So, today was my first day in Rome. I began to figure out my neighborhood a bit last night, and it made things much easier in the daylight. There is basically one plaza to the south that connects streets in all directions. I did not have a major agenda in mind today, and one of the great things about Rome is that you can't throw a rock without hitting something interesting. I wandered around aimlessly for the most part seeking out elevated points in the city, looking for interesting stuff, and then walking in a general direction.
Rome is a really cool city. The main tourist attractions are spread out, though, and I found that the smaller museums and random churches were good ways of seeing things without joining the tourist hordes. The churches were beautiful without exception, and it was not uncommon to find a Michaelangelo fresco inside. I eventually made my way to the Unknown Soldier Monument, which is a gigantic military museum that covered a vast period of Roman and Italian history. The place was a bit overwhelming, but I happened upon a balcony on the third floor that provided an excellent view of Rome, including the Pantheon and Colluseum.
I set off for the Colluseum. The fact that there were a bunch of guys in cheesy Roman soldier outfits (USC?) nearly put me off to the whole thing, but I ended up shelling out 11 Euro for a tour of the place. It was worth it in the end, as the structure is really neat from inside and the tour allowed me to bypass the line for tickets. The tour guide was kind of informative, but he did have a unique lens on the history of the place. For one thing, he said that the Romans did not execute Christians because of their religion. Romans, according to him, only executed criminals at the Colluseum. That said, Christians were considered criminals by the government because their beliefs conflicted with the Romans, and so they were executed because of a difference in beliefs. Hmmm....
After a romp around the Colluseum, I visited the Pantheon which was also very cool. After that, I had a late lunch at a dumpy Italian place and met a really cool Columbian guy who was also traveling alone. He was a molecular biologist who was studying malaria rates of pregnant women and was on holiday. We ended up talking for a couple hours at the restaurant.
After that, I strolled around some residential neighborhoods, watched a rugby game, and crashed.
