Day 11 - Colosseum, Capitoline Museum, Imperial Forum, Museum, and a home cooked meal!

After yesterday's day of rest, we got an early start to the morning by walking 4 miles to the Colosseum. It was a nice walk along the river, and Taylor presented to the group about the history of the Colosseum. One of the most interesting points we learned was there were 26 different kinds of gladiators, including women and animals. Also, contrary to the movies gladiators rarely were killed in the arena.

At the end of Taylor's presentation, it got very windy, cold, and started to rain. So we ran over to the Capitoline Museum where we saw a number of fascinating sculptures. My favorite was the sculpture of Commodus dressed up like Hercules (he was very full of himself). After the museum it was sunny and nice out, which allowed us to go to the Imperial Forum where Maggie presented. The Imperial Forum was like an outdoor shopping mall in ancient Roman times.

We then went over to the Spanish Steps, checked out a church, and had some free time for lunch and shopping. After, we headed to the Borghese park and museum. Mr. Whitson said we were very lucky to get in as he needed to make reservations months ago. The Borghese family has has this collection of Renaissance artwork for centuries. Mr. Whitson asked us to write done and be ready to explain our 3 favorite paintings and why.

After the museum, we went back to the apartment and all helped Mr. Whitson make a home made dinner. Salad, pasta, a meat sauce, and bruscetta. It was VERY GOOD!

One more day!

Jordan Lee
Tesseract 9th Grade Student

Using public transportation!


On the way to the Colisseum

































Capitoline Museum














Imperial Forum












Spanish Steps



Borghese Park






Dinner!

Day 10 - Roman Forum, etc.

Today we all went to Palatine Hill, the birthplace of Rome. We walked through to see the home of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. Along with his villa, we saw many other villas from other emperors of Rome. After looking through the villas, we went to the Roman Forum where Nick and Chianne talked about the forum and what happened there. One of the most interesting places in the forum was the Temple of Vesta. We learned about the Vestal Virgins. Their job was to keep the fire in the temple alive at all times. After seeing the temple of Vestus, we saw the temple of Romulus, where old movies played in the middle of the temple.

After we had lunch, Mr. Whitson decided that the class needed time to relax. So, to the joy of the class, we spent the rest of the day in the apartments to rejuvenate and sleep. After hours of trying to fall asleep, many of us gave up and socialized for hours, talking and joking with each other.

We went to dinner in a rustic part of Rome-one of Mr. Whitson's favorite spots. After dinner we all watched an amazing fire dancer that we all thought would catch on fire due to the greatness of her tricks. After she was done, nobody could resist giving her plenty of euros to thank for her show. After the show we all went to the apartment to go to sleep at 10:30.

All in all, it was a great day that relaxed us and got us pumped up for our 3rd day in Rome.


Derek Scullin
Tesseract 9th Grade Student

Shopping for our picnic lunch





The Roman Forum

Day 9 - Cuma, Hell, and the road to Rome

Last night we got little sleep because of the fireworks that went off for the 150th anniversary of Italy. The first stop this morning was Cuma Acropolis. A Greek colony dating back to 750 BC. Mr. Whitson told us about the site then took us down to where people thought the entrance to hell was. We then went to the top of the hill where the Temple of Apollo was. The site was amazing, we looked out and saw the ocean and next to it was the woods.

Our second stop was Sybyll's Cave, the more widely accepted entrance to hell. The Sybyll's was the gatekeeper to hell, located directly below Apollo's temple. Along the way we passed a lake that was massive. An old man greeted us at the entrance of the cave. His family has owned the land the cave is on for generations He told us the cave was made from a volcano that exploded and it went down a mile. He lite some torches and handed them out and we started our decent to hell. We got to small tunnel on the right that led down to the River Styx. We all took turns and went down the tunnel and touched the water. Lily and Chianne got scared so they went back to wait outside. After everyone finished touching the water we got back up and went on to the next tunnel. The tunnel led us down to place where travelers would ask the Sybyll for their future. The old man led us back to the beginning of the tunnel and we thanked him, left, and started our bus ride to Rome. It took 3 hours to get and everyone was already tired. The apartment we are staying at is really cool, but we only got to enjoy it for and hour and on we were again walking the streets of Rome. We settled at the Piazza Nuovo and split up into small groups and went to dinner. We started to leave and then a rave started in the middle of the plaza. We got home, had our group meeting and, then some people went of to fight for the laundry or went to bed.

Colton Aboussafy
Tesseract 9th Grade Student

Cuma





Suspected tunnel to hell in Cuma






View from Cuma






Temple of Jupiter in Cuma












The road to Sybill's Cave









Inside Sybyll's Cave

























Tunnel down to the River Styx












The River Styx



The way to the Sybyll's Lair












Our Rome apartment






Rome (so far...)