With jet lag on the decline, our brave students set out on their daily academic journey filled with lecturing, documentaries, excruciatingly talkative guides, and the world famous Colosseum.

 

For starters, today we received our first dose of Francesco, the highly energetic cook that prepares the breakfasts at the hotel.  Francesco works in the corner of the room preparing most of the food and cleaning the dishes.  He greets everyone with a smile (sometimes a handshake in addition) and will gladly take any special requests.  While he’ll clear your table for you, if you bring your dishes straight to him, you may receive another handshake or even a pinch on the cheek.  After hours, it’s possible to find him around the hotel, and if you make eye contact, you’ll surely be berated with questions about how the meal was.  Breakfasts actually are served on the top floor of the hotel in a room filled with small, four person tables and windows galore to get a superb view of the Vatican Museum roof, surrounding apartments, and the other branch of the Hotel Alimandi.  Food is served like a small buffet, ranging from scrambled eggs to extremely floppy bacon and then to yogurt and small pastries.  There’s nothing distinctly Italian about breakfasts here, but we’re positive the pasta will emerge sooner or later.  It may not sound like the best, but it’s all quite appetizing despite the sarcasm.

 

Directly following breakfast was our first lecture, which was about the sites we would be visiting during the day.  Those sites included the Arch of Constantine and the main section of the Colosseum (we will be visiting the highest and lowest levels in a week).  After a bit of lecture we watched a brief documentary on the Colosseum and then split off for lunch.  Around an hour later, we returned to be introduced to Gino (nickname for Luigi).  As I can best describe, he was a short, elderly, and highly opinionated Italian man who came recommended from our coordinator as the best guide in Rome.  While he knew his material very well, Gino liked to talk, and talk he did.  There was never a quiet moment with him since we all had headsets transmitting his rants to us from wherever he was.  Gino will be our continuing guide throughout our journeys in Rome, so we’ve surely only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his ramblings.

 

Following the “brief” introduction to Gino, we hopped on a tour bus and took off for the Colosseum.  Along the way, Gino pointed out countless ruins and buildings.  That would have been great if not for the blinding sun, which completely prevented anyone on the wrong side of the bus without high-quality sunglasses from looking directly outside.  Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the site.  The Colosseum, properly known as the Flavian Amphitheater, is surrounded by a plethora of other ruins and structures, including the Palatine hill and Roman forum among other things.  Immediately, there is the Arch of Constantine, which was built in 315 AD to commemorate – you guessed it – Constantine.  As can be seen in the picture above, it’s actually got 3 arches and is pretty large in scale.  For the arch, I use the phrase “large in scale” pretty loosely since next door is the Colosseum, an absolutely massive amphitheater with a dimensions of 617 feet long, 512 feet wide, and 157 feet tall.  It was designed to hold 50,000 Romans (about 5% of the population at the time) but could hold around 87,000 when packed to the brim.  Not only that, but it’s estimated the stadium could empty in 30 minutes by utilizing its 76 entrances. Let’s not forget it’s the site of the infamous gladiator fights and, as some would argue, one of the highlights of Russell Crowe’s acting career.  Quite impressive, no?

Well enough of the details.  After Gino’s detailed discussion of the Arch of Constantine, we were set free for a while so we had a chance to explore before entering the main attraction.  While we had seen plenty of street vendors before, nothing seems to compare to the amount of guys walking around selling “selfie sticks” at the Colosseum.  At one point we witnessed a gaggle of 8 of them and as soon as some police came around every single salesman bolted as if they were in a parkour race with Usain Bolt.  It was spectacular.  After the free roaming, we rejoined at the entrance and went through another Gino-riffic lecture.  Again we were set free like the caged animals that were at the Colosseum back in the day, minus the deadly combat.  It had two levels to look through with the upper level containing a mini museum.  Every angle only seemed to make the structure seem even larger, and since the actual floor where gladiators fought was not present, you could see into the lover levels, also called the Hypogeum.  Our exploration had a relatively strict deadline, and all but two students emerged on time.  While it was unfortunate, we did manage to run into another American student group during our wait for the stragglers.

With the day’s scheduled touring out of the way, we hopped back on the bus and headed straight back to the hotel for a bit more lecture on the upcoming activities.  Tomorrow we will be visiting the Roman Forums, Palatine hill, and some other stuff, but I’ll save that as a surprise for those of you who don’t already have a copy of our schedule.

 

– Chris Apfeld