Rome: The Center of the (My) World

    It's literally taken me two months to finish posting about my first Italy trip and I'm really excited to finish it up so I can start posting about some more recent trips! But I won't be done until I've talked about Rome! 

   Rome was definitely my favorite place to visit in Italy. It's not the cleanest (I have come to find out that Italy is quite poor and falling into disrepair in many areas.) nor the safest, but it is certainly one of the best, at least to me,  because it has everything my little archaeology heart could ever want; Ruins!!! They are literally everywhere. You cannot walk around without finding a city park with some beautiful, half-fallen building in it. UGH, it was so gorgeous. When you get out of the ghetto, it's really a pretty city, full of lush green gardens and these funny-looking trees that look like overgrown bonsais. Rome is a city that has been built overtop of itself multiple times, and the areas where ruins remain, have become public parks; which breathes new life into them and give them a peculiar sort of beauty. It leaves the impression that they have not been completely lost to time, that in some sense, the ruins are just in another stage of their long lives as they cultivate the growth of mossy outcroppings and quiet gardens. 

   On the first day, we decided to visit the Vatican. I wasn't that impressed. It was certainly a beautiful church but it was very lofty and very gaudy and all of the design elements were small, and thus, everything kind of just, filtered past my irises without leaving any real impression in my mind. Does that make sense? Probably not. 

The Tiber River with Saint Peter's Basilica in the background

Was #notimpressed

Terrible photo, but the coolest thing about the Basilica was the Egyptian Obelisk.
These ancient obelisks are all over the city. You can play a game and try to see how many
you can find.

We also swung by the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. The fountain was off, small, 
and REALLY crowded, so I wasn't that impressed with it either.  

   The next day was the Sabbath. Now, I know I talked about the issue of the Sabbath in my post about Prague, but I would like to revisit that hear because I have more to add to it. In Prague, I had confided in my friend about how hard it was to honor the Sabbath while everyone else was not, and how guilty I had felt all day because it seemed as though everyone was being put out by me. This is the same friend I went on my trip to Italy with. So I was shocked when we arrived in Rome and she told me, "I think we need to face the reality that we're just going to need to spend money and go do things on Sabbath while we are here." This friend has no particular qualms with buying and selling on Sabbath so what she was really saying was that I needed to face the fact that I needed to be willing to spend money and go do things on Sabbath. I was genuinely flabbergasted that she would pressure me like that when she knew how hard the last trip was, and it only strengthened my resolve that I would not be doing such things on Sabbath. 

  I texted my parents that night because I was genuinely heart and admittedly a little angry she had said that. I remember commenting to them that the Sabbath is about making sacrifices. It's the same as if you were to go on a date with someone, perhaps baseball is not your favorite sport but you love that person and so you go see their favorite team play, or perhaps you have a long string of texts coming in from work but you put your phone on silent so you can focus on them for the moment. The Sabbath is just our date with God, and it's a time when we set aside our own desires and work to spend time with Him. I think that the Sabbath exists for more then as just a day of rest, but also as a way to teach us sacrifice and temperance. This was the conclusion I was coming to as I went to sleep that night. 

   The next day, I woke up early because I wanted to go visit the Roman Forum. Since the Roman Forum is a huge area of ruins located in the middle of the city, I assumed it was free entry. My friend was still getting ready for the day, but I was rearing to go, so I set off on my own. As I approached the Forum I noticed ancient pillars poking up in the distance and my excitement mounted. I stopped at a crosswalk and looked to my left and stared, in disbelief, for half a second as the Colosseum loomed over the street. Then it registered what I was seeing and I veered left towards it. Wow. I cannot express what it was like to see the Colosseum in person for the first time. It is HUGE, and absolutely stunning! Unlike Saint Peter's Basilica, it is lofty, but not gaudy, and thus the viewer can just sit and look at it for ages and never grow tired of its elegant, but commanding architecture (I'm not bias at all). All I could say when I first saw it was "Oh my goodness, it's so big. Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!" The Colosseum was definitely the highlight of my trip, which I was hard-pressed to admit at first as that seemed a bit too obvious. 

     Eventually, I moved towards the Forum and what did I find there but a long line of people waiting to buy entry tickets. I could not have been more disappointed. I had planned my whole day around the thought that it would be free to enter the Forum and now I couldn't. You see, I am not entirely against entering National Parks on Sabbath even though you have to go through a ticket booth. What better way to spend Sabbath than admiring God's creation? I still am not entirely sure how to deal with these kinds of predicaments and I am still learning, but it just feels as though there is no way around it sometimes. So, my first thought was to justify it; this was a National Park. Surely, it was okay to buy a ticket and go in. And perhaps, on any other occasion, it would have been, I'm still not really sure, but deep down in my heart I knew that after the conversation I had had with my parents the night before, this was a sacrifice God was asking me to make. I had to choose what was more important to me, Him and the special day we had together, or the temporal enjoyment of seeing the Roman Forum, a lifelong dream, yes, but a site I could always return to the next day or the next year. So, through a mess of disappointed tears, I chose Him and walked around until I found a terrace that overlooked the ruins. There, I climbed onto the railing with my back to the cool bricks and began to sketch. And you know what? I could not have had a better day. 

   Because I could not go into any of the sites, museums, or exhibits, I was forced to take my time, to simply sit and take everything, to truly admire it as I traced its details and turned them into a sketch. I spent the whole day this way, listening first to the Biblical account of Paul's visit to Rome, and then just listening to music. My friend joined me late in the afternoon and we moved on to the Colosseum, where we sat and sketched some more and watched the sunset. It was perfect, and I really think God blessed me because I had chosen to spend my day with Him. 

My very first look at the Colosseum

   I genuinely couldn't have found a better spot to sketch. My favorite part of sketching was that when I was looking at the page, all I could hear was the very faint murmur of people talking in the Forum beneath me, and seagulls fighting over the olives in the trees, and for a moment, I truly could have just been in ancient Rome and I'm certain I wouldn't have noticed the difference. 

 

my friend arrived with Pizza and we ate on the terrace. 

Me in my natural habitat

Genuinely have no words

I listened to the soundtrack from Gladiator while I sketched
10/10 experience. I found music very helpful in taking away the distraction
of other tourists and keeping me in the moment 

   And the next day was Free Museum Day! We woke up extra early to get in line for the Colosseum but by the time we got there, the line snaked around the entire structure and down the road. It moved relatively quickly tho and we got in for free which is all that matters. On a side note, I searched around the Colosseum for a public bathroom for 40 minutes while we waited in line and couldn't find one. I genuinely don't understand what Europe's issue is with public restrooms and free water. I feel like these should just be human rights, but maybe I'm speaking from the perspective of a privileged American. But here's the thing. Ancient Rome had free public restrooms, so like??? Do better modern Rome. Do better. 

I love these photos because it's very apparent that
I was never quite close enough

   The inside of the Colosseum is less impressive than the outside, I think because all of the seats are gone so it feels a bit like a skeleton, but it is a very sobering experience to go inside. In my opinion, it holds the same weight, or at least it should, as visiting a Holocaust museum or some other sight which marks the tragic lives and deaths of innocent people. At least 100 humans have died for every single of of its 48,440 square feet, some of which were Christians. Sobering as it is, the purely archaeologically minded side of me was ecstatic to be there. Plus, I have had many years to reconcile with what took place here, and am able to view it academically as well as emotionally depending on the circumstance. 

The thumbs up and thumbs down signals actually come from the Colosseum.
Thumbs up meant "swords up" and thumbs down meant "swords down", so really
a thumbs up is a bad thing if you want to keep your life.

 

   When we were done in the Colosseum (I was finally dragged away) we went to the Forum, the center of Rome where most civil matters and religious matters were handled, and Palantine Hill, the hill that overlooks it where the emperors personal palace was. (Yes, that is where the word Palace comes from). The forum is in much worse condition then the Colosseum, so like I said earlier, has come to resemble a garden of sorts, and its stunning. 

One of the ancient Nymphae still being used to this day

Hoping I don't get led poisoning like the ancients did. (Just kidding, the fountains in
the city are always good for drinking unless otherwise labeled) 

Not sure what I was doing, I think my feet hurt. I'd completely
worn the souls out of these shoes, and threw them in the trash before we left. 
I love the image of me sitting on the fallen facade though. It was always fun to be the
first to walk on the original tiles, or touch a fallen pillar, and watch other tourists do the same
once they realized it was free game as long as it wasn't fenced off. 

   This is The Arch Of Titus. The Roman general Vespasian was originally put in charge of the Siege of Jerusalem, but after he was called back to Rome for civil matters (declaring himself emperor and marching on the city), he left Titus in charge of the siege. Titus was the one who destroyed the temple. This arch was erected to commemorate his victory. In this photo I am pointing of a depiction of Roman soldiers carrying the Menorah out of the Temple. My professor always mentions this in his lectures so this picture was for him. :) 

We finally went to get lunch and I ordered a calzone.
I didn't expect it to be so big. 

We visited the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March
and I left him some flowers. 

   We ended the day at the Pantheon, an ancient Roman Temple that has stood the test of time. The Pantheon is the largest free standing dome in the entire world, its an architectural wonder that hasn't been beat for over 2,000 years and it remains close to its original state to this day, minus the fact that the statues of pagan dieties have been replaced by those of saints. 

This is the face of a very content archaeology student. 

      

   Before we headed to the airport the next day we went to the Sisitine Chapel to see Michael Angelo's painting, "The Creation of Adam". It took like two hours just to get to the chapel. First they marched the mob of tourists through the entire vatican so we could gaze at their vast collections of stolen artifacts and solid gold objects. #wasnotimpressed before being swept into a giant room full of people, with a ceiling os high and so full of paintings that the "Creation of Adam" was merely a speck. And after all that they wouldn't even let me take a picture. 

Best part of the whole Vatican was this giant toe.

I got my photo one way or another. 

   So that was Italy then. I was satisfied with Rome but I was bursting at the seems to get back to school. I was exhausted, physically and emotionally. I was just hoping. that as days turned into weeks, the feelings of anxiety and fear I had felt over the course of the trip would fade and leave me with sweet memories.