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Home  >  Rome  >  When in Rome I
Rome

When in Rome I

Allison Sherman Posted onJuly 5, 2017July 5, 2017 Comments are off 1826 Views

Our blog posts from Rome will be titled “When in Rome” followed by a Roman numeral. It just feels right. The posts will also be mostly pictures because you deserve a break from Chatty Cathy I’m a little tired. No, seriously, a week in Rome is quite enough for the surface level. I think you either need a week or a month, but nothing in between.

I’d love to do my usual book report blog and tell you all that we learned from our research, our wandering and our tours. But it’s really just way too much to synthesize. So instead I’ll share some scenes from our week and hope that you will be a proper Worldschooler and will research those things that interest you. Or at the very least smile at the pictures of my hot sweaty bored adorable children. Either one works for me.

Colosseum

Fun fact: The Colosseum’s real name was the Flavian Amphitheatre. The name Colosseum is derived from a colossal statue of Nero nearby (the statue of Nero was named after the Colossus of Rhodes). This statue was later remodeled by Nero’s successors into the likeness of Helios (Sol) or Apollo, the sun god, by adding the appropriate solar crown. Nero’s head was also replaced several times with the heads of succeeding emperors: “This is a pretty statue and this dude has a good body. I’m just going to move his head aside and put my head right here.” #Romanphotoshop 

Even later, the entire statue was cannibalized for it’s bronze and recycled in other projects, including weapons and for the Vatican. The Pope “appropriated” many antiquities over two millennia. God approved, I’m sure.

Another fun fact: the word “arena” that we use for a gathering or entertainment venue comes from the Latin word for sand. They used sand on the floor of the coliseum during events to soak up the blood of the gladiators and animals. Good times in the empire, hey?

There used to be statues in all those little arches. And it used to be covered in marble. But that was all stolen and the marble was used in other places around Rome. Rude. Didn’t they know we’d like it to look all shiny and pretty when we come for our tour 1900 years later?

 

We took a family-oriented tour, which was a very nice change from endless names and dates. The kids colored. Coloring on a tour is good, although, on second thought, we paid a few hundred dollars to COLOR? Argh!!

 

Zoe was more excited about the clipboard than the Colosseum.

 

As you are wandering around Rome, it’s so awesome to run into some random view of the Colosseum. It’s so big and iconic. It feels like a big hug. An old, cranky one.

 

Our family selfie collection will be extensive by the time we are done with our travels.

Caracalla Baths

Because Ancient Roman ruins eventually quickly never get old (opinions differ among the Shermanos), we went to some ruins of the city’s second largest Roman public baths, likely built between AD 212 and 216. They were in operation until the 530s and then fell into disuse and ruin. However, they have served as an inspiration for many other notable buildings, including the original Penn Station in New York and Chicago Union Station. Art works recovered from the ruins include famous sculptures such as the Farnese Bull and the Farnese Hercules.

They were huge. At any given time they could hold 1,600 bathers simultaneously. The daily capacity is estimated to be between 5,000 and 6,000. Romans like their baths. With others, evidently. Friends don’t let friends bathe alone.

It was a lovely cloudy day and there were only a few other people there. Just the way we like it.

 

Modern day bunny in ancient Roman baths. And some pieces of a fresco from some bath wall. Lotsa imagination needed here.

 

The two trivia nuts were battling it out trying to compete for Family Tour Guide using Wikipedia. Zoe was taking pictures of the bunny.

 

They were just huge and had a very complex system of water delivery using aqueducts. They also had massive systems (and slaves) designed to keep the bath water at the correct temperature at all times.

 

There were a lot of frescos and mosaic floors discovered at these baths. These gals were restoring this tile floor. From the corner by that far door to where they are now, has taken them a year of tedious and careful scrubbing.

St. Clement Church

Some friends told us about this church. They called it the “lasagna” church because it was like a lasagna with so many layers. At street level you have a church built relatively recently (as in, the 7th century, which in Rome is like yesterday). Then under that you have a church built in the 4th century. Under that is yet another church built in the first century. That wasn’t so much a church as it was some homes where people worshiped in secret until Christianity became legal. Then it became more of a church. We went in and explored all the layers, although we could not take pictures, so I’ll just put this image here so you can try and visualize it. It was pretty neat.

These were the three churches, all on top of one another.

 

Don’t think you’re finished hearing about Rome. There’s II more blog posts to come because I thought you’d be interested want an excuse to use more Roman numerals.

Previous Article 1000 Days
Next Article When in Rome II

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