A Walk Through Ancient Rome (Giant Snakes, Millions of Cats, and Communist Rallies)

Last Friday, my history class met for a "field trip."  We didn't actually go to one place specifically, rather, we walked around Rome, reliving the glory of the empire.

Tiber Island

We started out on Tiber Island, where legend tells us a giant healing snake god named Aesculapius made his home when he traveled from what we know as Turkey to Italy.  Later, one of the emperors remodeled the island to look like a boat to remember how the god came to Rome.  You can still see some of the boat-like decorations.

Really old meat market.

Next, we went across the river to the Forum Boarium, the original forum, or public space, in Rome.  It was used mainly for markets.  Barges would line up along the Tiber to unload goods.  Cattle were walked from the outer fields to the city to be sold at the markets.

Circus Maximus! Epic.

After that we visited the Circus Maximus, where the chariot races were held.  Apparently a race was only one lap.  The turn was very dangerous and caused many accidental deaths, to which the spectators celebrated with wild cheers. How do we know what people cheered for in 200 BC? I can't wrap my mind around it.  Regardless, it was pretty cool.

The usual residents

Largo Argentina was the end of phase 1 of the trip.  Most study abroad students know the site as "the last stop on the tram line that takes you to The Drunken Ship bar."  But in the daylight, it is the ruins of Pompey's Theater, the Baths of Agrippa, and a few temples to various Roman gods, some dating back to the 4th century BC.  It's also a home for about a million stray cats.

Campo Market

We finished up in Campo de Fiori, the historic public square that holds the oldest morning market in Rome by day, and the largest college student hangout by night.  In the center is a statue of Giordano Bruno, burned at the stake for heresy for claiming the Sun was just one of an infinite number of independently moving "heavenly bodies."  300 years after his death, this statue of him was put up in Campo.  Shaded by the hood of his cloak, his eyes stare coldly at the Vatican.

At this point we enter another episode of "How well can Emily survive in Rome?"

The "Wedding Cake"

So, there I was, listening to the last pieces of Professor Higgin's lecture in the middle of Campo, when she dismisses the class for lunch and instructs us to meet her at Piazza Venezia in one hour.  I looked around, and suddenly everyone was gone.  'Ok,' I thought to myself, 'get to Piazza Venezia.  I can do this.'  And so I started walking, alone and without a map.  I decided to get to the meeting place first and find some lunch around there so I could be sure I wouldn't be late.  So I started walking in what I thought was the right direction...until I stumbled into Piazza Navona.  Oops, wrong direction.

Communist Rally?

I turned around and walked back to Largo Argentina, and then strolled down a busy street until...there!  The Wedding Cake!  I was close.  I found a street going straight towards it, when suddenly two riot-proof police cars swerved in and completely blocked off the road.  I turned around, went another block over...and came to two more police cars.

Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo

This happened twice more before I finally found an open street and bee-lined for the meeting spot.  All of a sudden, the piazza was echoing with loud music and chanting.  People carrying big red flags came marching through, accompanied by about 100 police officers in riot gear.  Their flags and banners said "USB."  I thought maybe they were just computer people, but my professor told us it had to do with immigration workers rights...although I saw quite a few Hammer and Sickle flags which gave it a very different tone.

We always end up here.

After they cleared out, we walked up to the top of the Capitoline Hill, the Campidoglio.  There, we started the Imperial Forum tour.  We walked through the various forums built by emperors.  I've come to the conclusion that they were all just a bunch of insecure men fighting to be remembered, but in this fight, they didn't do much except build monuments to themselves and their families.  Caesar built his forum, then Augustus built his next to it because people liked Caesar more than him, then the next guy built a bigger one, and the next guy built one even bigger than that until there was really no more space to build forums and the next guy had to resort to building the Pantheon, which is where our field trip ultimately ended up.

Whew.  There you have it.  A walk through ancient Rome.







See more photos of my walk HERE!