I write this post at dinner, not at Mama Angela's. I figure I should try some new things even if their food is good and inexpensive.
I started early this morning to try to publish my last post, but ultimately failed which meant that I did it just now. Needless to say, the Wi-Fi at my hostel isn't great. Lucky I'm not paying for it. Somehow, it's still working for free.
I started this morning at the Colosseum. Man, did it feel good to skip the line-up. The Roma Pass did wonders at this. The Colosseum itself was a wonderful sight. Even though it was simple in design, I took tons of pictures in at different angles to maintain a good sense of the building in my memory. There were also exhibits on the side and you can visit 2 floors of the building. To give you a sense of how big the arena is, it took me 1.5 hours before I could at I saw everything and was ready to leave.
Before I moved onto Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, I walked a bit further to the west and saw the Capitol and a memorial of some sort. I still have no idea what it is because I saw a sign that said it was a memorial for a soldier (the common soldier perhaps?), but inside, it says that it is the altar of the nation. Heh. It must have been pretty important too, with armed guards standing at attention. Regardless, I decided it was time to move onto the Roman Forum.
The Roman forum and Palatine hill were mostly ruins, but the remaining structures were quite nice. I especially liked the Temple of Saturn, which was the tallest set of columns remaining. Everything else has eroded away. Needless to say, Pompeii and Herculaneum were much more interesting.
I probably should've gotten an audioguide, as even though it took me a long time, I didn't really get a real understanding for the history. I think the entire area is a palace area and allegedly the place that Rome was founded upon in legend, as the twin brothers fought to establish the centre if the city. I took tons of photos though, so hopefully through will make up for my lack of writing and information. It's tough to pull out a notepad right now in the hot summer heat.
Like it says in the title, I spent the entire day walking without stopping. After Palatine Hill, I went to the Roman baths, the Terme di Caracalla. The ruins here exceeded my expectations in size. I didn't know that a bathhouse can be so big, larger than most modern pool facilities. Another cool thing I found about is that the Farnese Bull sculpture that I saw at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples was originally in this bath house and was used as a dowry and transported to Naples. Funny how closely linked the cities are in terms of artifacts. There are also a number of other sculptures in the National Archaeological Museum that originated from this location.
I went a bit further south and found a public pyramid on my map that interested me, but it was not a big attraction. Because I am now far away from the Colosseum area, lunch was a lot cheaper, although I have to eat at 3:30pm. I got home around 4:30pm and took a short nap and compiled pictures before heading out to do my laundry. It was sort of a lazy late afternoon, but I was very tired and didn't want to burn out.
I had rigatoni for dinner - little did I know that this is rice. So for the first time in 4 weeks, I had rice, albeit by accident. The only reason I tried that place was because they had Wi-Fi to upload my previous post and accepted visa. I didn't take a photo though, I think it will be anticlimatic for you all anyways - an Asian eating rice while on vacation. How typical.
I'm probably uploading this post as I'm doing my laundry. One final thing to note is that I've already passed 3,000 pictures taken! Be prepared for a Facebook spamming when I'm back in Canada!
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