Naturally, this resulted in several comments from the group after mass, the most logical of which was Sister Terri's when she said that the Vatican had a problem with people hiding the hosts, taking them out, and performing magic rituals with them. We also found out that the Vatican did have a jail and did try people for crimes, but the problem was that often, the perpetrators would run over the border of the Vatican into Italy.
*facepalm*
Anyway, upon finding this out, Sister Terri goes, "Well, you know what you should have done then?" *waves arm over head* "You should have run and been like NAH NAH NAHNAH NAH."
Today, we got up extremely early (we met at 7:30, so I got up at 6:15, which is actually slightly later than I've been getting up, but still) to go take a special tour of the Colosseum. We dressed in shorts and t-shirts, expecting for the tour to be long and grueling. We were, after all, climbing the Colosseum. And this meant that we obviously needed to dress for scaling the walls! Because that's what we were going to do.
False. A two-hour tour later, we were done, and we officially won the prize for looking the most American out of anybody in the city. Oy.
But let's go back to the trip there, shall we? Because we tried three different times before we successfully passed the Vittorio Emmanuel (which will later on become the bane of my existence--stay tuned) because there was some kind of military thing going on.
After about an hour walk (which didn't feel nearly has terrible as it did three days ago--we're all definitely getting stronger), we got to the Colosseum and found gladiators standing out front. I find that sepia-toned pictures make it easier to imagine everything in yesteryear (you know, because everything back then happened in shades of brown--we're talking times so old blue hadn't even been INVENTED yet).
Oh, wait, is that a digital camera? Crap.
By the way, my friend Antonia is an angel!!!
And Michelle's taking another picture. :P
Katie's a model.
Chris, Michelle, and Jeff are a stoplight!
So, throughout the trip, I got obsessed with the little red receiver I got from our lovely tour guide, Antonello. This is Antonello, by the way. He had a huge crush on Dominica, our translator.
And here's the receiver.
Here's some pictures of the Colosseum. It's designed really cool. We started on the bottom-most level level in a corridor that served as a basement to the barracks of the gladiators--which existed across the street from what we think of as the Colosseum today.
Well, across the present-day street. I think it was all connected back then.
The bottom level also had the most resistant floor, to support everything. It was made out of a fish spine design, and there were holes in the bottom that allowed water from aqueducts in so that they could reenact boat battles and things. They housed boats in the Colosseum at times, and I think Sister Terri told us that they were currently experimenting (though we're not entirely sure how) to see if such things that were written were even possible.
It was all dark on the underlayer; only oil lamps provided light. From there and on kind of a separate layer from the arena (which is actually only called that because of the sand and the sand color that the floor had), lifts operated to take animals and other things (but mostly animals) to and from the arena. Lots of slaves were needed to operate this.
The gladiators were like big sports stars, and you could get your favorite gladiator to sign an autograph or you could bet money on him. The loss of a gladiator was a loss for the economy, because they were kind of like property. Most of them were prisoners of war, slaves, or people convicted of crimes. You could make a lot of money as a gladiator. And I thought rugby was rough.
The architectural aspects of the Colosseum are fascinating. The different-sized blocks that made up the arches all had a purpose, so that the keystone, or the block in the middle (and the most important) was still able to hold the arch's shape. The outer pieces, which were bigger, supported most of the weight.
The holes in the walls of the Colosseum at one point or another housed metal beams that helped hold things up. The whole structure only took EIGHT YEARS to build--isn't that crazy?
The top layers were for seating, and we saw an excellent depiction of that. The good seats went to the equites or the upper class. The middle layers went to the plebeians or the middle class, and the highest levels went to the slaves. Antonello was extremely well-versed in all of these things and even went into some history about the temple across the street. He was great. :)
Here are some pictures!
Sometimes we see crosses, which prompts Kathryn to yell, "Look! I found Jesus!"
Sometimes I get obsessed with thinking that the red receiver we have for the tour is a phone.
And sometimes I get obsessed with this little cave-like thing on the top of the Colosseum.
RESTRICTED AREA STAIRCASE WHAT WHAT.
You can't fake these views.
Leaving the Colosseum was a bit of an adventure, because try as we might (and the rest of the group might), Antonia and I could NOT find the rest of the group. Fate must have decided it that way. Anyway, we hiked around and found a church as well as ducked into the Parthenon for a while. We also found coconut and fruit (which I bought for my breakfast for the next four days).
Here's some pictures of Kathryn and Hutch making the lovely lasagna we had for dinner!
As for the title of this post, if you look back through the pictures, you'll notice that there are a couple of towers with crosses on them...aka medieval towers, which Dr. Sebastian is totally obsessed with. Moral of the Story: everyone should ship Sebastian/Medieval Tower. Especially when there are double the medieval towers, double the fun. Double medieval tower all the way across the...
Yeah, I'll stop. :)
Finally, one last little tidbit: walking around Rome baring your midriff? What, what, what are you doing?
Not classy.
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