Foro Romano e Stadio Olimpico

On Sunday the 3rd of March, I was able to visit the Roman Forum.
Citizens of the ancient city referred to this place as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum. It was for centuries the center of Roman public life: the site of triumphal processions and elections; the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial games; and the nucleus of commercial affairs. Here statues and monuments commemorated the city's great men. The heart of ancient Rome, it has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world and all of history. 
 

Temple in the Forum

 It was also nice to take a free walking tour to really know what would have taken place here in ancient Rome rather than just wandering around guessing at its history. Most of the pictures are of random ruins that are now mostly in disrepair. Some of the buildings that are still standing are the Temple of Saturn, Temple of Vespasian and Titus, Arch of Septimius Severuns, Basilica Lulia, Temple of Caesar, Temple of Castor and Pollux, Temple of Vesta and some others that I did not necessarily recognize right away or they were a bit harder to identify which structure they were and what they were exactly used for.

 Some other interesting things about the forum and Roma in general was that the ground level in the ancient times was about 60 ft. below where it was in the middle ages. This was because the Tiber river which runs through Rome has a tendency to flood quite often, and especially after the fall of the Roman empire nobody was regulating the river so within a span of 300 years or so there were around 70-80 floods in Rome alone. These floods completely leveled most of the ancient city making the riverbed much higher than it was. Also nowadays there was a large wall built to contain the river which helps to prevent constant flooding of the city.

me and the forum

The trees here are so tropical!

A view from the top of the forum, where Nero's house once stood

 The top area of the Forum has beautiful views of the surrounding landscape which makes it easy to see why the emperors of ancient Rome all wanted to live on top of the hillside.

On our way back home to our apartment there was a giant bike race right through the middle of the city that was about 135 miles long or so. It was interesting to see and that is what the two pictures above are of. 

AS Roma Soccer ticket!

Later in the evening around 8:45 at night the Roman soccer team had a game and since soccer is such a big thing in Europe we decided we had to go for at least the experience!
The Roman team is called AS Roma and their colors are maroon and gold. I love their gear, I feel very welcome in Roma whenever I wear it. There is a great sense of unity between the people who all cheer for the same team. AS Roma also played Genoa and won! The ending score ended up being 3-1 Roma, but we left a bit early as to avoid the massive crowds that would ensue at the end of the night.

 AS Roma and SS Lazio are the two soccer teams that play at Stadio Olimpico, which is the stadium that was built for the games of the 17th Olympiad or the 1960 Summer Olympics which were hosted in Rome. The stadium is huge and holds 82,307 people, but it looks as if it could hold 1 million.

View of the field and stadium from Curv Nord

The people had GIANT AS Roma flags that they waved during the entirety of the game

Me in Stadio Olimpico showing my AS Roma pride

ROMA TI AMO!!!

Roma ti amo!

Roma ti amo! In other words, I love you Rome! On Saturday March 2, 2013 I got the opportunity to get an exclusive tour of the Colosseum with an archaeologist for a tour guide. The tour group got to go to several places within the Colosseum that the average visitor does not get to see and experience.  It was especially great to have the tour guided and be able to really stand where the ancient Romans stood. I was transported back in time, and if I closed my eyes or focused on what our guide was saying I could almost see the gladiators walking by me, hear the lions and bears in their cages waiting for release into the great unknown, hear the roar of the crowd of thousands that the Colosseum held back in the first century. 

 My archaeologist guide described what took place here almost 2,000 years ago as a real life movie set. The ancient Romans would create huge jungle scenes and the like for their spectators. Except in these scenes the people were actually killed. The Colosseum was also built for the people. It was a building for the Emperor Vespasian and later Titus to gain favor and approval of the people of Rome. Before them in 64 AD there was a great fire that destroyed much of the area, and after this the current Emperor Nero took control of the area and built a giant mansion for himself along with an artificial lake. This the people were not fans of, so eventually because he was such a corrupt Emperor one day he found a dagger in his bed chamber. This symbolized that either he could make it easy for his assassins or be killed the hard way (He chose the easy way out and took his own life). Then after him the lake and parts of his house were destroyed and the Colosseum was born.

View from the arena floor

 The ancient Romans were all about their dramatics. They were very intriguing to learn about. I especially enjoyed all of this history while I was standing among the still standing buildings.

Arena floor view

Arena floor view

Arena floor view

killer cat that lives in the Colosseum

 We also had a friend on our tour. What a life this cat has, he gets to prowl around the Colosseum like he is the boss here without a care in the world. Even though he missed the gladiatorial games by about 2,000 years.

View from the underground

 The next part of the Colosseum that we visited was the underground. Underneath where all of the behind the scenes activity took place. Where the animals were kept before they fought the gladiators or other animals. This is where some of the gladiators may have been held, at least the slaves that would fight gladiators were kept down here until it was their turn. There were quite a few contraptions to raise the people and animals up onto the arena floor. The marble down here is also the whitest in the entire place because the exhaust from the cars that turned the outside brown is unable to reach the marble down here.

 Our next stop on the tour was the considered the nose-bleed section of ancient times. It was among the highest points of the Colosseum, but I personally think that they had the best view of the ancient city of Roma. They may not have been able to see or view the games as well as senators or officials that sat lower but they had a different kind of view.

Nose-bleed section

Arch of Constantine view from atop the Colosseum

View of the city and Forum looking out 

View of the entire arena from the top

Me and the arena

 Next the famous Michigan State Flag pictures atop the Colosseum!! This is my favorite ancient building in ROMA!

GO GREEN!!

GO WHITE!!

Campo di Fiori - Food tour

 Friday morning bright and early at 10 am I made the 5 min trek to Campo di Fiori (Field of Flowers). 5 minutes is probably the quickest walk I will ever take in Roma. A 'quick' walk here is around 20 min-half an hour and that is close. Every morning in Campo di Fiori there is a market where they sell in season fresh food, vegetables and the like. There is also the occasional stand selling Italy garb. But the tour took us around this small piazza and we got to taste some of the most amazing foods right down the road from where I live.

The first place we went into was a cheese shop. This was my favorite stop of the day because I absolutely love cheese and all of its different varieties. This place was fantastic, the best cheese I've probably ever had was at this place. We got to try 5 different cheeses and we ate them in order of light to strong so that our pallet would be able to taste all of the flavors.

 We started with the cheese on the right, which was called Burrata (this one was my favorite). It melted in your mouth. I can barely even describe how good these were, and fresh as well. The cheese on the left was next and that was called Provola Affumicata, it was a little stronger and not as soft as the first but nonetheless still great.

 Next was the cheese on the right in the bowl by itself, called Cacio di Norcia. This cheese was from Umbria, a region of Italy not too far from Rome. The next was a bit stronger and the bottom cheese of the two in the pan on the left and called Parmigiano. Then finally was the strongest cheese called Pecorino. It had a sort of zing to it that really enveloped your taste buds. All of these cheeses were made right in Italy in their respective regions. Some of the preparing for the different types took months and had to be prepared at certain times, like during a full moon.

Next up was oil and balsamic vinegar tasting. These stands around this piazza have been here for hundreds of years and this was the first one to introduce oils to the market when they were no longer allowed to sell fish without a refrigeration system.  I personally liked the oils better, and we got to taste 3 of them. The order of the tasting was from light to heavy and by heavy they meant strong! I also learned that in Italy you can go to college to get an "Oil" degree. And no that is not oil for cars but oils that you can eat!

Next up was the balsamic vinegar, these were all based on age and how they were made. Above is the two different processes in which they made the vinegar. We started with 2 years of age and went to 8 years of age when we tried these with bread. Some of them were very strong and some you could put on ice cream they were so sweet! They also can age them for a very long time - 50 years old some of them were!

Meat shop in Campo di Fiori

 Our next stop after the oil and vinegar was the meat shop. There were a ton of different kinds and the shop was small but filled with meat. It smelled so yummy in there and I ate every kind. I did not ask what each piece was because I really did not care to find out until after I swallowed. There was jerky I know for a fact.

Finally, after all of our sampling in Campo di Fiori we went to a family run pizza place where a couple people were able to make pizza. They also brought out pasta for us to enjoy. The ingredients are super fresh as if they were picked that day. After pizza and pasta our tour guide got us gelato as dessert.