Roma Day 2!!

Bonjourno!
We heard there is a heat wave back home....well we've been very lucky because it's been gorgeous here in Italy. It was 80 degrees and dry today. A perfect day for a tour! We woke up this morning and were pleased to hear that our tour of the forum was still on. Whew! We were worried we'd miss out on a fantastic tour. And it was fantastic!! Our tour guide was a history professor from the local university. He teaches Roman History and Roman art/architecture and archaeology. The tour took 5 hours...we saw the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum...it was a long tour and by the end we were all covered in dirt and dust from the forum, but it was well worth it because we learned so much about Roman history.

Here are a few fun facts we learned!
Did you know....

1. It is a myth that the barbarians knocked all of the Roman temples down. When in fact after the empire collapsed the Christians took the Roman temples down or turned them into churches. One of the most famous temples that was saved is the Pantheon. It is now a Christian church and contains 3 tombs...the first king of Italy, his son, and the famous Renaissance artist Raphael!

2. The Roman Emperors wore purple togas and their statutes were made of deep red marble from Egypt...this red marble is 10 times more expensive than gold! (You can see one of the statutes in the picture).


3. The remaining Roman ruins that are still standing today are made of brick and some cement. But thousands of years ago the city of Rome was actually very colorful!

4. The rostra or stage where Marc Antony gave his famous speech to the people of Rome.... "Friends, Romans, countrymen...lend me your ears!" is still standing. (You can see the rostra in the picture)



5. The word "basilica" was originally a term for a Roman structure. The largest ever built was the Basilica of Constantine on the southeast end of the forum. 1/3rd of the basilica is still standing today.

6. The Circus Maximus is the largest stadium ever built in the world holding over 200,000 people!!!

7. Nero's golden palace is currently closed because there was a recent landslide. Yikes!

8. The Romans placed lead and iron brackets in the walls of the Colosseum to hold the blocks together in case there was an earthquake (Lead supposedly reacts well to earthquakes). During the Middle Ages the Church melted the lead out of the walls for their own use (that's why the walls of the Colosseum has small holes in them). And there were thousands of marble seats in the Colosseum that the Church used to build the Vatican. There is a famous quote that says... "If you want to see the rest of the Colosseum go to St. Peter's".
9. The orange marble columns in Domitian's house on Palatine Hill came from North Africa.

10. Caesar Augustus (1st Roman Emperor) built his house next to Romulus' house on Palatine Hill! He wanted to be seen as a descendant of Romulus (the founder of Rome). See the pictures!!

11. The word grotesque has Italian origins because when Nero's golden palace underground was found during the Renaissance, the artwork discovered came from grottos, holes in the ground. So that style of art was called grotesque!

12. The Colosseum had a collapsible roof tended by sailors. Recently British engineers were asked to re-create a roof in England and they failed. The Romans were way ahead of their time!

There is so much more to share but we really need to get to bed. We have to be up early for a 5 hour tour of the Vatican!!

We hope everyone is doing well back in the states!

Ciao,
Kabe :)