Today was one of the busiest days I’ve had so far in Rome. It was Sunday today, so some people went to church inside the city in the morning. Half of the group went to explore Trajan’s Market. I finally got a memo there. When I find some tape, I’m going to insert the brochure into the journal a later time. I saw Trajan’s Forum and some artifacts recovered from the site, but it pained me to see such a glorious place in ruins. When I was gazing at a recreation of the Forum in a plastic display case, I almost wanted to jump in and walk among the columns with merchants and politicians of ancient Rome. I mainly toured around with Dakota and Aman.
We then headed to the Memorial to Vittorio Emmanuel, a.k.a. “The Wedding Cake.”
We just got to stand at the base of it, but, nevertheless, the sheer size was astounding. Then, we finally got to the final destination- Museo Capitolium. It was situated above the Forum, and the Senators’ House overlooked it, as well. I learned that it also mocked the senators to place a man on a horse in the middle of the courtyard, which had its horse’s rear turned toward the senators’ windows. There was also a bulge in the middle of the courtyard, which was believed to be the belly-button of the world.
On top of the Capitoline
In the first part of the museum, I saw Constantine’s head, hand (with the finger pointed upward), and foot. They were huge. I also saw a statue of Medusa, The Dying Gaul, the boy with the thorn, Socrates, the Capitoline wolf with Remus and Romulus, Hercules, and other gods of mythology. I walked around for 2 hours before finally coming to a bar to have my first coffee ever (which tasted more bitter than anything I had ever had, even though it was “caffe e panne” (coffee with cream)). I also had a slice of Margherita pizza and a delicious slice of cake, which made the coffee much easier to drink. It was today that I learned that the sound of “having a cup of cappuccino while looking over the city of Rome” is not as romantic and pleasant as it sounds...
In the afternoon, I practiced ping-pong for four hours with Melissa and Connie, my Asian sisters (nickname given to them by the sass master), to get ready for the tournament after the Naples Trip, tomorrow through the 29th. I was exhausted and devoured my stir-fry beef at dinner. Once again, Sebastian came up to me and asked me, “I bet you felt right at home at dinner with the stir-fry, didn’t you?” All in good joke, though. He’s a fun roommate to have. In the lecture at night, I read Pliny’s Epistle VI, 20 to Tacitus. I didn’t do too much translating today, but I needed the break from so much translation.
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