Roman adventure

So I realized I never really told ya'all about the Rome visit...and I'm just going to briefly mention it here. But here's two of the most famous and coolest sites in Rome.

We're at the Colosseum which housed gladiator events. People on stone benches on top of vendor shops all around the action. Underneath the floor (which is mostly gone now), the prisoners, gladiators, slaves and fighting animals were kept.

While Christians were used in these events, historians doubt they were actually put to the test in this particular Colosseum. According to historians however, occasionally the entire Colosseum floor was sealed off and flooded to simulate naval battles.

Overall, pretty impressive engineering. Not as large as I imagined, but still a must-see.



The Vatican was pretty cool. There's a ton of amazing art in the museum (including the Sistine Chapel which we're not allowed to photograph...and there's men whose job it is to constantly "shhh!" people. Paid to be hated.).

Here's one of the amazing sculptures they have, "Laocoon." This was the man who warned his fellow Trojans, "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts," before the Greek gods sent giant snakes to crush him and his sons. This sculpture was buried for more than 1,000 years in the ruins of Nero's Golden House until it was rediscovered 1506. Everyone was used to seeing "pretty" and "balanced" sculptures. The rare emotion and strength of this piece caused such a huge sensation that it was paraded through the streets, and left a huge impression on a young onlooker named Michaelangelo--who began working on the Sistine Chapel two years later.


One of the coolest paintings at the museum, Raphael's "The School of Athens" includes the greatest philosophers and scientists of the ancient world. In the center is Plato (pointing up indicating philosophy and mathematics are key players in discovering the perfect truth) and Aristotle (pointing down to the studying of the material world). The picture is divided as such with Plato's thinkers on the left and Aristotle's scientists on the right.

Raphael put his contemporary great minds of the Renaissance in the picture. Leonardo di Vinci is Plato, Raphael as himself but off to the side in the painting and (after having a sneak peek at Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling) the brooding Michaelangelo in the front leaning on the table.