After breakfast, go for lecture in the hotel meeting room. Topic of Welcome To Rome will be presented by Ann Giletti. Ann, like all the lecturers that follow, live in Italy and have advanced degrees in history, art or archeology. Truly, we will be treated to Adventures in Learning as stated in our Road Scholar literature.
At 10:30, we depart by bus to a site about 1/2 mile away. Here we meet our local specialist guide, Elisabetta Interdonato, an archeologist, who will provide details on the Colosseum and the Roman Forum facilities. Although the design for what is a 50,000 person stadium was designed about 2,000 years ago, it is a classic. Our “modern” US football stadiums, or as we spell it – coliseum – follows the same design. First, we visit the area of the Colosseum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum
http://archeoroma.beniculturali.it/en/archaeological-site/colosseum
This link is to a group photo we took today.
https://picasaweb.google.com/magwheel44/2013RSItalyAlbum112113#5959093419845335682
Then, we have lunch at Ristorante Cleto. Elisabetta mentions during lunch that interest in archeology has diminished. Currently at the university she went to, only a handful of students are pursuing that field of study. We wonder, who will be the people making the discoveries and studies in the future?
http://www.ristorantecleto.it/index_eng.htm
Now, off to the Forum. Although much of what we see is “ancient,” new finds are made daily. Whether it is rebuilding a pipeline for water or some other new construction, what we see has been buried for centuries, if not longer into millennia. With less archeologists, will these “finds” be not thought valuable?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Forum
While at the Forum area. I convinced the group it might be a good idea to have a group snapshot. Although in prior tours we waited until we all knew each other better, said let’s maybe do it both ends of the tour. Then pick the best. On our trip to Amalfi area, one of our group tripped on first day – broke arm in 3 places, and flew back to USA. We never know what might happen.
Sure enough, the next day one of the couples had to leave because of a family emergency. They sent a note later thanking us for including them in the group, even though we had barely started on tour itinerary.
Late afternoon, we return to hotel for lecture on Vatican Treasures and the Borghese Gallery by Antonella DeMichelis.
I learned a “new” word today – Palimpsest. New for me, but 3,000 years old though. "A palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book from which the text has been scraped or washed off and which can be used again."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palimpsest
Dinner is at Antica Boheme on Via Napoli 4.
http://www.anticaboheme.it/Home.aspx
I must say – it was an exciting day. So much to take in both visually and verbally. I think though my camera did a better job than my ears and brain. This next link does a great job of showing you just where we visited and the many, maybe too many, things we saw. The map shows the route we basically traveled. Make sure you scroll down on left column to see the link to the 13 points of interest. Click on each of the red numbered squares to get more details and some photos.
http://www.everytrail.com/guide/roman-forum-coliseum-and-capitoline-hill/map
Photo 1. Prepping for our group photo near Forum
Photo 2. Our local specialist guide, Elisabetta Interdonato sharing her knowledge
Photo 3. Great food every day, everywhere (-:
Click below for today's online photo album.
https://picasaweb.google.com/magwheel44/2013C2CDay17of28
