The domed ceiling is made of concrete, and is original, making it almost 2,000 years old!  It blows my mind to think that they could make this type of advanced architecture so long ago.

The very famous domed ceiling that would be almost impossible to make even nowadays.  The concrete becomes thinner towards the top to prevent it collapsing, and the oculus distributes stress and lets light in.  It is a masterpiece, and one of the most influential pieces of architecture in the world. In case you're wondering, when it rains, there are 22 near-invisible drain holes in the floor.

We then hurried to the art gallery for a second shot at the museum, made it in this time, and saw some pretty cool stuff we weren't allowed to take pictures of. My favorite was a Bernini statue of Apollo and Daphne.

Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Girl doesn't like him back.  Boy commences to chase girl until she begs her powerful father  to save her, and her father turns her into a tree.

Gelato turned out to be the cuisine of choice for another dinner, and we trundled off to bed, completely exhausted, but ready for the next day--our tour of the Vatican.