After Vatican City, we toured Rome. Rome, as most of people know, was where Roman Empire/ Roman Republic was formed. I don't really know much about the history of this empire, but Rome was indeed the capital of it. Rome is essentially 7 hills located near water source, a great place for food and defense. Each hill has different name and function under Roman Empire. The most famous one, for people in US, is the Capitol Hill. Many would winder why our Capitol is commonly associated with the word "hill" where it's not really on a hill. The root came from Rome, where the capitol was really on a hill called Capitoline Hill. Rome is also known for the place where the largest remedy of Roman Empire was located. The famous Roman Forum was one of our stops. Unfortunately, we didn't stop and go inside. We could only take pictures from outside.
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| Roman Forum, or what's left of it. |
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| A closer view. |
The forum is actually the plaza where it was the political center, financial center, and even center for education and entertainment(?) This place also contains an arch, a similar one to the one next to Colosseum.
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| You can imagine how prosperous this place was. |
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| Lots of buildings, some higher than others. |
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| I wonder if this is how it would be when we face an apocalypse. |
Then we arrived at the Colosseum. We first saw the arch next to it. The Arco di Costantino (Arch of Constantine) was erected by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge. There were many of these arches back then, but this one is probably one of the better preserved ones. The condition is still really good when I saw it, and there were constructions for repairing going on.
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| Nice view of the arch. |
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Taken in front of the Coloseum. The arch in the middle and the
Temple of Venus and Roma on right. (too bad we didn't go.) |
Like the obelisks, they built these arches to commemorate a battle or someone's victory over years. This is why there are many of these. The style is generally a rectangular shape with 3 doors at middle. In Paris, which we will visit later, there are total of 3 arches, a small one (in fornt of Louvre), a medium one (the one every one knows), and a large one (which doesn't look anything like these arches since it's built recently [relatively] for World Expo.) They form a straight line if you see it from top.
Anyway, back to Colosseum. The word "Colosseum" came from "Colossal," which means "big" or "huge." However, it was not named because of this stadium. Before the Colosseum was built, this place was a lake. Next to this lake, the king, Nero, built a giant golden statue of himself (what a narcissist) there. Nero was a bad king in our standard, and he was kinda crazy as well. He apparently killed tons of priests and kinda shove their bodies into the lake. At that time, the Catholic influence was great that the kingship was endangered frequently ("God forbids you from doing that, so you should stop.") Nero was like: "Hell no! I'm not listening to you!" So he (this is a myth, by the way.) set up fire everywhere in the city and blamed the priests for doing such crime. He eventually killed them so gain more political dominance.
At the end, Nero got overthrown by Vespasian family, and, to erase the memory of Nero, the emperor ordered to fill the lake with soil and built the stadium on top. The stadium is then used for entertainment (gladiators).
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| Facade of Coloseum |
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| The other side. |
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| People taking pictures from top. |
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| The inside, which smelled like piss....... |
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| Farther view of the Coloseum. |
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| And another. |
Oh yeah, Ezio climbed pretty much everywhere around here. I still remember you had to renovate some of these structures in order to get the feathers (one of the items you collect for trophy and personal glory, lol.) In fact (spoiler alert!) the secret armor, the Armor of Brutus was in Roman Forum, if I remember correctly.
For the AC fans, check this out:
I found this on Colosseum, and it reminded me of
this immediately. True, it doesn't look quite like the symbol, but hey it's cool to find some similarity in real world.
Since it's a tourist attraction, of course there are people performing. I found this guy really hilarious (which he didn't intend to be):
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| Gladiator chilling with a cig and a smartphone. |
There are several other places we visited.
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| Piazza Venetia, the biggest plaza in Rome. |
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| Trevi Fountain. Neptune at the middle. It's really big. |
For the Trevi Fountain, they say that if you toss a coin into the fountain the right way, your wish will be granted (I find this the biggest scam ever, but people still do it. Seriously, how much money do they make each year with just these coins?) Then again, to follow the tradition, I had to do it, too. The correct way to do it is to face away from the fountain, hold the coin with your right hand, say your wish, then toss it over your left shoulder. My wish was to be rich.
Oh, the gelato in this area was pretty good. They also had fried chestnuts (糖炒栗子)
Then we went to the Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagna). The name came from the Embassy of Spain that's near this place. Actually they had a debate for the name after they built this place. It could be Spanish, French, or whatever else is out there since they all had some kind of relevance. However, they needed alliance with Spain more at the time, so they named it Spanish Steps. Everything is political......
On the bottom of the steps, there was another fountain designed by father of Bernini (go to the previous post if you forgot who this guy is.) The father, Peter (Peitro?) Bernini designed this Baroque style fountain. You can't really tell from this picture, but it's in the shape of a boat.
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| Fountain at the bottom of the steps. |
From this fountain, the street extends out is the street known for famous (expensive) brands. A lot of people were shopping at the time we went there.
The steps go all the way up the hill, and the Trinity Church is at the top. Climbing this wasn't too hard, but the fact that they set the meeting point at the top kinda pissed me off. I can decide whether I want to climb or not! You can't make me!
Still, I climbed all the steps (128?) to get to the top. View from top down was pretty nice, too. Many people just chill here with a cup of coffee or a cone of gelato. Gelato stores are everywhere in Rome.
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| The Spanish Steps, also known for the movie "Roman Holiday." |
I think it's good enough for Rome. Honestly, we didn't stay in Rome for too long, so we missed a lot of places (all those temples, museums, etc) Next time when I come back (if ever,) I'll make sure I stay long enough to go through all of them.
Next stop: Pisa, Italy.
