then walked a little ways to sit in the shade for an hour lecture on rocks. ah yes, geomorphology - scintillating
after our chat about sediments, volcanoes (sorry Pompeii) tufa and travertine we started walking and talking about what each monument we saw was made of - rocks.
we made our way then to the Roman forum and were given an overviw of its history in a shady corner before venturing out to be slowly roasted amongst the marble, brick and cement structures.
walking from shady patch to conveniently located next to a monument shady patch became a theme of the day. (thanks for being considerate Albert)
we walked through the forum which really served to put all the things that I'd learned about it into perspective - the plan is much easier to visualize when you're standing in it!
the temple and atrium of vesta holds a special place in my heart and it was nice to walk around the atrium and see the dedicated statues of the particularly pious vestals.
After the forum we had a picnic lunch just up the hill before walking up the Palatine hill. I brought a delish tomato, arugula, prosciutto, mozzarella sandwich (yum)
The palatine hill had an amazing view of the city and walking around and seing where all the emperors used to live was awesome, the sheer size of the palaces was baffling!
In addition to being fantastic, the Palatine is very dusty, I had sandals on and my feet were filthy, I reccommend closed toed shoes to anyone who is planning to walk the Palatine
finished with the palatine we walked down in to the colosseum valley and into the temple of Venus and Rome which had been opened to to go into for the first time in 100 years just this year (awesome)
after that were were dismissed for the day and let loose on the Colosseum (woah)
we all got our nice touristy pictures
and then a few of us decided to walk home. It was pretty amusing how having 3 separate people trying to navagate to similar but different locations can go awry (it took us about twice as long to get home, but home we got and everything was fine. I washed my feet and got a snack (mozzarella and tomatoes) and sat down for a rest.
Catherine, one of my roommates and I made plans to meet up with a few other students andgo to supper. We took the tram down to a restaurant near another room's appartment (whose appartment is WAY better than ours) and went to a nice little restaurant which is right next to their building.
I had a deliciuos Goat cheese and arugula salad with apples and balsamic vinegar. mmmmmm.
then after supper we made a trek to a gelato place which was supposed to be amazing called the Frigidarium and holy heck was it ever good. I got Pistachio, chocolate and tiramisu with whipped cream and a waffle cone biscuit on top. dear god it was sooooo yummo.
having eaten way more than necessary we took the tram home for the evening. Were my roommates and I chatted for way longer than intended (good girl talk though) then I fell asleep before finishing this blog entry so I'm writing this at 7am
I have to go shower and get ready for a day of museums : D but this entry has a few pictures to go with it that I'll add in later.
ciaociao
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