View Article: 082404 A Phenomenal First Day

	082404 A Phenomenal First Day
	written by helenhwu / 09.06.2004

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Itinerary

Today is the first day of our group field trip. We started at 900am and visited several historical monuments that are close to Campo de Fiori. The first site we visited is "The Capitoline hill". As we walked up the stairs in front of the Capitoline Museum on the side of the Capitolino, Lisa explained how low these stairs are built for the ease of the horses. Then, Julia gave us a wonderful description of the mythical foundation of Rome. Those interesting stories about the Romulus and Remus really captured people's attention. Following that we walked behind the Capitolino and our second presenter Jeffery gave us an amazingly detailed description of the Roman Forum. The size of the Roman forum was just astonishing. We learned that every monument that the Roman built was to show their complete power. All these lavishly built temples, basilica, and arches are there to honor the emperors. Following that, Evan brought us in front of the Arch of Titus. This is the arch built to honor the emperor Titus in his success of supressing the Jeish revolt. The detailed pictures show us how the procession would have looked. Following that, we all headed towards the Palatine where several open field with broken pieces of the buildings. We found a nice grassy area and had a group lunch! Then, Martha lead us in front of the Trajan's Market. Apparently, this is the all time favor market where lot of people came to shop back then. On the side, one can also see a set of monolithic columns lying in front of the Column of Trajan. One can really appreciate the height and the level of detail that one puts onto the column. Interestingly, Martha mentioned that the column has carved interior for stairs where anyone can climb up to the top and enjoy the full view of Rome. She had also made a convincing argument that the column was being used as a funerary monument to the emperor. One of the reason being the fact that the column has tiny slots of windows and the column is quite tall. By the time people climb up half way up the stairs in the dark, one will get a sense of disorientation, and perhaps a taste of death.

In the evening, we had an Italian sociologist named Dr. Mudu who introduced and explained to us about the immigration in Rome. The lecture was quite informative and surprisingly, there are over 200 Chinese restaurants here.

Highlights

I saw a couple Chinese restaurants around here and all of them are Shanghainese style, or at least the name claimed so!

Images

Before take off

Everyone got so excited about our first trip as Lisa explained the tour for the day

Steps for Horses

These steps in front of the Capitolino are built low for the ease of horses climbing up with people on the back

Sitting and listening

Julia's mythical stories

Roman Forum

Gorgeous view from the top

Arch of Titus

The detailed carvings and astounding stories told by Evan helped us envision the scenes of battle

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