Day 2

Day 2 was a completely different experience than the first day.  Woke up early and walked around to try and find a bank where I could finally exchange my Dollars for Euros at a decent price.  

Could not find a "banco" but did manage to see the Vatican from a bridge not too far from where we are staying.










Morning continued with a breakfast followed by an orientation that included really sugary pastries and my first espresso shots.  Have to add a ton of milk and sugar to make it drinkable, but man is it strong.  Orientation was pretty funny, they said that every group of girls is 100% safer when they have a guy with them...men are moving back up in the world! After orientation a few of us finally managed to find a bank that could exchange money and like everything but the traffic here in Italy, they moved real slow.

Day progressed into another orientation and where we sign up for activities.  By the time I had gotten downstairs to sign up, the leaning tower of Pisa tour was completely filled.  I ended up registering for an ancient caves tour, a wine tasting event and a free walk through ancient Rome that was later that day.

The walk through ancient Rome was where the real fun began.  We started as a monstrous group of 100+ people, where we found pedestrians certainly do NOT have the right away here. We all managed to catch up and regroup.  First stop on ancient Rome tour was a large market that Emperor Augustus built in honor of his sister's death at around 27BC.  Named Portico D'Ottavia.

Up until around the 1800's, it was one of the world's largest fish markets.











Next door was the ancient Theater of Marcellus.

A massive theater that was built to hold 11,000, it was started by Julius Caesar, who was killed before its completion in 13BC.  Beautiful structure and unbelievable.

Next stop, what is called the "Capitoline Hill" or Capital Hill, also known as the ancient Center of Rome. This was the Capitol structure  that America eventually modeled its Capitol Hill after.  Emperor after emperor spoke to his people here.

Then to the ancient ground of Rome...

 These were the daily ground of ancient Roma, where everybody lived their daily lives.

You can see the Colosseum in the background.












Statue of Romulus and Remus, who were apparently the founders of Rome.

Quick history lesson.  By legends, Romulus and Remus were the twin sons of two gods.  They were ordered to be killed by ancient Romans, who instead abandoned them near the Tiber river.  They were then raised by she-wolves, and Romulus apparently killed Remus.  Romulus then went on to start the city we now know as Roma.






Next stop was an ancient monstrous church.

Continued through ruins, past the ancient Roman Forum and the more recent Roman Forum on the way to what I had been waiting for.

Completed in 72AD, it was where every Roman went for entertainment.  Thousands of gladiators fought and died against others and animals for the thousands of spectators of Rome.  As deserved, this was the final stop on the Ancient Tour.









At this point it was just a hike back to where we were staying.  Soo glad that we ended up taking the tour, had a blast.  It is really unbelievable how huge everything in Ancient Rome really was.  After that came back to restaurant and had pizza and wine with the roommates not too far from apartment.  Really had a great time, I am definitely starting to fall in love with Rome.