Walking on a Carpet of Shit: Part One

My second visit to Rome was by far a much better experience than the first one. My initial view of Rome was shaped by this initial fleeting exposure: filthy, congested, and dotted with significant sights. On further inspection, i deemed this reaction to be an unfair judgement of Rome, not to say that it isn't dirty, or congested. Rather, my second trip back helped me to understand and appreciate much more the metropolis i was wandering through. We once again went as a class, but this time we had a guide narrating our trek through the city, Marco. He is the professor of our italian art and history class, and is knowledgable, but has a sense of wit.  

The first site we visited we visited was the coliseum, near the Roman Forums. This wasnt a high priority on my list of sites to see initially, but once in the presence of this domineering building, i had to admit its power. The area was packed full of people wandering around speaking various languages, a soccer team there, a gaggle of asian schools there... Mix in the veneloso (bitchy) italiano non-tourists and enjoy. There were also horse drawn chariots which took people for rides to an undisclosed location. The horses were presh and tired..We were unable to go inside the coliseum on our first visit, but i am planning to see the interior of it before i leave. 

We kept walking, traveled by the forums and then did a loop around to a vista where we could get a better view of the forums. We didnt go inside that either, but got an amazing view of it later near the campidoglio. We continued to walk towards Capitoline Hill making our way through the streets of Roma. Capitoline Hill was a very regal spot and the Piazza Campidoglio was a beautiful area where we sat and rested for a bit. There were pigeons everywhere and i wanted to get some shot of them so Lizzie through out a piece of bread, only to have a pigeon fight (like a cock fight) occur right in front of us, and then twenty more pigeons swoop in to pick up the crumbs. It was pretty traumatic.

We then continued on to the Jewish Ghetto, heading towards the Pantheon. I spotted a few things on the way that caught my interest.

The Pantheon was next on our journey and so far has been my most favorite space that we have been it. There is an intrinsic calm to the space, and once inside, i just felt like sitting down and staring up. It also has a dizzying effect when you are moving throughout it, which is also why i could have wanted to sit down. The light when we arrived there was perfect as well, and people were out enjoying it which led to a precious candid of a father and his child playing at the fountain which i love.

We then did some more walking to another church, and to a few more piazzas before calling it a day. Once we were done, Eric, Lindsay and I headed towards our accommodations for the evening: Hostel Pink Floyd. The name was really ridiculous, which i hoped boded well for our near futures, but in the end we actually stayed in the Hotel Hollywood, located adjacent to Hostel Pink Floyd for the same price. We were on the top floor and had a bitchin roof terrace that overlooked a myriad of antennas lining the roofs of the buildings surrounding us.

My battery is near death and i am about to be kicked out of the study center so i will put a pause on the story for now. I am going to Florence tomorrow so i should have more things to chat about then, along with 599999393993 more pictures. I am falling a little bit behind on this thing, but i might have a little time this weekend to catch up.

Ciao for now.