Day #3 in Rome

Well, we were tired from the LONG day of seeing so much stuff! So on 10/3 we went to the National Museum later in the day and then walked around doing some more general sightseeing. We saw more statues and mosaics. Here's on of the more famous statues we saw that day:

This is just one of the pretty mosaics that we saw. This was one the floor of an old Roman house. Pretty Cool! After the Museum we went to the Baths of Diocletian, where the Romans used to bath, exercise and hang out. There is now a beautiful church where the baths used to be, look at the floor!

Later I got this shot of the sun setting over Rome from the top of the Spanish Steps:

Here's a picture of the very crowded Spanish Steps: We walked around a lot that night and enjoyed the nightlife of Rome. Of course boring us we really didn't stay out too late! We did find a Ferrari store and just a simple couple of stuckers cost 12 euros or about $15! Well, One more day in Rome and then we're off to Pompeii!

Ancient Rome part 3

So now we are headed to Paletine Hill, the place where the huge Imperial Palace was located. It is mostly gone wit only a few features for your to see. One is the Stadium. It is approx. 500 feet long and may have been used as a race track. It held gardens and walking paths also. This was a fountain:

That's really about it for the good pitcures on Palentine Hill. We also stopped by the small museum there and saw mosaic floors, statues and other artifacts excavated from the site. From there we walked to Trajan's Market which was closed by that time. Rome peaked under Trajan's rule in 98-117 AD, the empire stretched from SCotland to the Sahara and from Spain to the Fertile Cresent. He extended the Forum with this area which contained temples, law courts, squares lines with shops and a monumental column. The Market area held shopping space, warehouse and administrative offices. It was very popular.

He also erected this Column that used to have abronze statue of himself on top, now it is St. Peter. Hard to get a good picture of it:

Next we battled the late afternoon traffic of Rome to find the Pantheon. Here's a picture outside.
It was hard to get a good picture of the inside and the light was not the best but here's a picture of the inside of the dome looking straight up.

In this picture you can see all the people and the pretty marble floor.
After visiting the Pantheon we sat down for our daily dose of gellato! Then we walked the streets doing a little shopping and mostly just checking out the people. Tons of people out and about in the evening. We were slowly making our way to the metro stop. We stopped at Trevi Fountain:
There were so many people crowded around it it was hard to get a picture of it from the front. After seeing the fountain we finally went back to our campground, ate dinner, showered and fell into bed. It had been a LONG day. We saw almost all of Anciant Rome in one day!

Ancient Rome Part 2

In this post we're continuing on the same day we went to the Colosseum. All the sights were in the same general area but it was still a lot of walking. It was also hot that day probably 90 degrees. So after we visited the Colosseum in the morning we headed up Via Sacra to the Roamn Forum. This is the same path where the conquering general would parade their bounty after returning back to Rome. One of the first sights you see is the Arch of Titus, which commemorates the victory over the province of Judaea in A.D. 70. The 50, 000 Jewish slaves they brought home built this arch and the Colosseum. Here's a picture of the Arch as we were walking up the Via Sacra:

Here's a little detail on the arch showing the Jews/Hebrews and a menorah.

I have to back up. This is a picture of me standing on the second floor of the Colosseum and in the background is the Arch of Constantine. Another one of the great arches along the triumphant road the Cesears walked when returning from battle.

Now back to the Roman Forum.... There is so much to show but I'll just try to give the highlights and the best photos. This is a picture of the Basilica of Maxentius. A basilica was a place of government in Ancient Rome. This is only one third of the original building and hopefully having some people in it gives you a sense of the size. A second set of the arches was on the other side of a central hall that was 130 ft high and the size of a football field!

This is one of the many temples built to honor leaders by turning them into gods the people could worship. This is the temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina built sometime between 138-161AD. The columns are 50 feet tall. The dirt built up to the door before it was excavated in the 1800's.

This is another one of the arches, ever wonder what the Romans saw in all their arches? In the backgrounds of this picture is the Temple of Saturn. (They also had many temples for all their gods.)

This is a view of the Roman Forum from Palentine Hill. (Palace Hill - where all the Cesear had their palaces) You are looking down at the Basilica Maxentius
And here's a cool shot of Erik with The Arch of Titus and the Colosseum in the background.
Well that's it for now. More on Palentine Hill next......

First snow and a new cat!

Well, it's been so LONG since I've written. I was busy working two weekends in a row and getting some things done around the house. Plus, in all honesty, I was discouraged about how slow our internet connection is and I didn't want to sit online for hours checking email and posting to the blog. We will hopefully have high speed internet after the new year! Yah!

But I have to finish telling you about our trip to Rome and about some fun things here in Missoula. I'll start with the new stuff in Missoula.

We are in the midst of getting our first snow of the year and it's not being very gentle on us! We've gotten about 2-3 inches so far and it's supposed to keep coming down for the next 24 hours! This is what it looked like last night when it first started:

And this is what it looks like this morning! Here's the backyard:

Here's my car half brushed off:

So we're having fun!! This next weekend Erik is headed to Canada with his sister to do some srious skiing. I have to work most of Thanksgiving Weekend so I tod him to go and have some fun.

Now for our really fun news. We adopted another cat. She just as sweet as can be. Here name is Sophie right now but we're not sure if we'll keep it, she doesn't even look when we call her so I think we could change it without too much problems. She and Rio seem to be at least tolerating each other at the moment. Last night both of them were crowding my lap, much to Erik's disappointment. But then I handed Sophie over to him and she currled right up, purring like and engine. So I kept Rio happy where he likes to be! She a tortiseshell colored domestic short hair. She's 1 1/2 years old. We got her at the Humane Society. Her previous owners didn't like that she was an escape artist and they lived on a very busy street so they didn't want her to get killed. They also had those flat handles you push down we have knobs. So hopefully she won't escape too much, but in a month or so we'll probably let her into the backyard. I tried and tried to get an awesome picture to show you cuz she's really pretty especially her eyes but no luck. It's like she knows I have the camera! Here's a couple I did get: (Well, I guess I did get her pretty eyes!)

Here's one that shows her colors:

We really like her and hopefully the two cats will get along!

Well, that's it for now. More on Rome later today or tomorrow!

The Colosseum

On October 2nd we spend a wonderful day exploring Ancient Rome. It was so interesting, especially for the engineer in Erik. He was amazed at what the Romans built, structures that had nothing close to the technology and durablity duplicated for hundreds of years after Rome fell. We got up pretty early to catch a bus, then the Metro to arrive at the Colosseum right when it opened.

Construction began on the Colosseum in 72AD by Vespasian and was completed by 80 AD by his son Titus. It could hold up to 60,000 people. In about the Middle Ages the Colosseum was abandonded and thus started many years of plunder and destruction to the structure. It was built with many fine materials such as travertine rock and marble. There was an earthquake in 1349 in which a large portion of the walls and the supporting arches on the exterior collapsed. The travertine blocks and marble were used to fix other buildings damages and later to help built St. Peters' Cathedal. In the 18th Centrury, Pope Benedict XIV dedicated it to the Passion of the Christ and had a Cross erected that still stands today, thus saving it from further destruction. Here is what we saw when we got there:

Erik in front of the Colosseum about 8am:Our first look inside!

This picture show some of the spectators seats, the flat looking riser areas above the arches and what they think were latrines used by the senators. Theses are the tall squares in the brick, they found grooves in the bottom that ran into a gutter. This is me in front of the pit area. This was actually covered by a floor, you can see a reconstruction of the floor in the background. This is where they kept the wild animals and gladiators awaiting their turn in the ring. Here is a close up of some of the arches inside:This shows where some of the other "layers" of the Colosseum were peeled away by earthquakes and other desruction.Here's a good shot of the outside later in the afternoon: See part two of ancient Rome tomorrow with The Roman Forum, Palentine Hill, Pantheon and more.