Photo Website

I was checking online today for different websites devoted to photography in Rome and I found a neat website that has pictures of many of the places that we have been too. Here's the link. I am hoping to use some of these pictures for inspiration. Hopefully it works out!

Viale Di Trastevere and The Gianicolo Hill

As I walking down Viale Di Trastevere this afternoon I passed the Standa Supermarket, which we frequent a decent amount seeing as how close it is to our apartment. Anyways, every time that I pass this supermarket, and I mean every single time, I see the same homeless man. He actually seems quite nice. Every time I pass him I give a nice smile and surprisingly he smiles back, unlike the other Italians I have smiled at. Directly across the street is a small little park (maybe 4-5 benches) and there is another group of homeless people (men and women) who do not smile and seem very disinterested in my passing by. Interesting enough though, Viale Di Trastevere seems to be the hot spot for homeless people. Of course there are homeless people in other places, but more of them seem to live on Viale Di Trastevere than any other place. As I was walking by the homeless man in front of Standa today, he was lighting pieces of paper on fire and watching them burn, smiling the entire time!

On a side note, I've been doing a little bit more exploring down our end of Viale Di Trastevere and noticed that a decent amount of the fountains are not working, for some reason. The one that I really wanted to see is called Acqua Paola and it's located on top of The Gianicolo Hill (which gives some great views of the city), but it was dry when we went up the other day. As far as I could tell from reading on-line, it was working as of recently but now seems dry. They had a problem with its water source a while back but authorities said it was fixed. When it is fixed, though, I will make sure to take pictures. It's a pretty interesting looking fountain.
*Check out this map of all the Roman fountains*

The Colosseum and The Forum

This afternoon a small group of us went to tour the inside of the Colosseum. It was much better than I thought it would be. For 11 euro you get inside the Colosseum, The Forum and The Palatine Museum, three of Romes best sites. I don't think words can really describe what you see when your inside, especially when you know what happened in there. The Italians have tried their best to keep the Colosseum in great shape, and it shows. The maze of tunnels underneath what used to be the floor of the Colosseum is dark and dirty, just like what you would guess it looked like. The walls are high and look as if they are about to crumble down on top of you. It's an experience, for sure. Just imagine being thrown onto the floor, then being hunted down by a lion all while 50,000 fellow humans cheer the lion on, both thumbs in the air. It's quite chilling. The Forum is where all of Romes social, political, and judicial business was conducted from. It's located down the street from the Colosseum, and is a site in itself. Located within the Forum is the place where Marc Anthony gave his famous speech. You can sit in front of this spot and enjoy views of all the other ancient sites in this enclosed area. Like I said, words cannot really describe it so here's some pictures from the afternoon.
Also, here's a link to an album containing all the pictures from the day. Enjoy!

Switzerland!

Good morning everyone! I have been debating how much I want to travel and where I want to travel while I am in Europe. The exchange rate is not working in my favor, so I believe I will only travel two weekends. I just booked a trip from Rome to Zurich, Switzerland for June 20-22nd. I don't know if anyone else is going, but it doesn't matter. I came over to Europe with Switzerland as one of my top choices for travel, so I will stick with that. I can't wait! It's going to be amazing. If you get a chance, search Wikipedia for Zurich and look at some pictures and information on it. I'm sure I'll have some good stuff to blog about on that trip!

Interesting Website about the Aqueducts

If you want to know a little bit more about the Roman aqueducts, then check out this site. It's a little long, and a little in depth, but it gives some great detail about what it was used for and how they were set up. A great read if you have a little time. It doesn't just talk about Rome, but also about how states like California and New York get their water. Save this for a rainy day read!

Slideshow

Here's a little video (with some music, so check the volume) of some pictures from the past week, here in Rome. Enjoy!

PS. Sorry about the low quality, it was just the quickest to upload on this internet.

The Vatican

This morning we met at 9am at St. Peters square. I don't know how it happened but I ended up getting lost because I walked by myself. I was just about to ask for directions when I rounded the corner and this is what I saw. I literally just stumbled upon the Vatican! I got there early so I took some pictures and hung out until the rest of the group got there then we ventured inside St. Peters Basilica. Once inside this is what we saw. We ventured around inside for a while and got to see all the things that make The Vatican so special. There were masses going on in various parts of the church, as well as Cardinals walking around. It was an experience for sure. Little did we know, but The Vatican is actually its own independent country. It is guarded by the Swiss Military, who happen to wear some very colorful uniforms. We also got a chance to venture into the Tomb of the Popes (no pictures allowed) and got to see John Paul II's tomb. It was controlled by secret service type agents, and no stopping was allowed in front of the tomb. Very neat to see. We ventured outside next to try and get into the Sistine Chapel, but it was closed. We'll have to do that next time we visit The Vatican, like in a week or so. Dom and I then split up from Brian and Jared and walked to the top of one of Romes 7 hills that gave us this view of Rome
All in all it was a great day. We're at the girls apartment now using the internet because the studio internet is not so good. We found one of the coolest drinking fountains in the Vatican. It was a long trough that had about 6-8 spouts coming off of it, and it was full of visitors drinking from it. I attempted to take a picture, but I failed for some reason. The fountain was tucked back in the corner, so the lighting was not so good. Well, I am going to get some work done now. Ciao!