The E-Zone: Rome Ho!

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1998-2001
by Eric Mah.
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When in Rome . . .
[Navarro Piazza] it's nice to have a tour guide!

Ah, if we only had more time in Rome! On our way back to the Philippines, some co-workers and I had a one night stop-over in Rome, Italy. We arrived in Rome late at night and our flight the next day was to leave at around four in the afternoon. After figuring in travel time to the airport and a two hour prior to take-off check-in time, we, unfortunately, had only about four hours to do any sight-seeing.

Four hours?! How can anyone expect to do any sight-seeing of such a historically rich place in four hours?! I was going crazy knowing that I wasn't going to get to see EVERYTHING! With such a short time and not knowing the layout of Rome at all, we decided to join a tour group for a morning tour of the major tourist attractions. The tour turned out not to be as bad as I imagined it would, though we did spend about forty minutes of the three hour tour going around in the tour bus picking up tourists from other hotels.

[Our Tour Guide] The tour was a bit rushed, so rushed, in fact, we didn't get much chance to take much of any good pictures. And the pictures that we did manage to take all have a fuzzy splotch obscuring the center details. The digital camera we were using apparently had some sort of gunk stuck to the lens during our time in Rome, probably the result of someone sneezing at the camera when we were taking their picture.

[St. Peter's Cathedral] St. Peter's Bascilica

Ah! Our first sight of St. Peter's Cathedral. It is here, St. Peter's Cathedral, that the Pope holds Catholic Mass and in front of which thousands gather annually to hear him deliver a Christmas blessing to the world.

The Cathedral is currently undergoing renovations in preparation for the turn of the Millenium at the end of this year. Part of the renovations is a face lift for the Cathedral. Unfortunately, that meant plenty of scaffolding to obscure the front of the Cathedral.

Our tour guide told us that this Cathedral was supposed built over the tomb of Peter, one of the original Twelve Apostles in the Catholic religion and the founder of the Christian religion. The construction of the Cathedral over St. Peter's tomb represents both the literal and figurative foundation that St. Peter served in the Christian faith.

[Me on the steps of St. Peter's Cathedral]

 

 

 

Here I am at the steps of St. Peter's Cathedral with the camera aiming out towards the main approach to the Cathedral.

[Inside St. Peter's]

 

Inside St. Peter's Cathedral. Behind us is the main dome of the Cathedral, which directly underneath, supposedly lies the tomb of St. Peter. The inside of the dome is covered with beautiful mosaics created by Michelangelo, who, according to our tour guide, painted them lying on his back, using a six foot long paint brush! The grandure and magnitude of this place just leaves you totally awed.

[The Colosseum] The Colosseum [New]

The Colosseum. This grand piece of architecture, if I remember correctly (don't quote me here), was constructed sometime around 4 A.D. and was known as the Flavian Ampitheater in honor, of course, of Emperor Flavian. The name Coloseum was attached to the place during the Middle Ages and arose from a giant statue standing nearby of the Emperor Nero. The colossal statue was about as tall as the height of the later built Ampitheater, thus the name "Colosseum."

[Inside the Colosseum] Feed him to the tigers! The Colosseum, in it's hey day, could easy pack a crowd of 20,000 spectators into its tiered rows of seating. The building was so efficiently designed, the whole ampitheater could be emptied within 15 minutes. Many modern sports stadium still utilize the same basic entrance and exit system used in the Colosseum.

The Arena of the Colosseum consisted of wooden planks covered by packed earth. Under the Arena laid a network of subterranean passageways which is now open to plain view. The underground passages contained cells which housed the various animals that the famed gladiators of Ancient Rome did battle with. Many of the animals made their entrances through trapdoors, hoists and other complex machinery housed underneath the Arena.

The ancient Romans occasionally watched armed men duke it out in the Arena for entertainment. These Gladiators lived and trained in barracks just east of the Colosseum and made their entrances via an underground passage on the Colosseum's eastern side. The fate of a defeated Gladiator usually resided in the mood of the Emperor or high-class citizens who either directed the victor to dispatch the defeated party or let him live.