Round the World: Rome

We arrived in Rome by train and ventured through the metro system and found our hotel, which was on a huge street that at the end of it was a big Roman Structure that holds the Unknown soldier's tomb. We were around the corner from most of the most famous monuments in Rome.

Pantheon

The Pantheon was the first historical place we visited - and what an amazing structure! It is a huge domed structure that was built AD 118-125 by the Roman Emperor Hadrian who was ruler at the time. Inside the Pantheon are the tomb of Rafael and other Italian kings of modern Italy. It is really hard to comprehend such a structure could have been designed and built with such precision such a long time ago.

The Roman Colosseum

We walked down to the Colosseum from the Pantheon - it was great weather not too hot, I can imagine that it would be pretty hot in summer. It was an great sight to see the towering columns of the in front of me. Surrounding us on the walk was the Roman Forum - many of the foundations are still very visible - the place was really big. We entered the Colosseum through one of the arches, the line was really small - lucky for us. We hired a I-Pod Touch commentary which was really cool as it had video and pictures of the whole place. Some of the highlights included; the Colosseum was built in AD 72-80 and was at the time Rome’s greatest amphitheater. The Colosseum with its 80 arched entrances could fit 50,000 people to view gladiator fights, Man VS Animal fights and many other events. The Colosseum used to have three outer circles surrounding the Colosseum and the outer one used to be made of marble. The marble was reused back in the years after Christ to make other theatres and temples.

The Gladiator School

In the Gladiator School my brother and I got a private gladiator lesson that lasted 2 hours. We got to fight each other using 5 different attacks and defensive moves that we both mastered (depends on the definition of mastered). The first hour we were shown how the Roman army fought in battle by fighting in groups and wearing very protective armor and shielding equipment. They also had many “War Machines” that were very effective during battle and won many of their battles. The Romans sometimes fought armies bigger than them sometimes only them being 10,000 men against 30,000 men and they still won because of strategy. We spent the rest of the lesson whacking foamed swords at each other (I could of beat Steve, but I didn’t want to make him cry, just kidding).

The Vatican City

We took an organized tour through the Vatican - which is the 'headquarters' of the Catholic Church. The Vatican City is a city in itself and has a wall surrounding the outside, it is also a completely different state to Rome but you don’t need a passport to enter. Inside the Vatican City is the biggest Catholic Church in the world and is called St Peters Chapel because the Emperor Nero murdered St Peter (he was an apostle of Jesus) there. He was killed and requested to die upside down on the cross because he did not want to die in the way of Jesus Christ. He was buried in the gardens of the Vatican and when the Church of St Peter was built it was built on top of his tomb. After the Church was built the first Pope was announced and now all of the Popes live in the Vatican City and preach in the Church of St Peter. The Vatican City also holds some of the most beautiful and famous paintings and maps of modern art and art that was painted at the time of Christ. The artworks stretch out through many parts of the Vatican City and all leads towards St Peters Chapel.

The most amazing of all the paintings is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It was painted by Michelangelo - and it took him 8 years. It depicts the story of book of Genesis and the last judgement. I can't imagine lying on my back for all those years painting all those works.

Trevi Fountain

The Fountain was only 1-minute walk from our hotel, which made it easy for us to get there. The architect Nicola Salvi built the Trevi fountain in the 18th Century and it is to this day the most famous fountain of its time. The fountains water supply comes from an ancient Roman Aqueduct that starts 28km out of Rome and if you throw a coin into the water than you will come back to Rome again. In fact the Romans were pretty clever way back, they always designed cities with fresh running water and sewer systems - and they were really clean people (they always had to wash prior to entering the city). Compare this to other parts of Europe and England in the same times and they were hardly clean and clever about their sanitation.

Piazza Navona

The Square of Piazza Navona is said to be the most beautiful square in Rome and has 3 water fountains in the center of the square. The main fountain depicts 4 men that represent the 4 main rivers in the world that represent Christianity, being: the Amazon (South America), Ganges (India), the Nile (Egypt) and the Danube (Europe). The square is shaped like a boat (I have no idea why people call it a square then?) because they used to fill it up with water (using the fountains) and have navy mock ship battles. The word Navy comes from the word Navona and that is how the word Navy came into the world!

Highlights

I enjoyed the Gladiator school the most since I enjoyed learning a lot about the Roman armies and they’re attacking strategies and being able to be one! I also enjoyed learning different combat skills and applying them to my brother’s head. All together I really enjoyed Rome and since I threw a coin in the Trevi fountain I’m definitely coming back to Rome!