Marcus Kammrath ’16 – Today was the best day of my life. Multiple bucket list sites were checked off of my list today. We started with our light breakfast at the hotel and set off promptly at 8:15 to get our day going. We started at the Roman Forum, the heart of the entire Roman Empire. There we were able to see remains as well as still standing arches, basilicas, and other public buildings. The shear size of these buildings can not be given justice from a photo.
After the Roman Forum we made our way along the triumphal march to the Arch of Constantine and the Flavian Amphitheater! Here we looked a lot at not only the Roman uses for the amphitheater but the early Christian uses as a place of martyrdom. After there we booked it to the train station to catch the train to the Vatican Museums. The amount of graffiti all over Rome, but especially in the subways, is a work of art itself. A good majority of it is really well done and pretty interesting to look at. Thankfully they know better than to try and tag the areas we were in today!
When we got to the Vatican Museums we met with our security guard and headed to the section usually closed to the public (traveling with Hartnett and Nelson certainly has advantages) we listened to the four presenters discuss their various sarcophagus’ and the statue of the Good Shepherd. But wait! There’s more. Have you ever heard of the Sistine Chapel? Yeah we saw that today as well! Me and the group I was walking with had to pretty much pick our jaws up from the floor as we looked up thinking the tourist question of the day “How could one man do all of this?”
We finished at the Vatican Museums shortly after but not until Brent and I discovered the Pope-mobile museum! Complete with a “blessed” Ferrari F1 racing wheel. Had the day ended there we still would have had the day of our lives but it didn’t. Our final stop of the night was the Olympic stadium. To see the Roman Serie A soccer club Lazio play Florence in what was supposed to be a close, hard fought game but ended in a lopsided 4-0 win for the good guys riding a Miroslav Klose 2 goal performance. Thankfully Dr. Hartnett says we will be calming down a little early tomorrow after St Peter’s. A good nights rest is well deserved by all! Best wishes everyone!
