The class woke up to great news about the weather: 55 degrees and sunny today! After a great lesson on arches and columns, the class took the metro back to the Colosseum stop to start the day of touring the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and a tour of the city’s bridges. During the republican era of Rome, the Forum was used as an all-purpose city center, while it would eventually be used for religious temples and monuments under the empire. The class went through the vast expanse of the ruins, with countless columns and structures still standing. Above us stood Palatine Hill, one of the “Seven Hills of Rome.” This hill has huge cultural and historical significance as it is said to be the birthplace of Rome. It was the sight of many emperors’ homes and personal libraries. The sight has a wonderful view that only adds to the beauty of the sight. Emperors such as Augustus, Tiberius, and Domitian built their residences there.

Just by Palatine Hill is the Circus Maximus. This is a secondary Chariot racing stadium that provided a second source of entertainment to the Coliseum. At Circus Maximus, each set of horses and their chariot had to be pulled around 7 times, one time for each planet that they knew of. Circus Maximus also hosted different events, but it was a super cool sight to see.

The bridges of Rome were very impressive to see. At the end of the guided tour, a group of us followed the Tiber River from the forum back to the Castle Of Saint Angelo   Besides the fact that the weather was incredible today and most days of our trip. During the class presentation today, we discussed the methods ancient Romans used  to build bridges without motors. They stacked limestone on top of each other in the form of  an arch and designed it in such a way that compression forces (weight of each block against the others) kept the bridge stable. They then filled in the top of the arch with rubble to add more weight to the arch and, in turn, more compression. Seeing a bridge of that design still standing, while a bridge of a different design that looked to be around 50-100 years old in ruins, goes to show how advanced Roman Engineering was. This was a very scenic and educational part of a fantastic study abroad trip so far.