GL 350 week uno

     Italy, the trip of a life time and places  not many people get to see. I get this opportunity and I will keep each moment and each new place we see forever a memory. Studying in Italy for the next two monthes is an opportunity I would have never been able to have and this is going to be an opportunity for me to grow as a person and succeed indepententy. As we get our week one schedual, the main sights are the Coliseum, Roman Forum, Campo de'Fiori, the jewish ghetto and several churches. With our schedule, we also recieved reading assingments to correspond with our daily sight seeing, interwoven into each other.
     The first day we were off to the Coliseum and Roman Forum. The Coliseum was breathtaking, getting right off the subway, walking up a flight of stairs and there right in front of you is the mighty structure. When reading "Who killed Daisy Miller", in "The Smiles of Rome", we were given a little history of the Coliseum and a story about a woman, Daisy, who died from Malaria before seeing the Coliseum because the Coliseum and Roman Forum are bult on a marsh, but no longer that now a days. The Coliseum was bult by Emperor Vaspasion  and ever since it was bult it is the 8th wonder of the world! As for the Roman forum, well for me it was just ruins, rocks and crumbled stone, nothing that caught my interest. There was a quote in "The Smiles of Rome" that I thought about when walking through the Roman Forum and also Palentine hill and most of Rome, "When we contemplate ruins, we contemplate our own future", eventually we all fall eventualy and some of us can leave impressions in the world and others do not. Like the Roman Forum or other famous ruins in Rome, they all fell but leave impressions every day the rumble is still there.
     The rest of that week we were off the the Jewish Ghetto, an area that caught my eye and the history that caught my attention because of my brother being jewish. I was sure to get plenty of pictures of the ghetto to show him an area that can be considered apart of him. In Campo de' Fiori, well shops and merchants were every where, wanting to grab your attention and sell there wares to you. Which in my opinion most of the merchants were selling cheap wares not worth the money. In the Italians chapter 1, it talks about the italian charm, the city Rome in itself has a charm not felt any where else. The famous sights suck you in, draws your attention and when your attention is distracted, well your belongings become a pleasurable sight for the mischevious. "They are the first victims of the famous charm of Italy", this quote from the italians is pointed to tourists and it is far beyond a false statement. When our professors and guides take us to our daily sights, the new unfamilar famous surroundings captures your mind and charms you because these are things you have never seen before or cannot be replicated any where else in the world.
     Towards, the end of the week we were able to visit this beautiful church that is not open to the public and also the baths of Cacacella. This church was historic and looked as if it was right out of a history book about churches. The artwork, paintings surrounding the walls and on the ceilings and just the good old fasion architecture, all marble floors, hand crafted and the atmosphere in general was captivating. The other part of that church was the catacombs that we were able to see, skulls real skulls used as the cross, as the light fiixtures and displayed all around the basement. Now, the Baths of Caracella, the image that came to mind for me was no where near the scale that my eyes saw. There were massive brick walls all around and even origianl mosaic tiles for the flooring still in tact. Thousands of people flocked to this sight in the days of old and it was more that enough space to hold that number of people. After I was able to see the ruins, I really could picture the baths, with pools to bath and excersise. The one thing that made me laugh, is that every time the tour guide would talk about the courts with excerising and activities going on, all I could think about was like a high school gym and a bastektball, which neither they had back then.
     It is amazing to see how well the Italians maintain the beauty and historic atmosphere of the ruins around the city. For a moment you think your just riding a bus going through a city, which you are but then it is like a slap in the face when you ride by a set of ruins or a historic building with a crumbling structure being restored. Italy definetly has a certian charm that captures a toursit but unique to the surroudnings and in my opinion does not compare to going to New York or California. Rome is a beautful city and has a beautiful culture but why is a city reling so much on old ruins or crubling structures or a pretty flat of grass to make it what it is. All great things fall eventually, it is just a matter of time and when some of the famous sttructures fall, what are the Romans going to fall back on, more ruins?