Blog 2:

It's day five here and I think the group is finally starting to get the hang of Rome a little more. Although I am still oblivious when it comes to the subway and buses (Don't judge me, i'm from a small town), hopefully i'll get it down soon. My day started off with going to a cafe and getting a cappuccino and a yummy pastry by myself after meeting with Lisa at the ACCENT center at 9am. I figured I'd better get used to finding my way around by myself now since i'm staying a few extra days here. 

Largo Argentina

Our first stop for today was the Largo Argentina (Pictured above). The Largo Argentina is basically a square in Rome that holds the remains of the Pompey's theatre and four republican temples. The four temples are named A,B,C, and D (easy to remember). Temple A was made in the 3rd century B.C. and I believe it was the Temple of Juturna but was later made into a church. It seems really common to turn temples and such into churches all around Rome and probably other places as well. Anyways temple B was the round-ish temple with, I think, only six columns remaining. Temple C is the oldest of all the temples dating back to maybe the 3rd or 4th centuries BC. Temple D is the largest of the four temples and was made around the 2nd century BC. The Largo Argentina is also a cat shelter. Today I really wasn't in the mood for learning history. But when he mentioned the cat sanctuary my ears perked up and I was instantly interested. I think Aaron and Lisa had said that the cat sanctuary helps the injured cats and all of the other cats roam around free. I personally didn't see any cats while I was there, If I had I probably would've gotten a million pictures and put them up on this blog. 

Forum of Julius Caesar

Pyramid of Cestius

Later in the day we went and saw the Forum of Julius Caesar, briefly saw the pyramid of Cestius, and for the last stop we went to the Centrale Montemartini (Pictured Below right). My favorite part of the day was going to the Centrale Montemartini mostly because it wasn't in the heat, but it also wasn't your average museum. The museum itself is located in basically an old power plant that (I think) was the first to give electricity to the city of Rome. One of my favorite sculptures, or busts I guess, was the Head of a young man (Pictured Below left). I like this one mostly because you could still see gold specks and some color, which we don't normally see on statues and sculptures anymore. It was just nice to see even a little bit of how it would've looked like in color or how it was originally instead of just marble like we'd usually see. 

Centrale Montemartini

Head of a Young Man

On an un-relevant, unrelated note, during lunch break I went on a hunt for an antique vase for my grams. It was a cool little adventure trying to find the perfect one for her for over the past couple days. Then I had to carry it around all day in the hot weather. (She's lucky I love her :p) I carried that thing in the heat for about 7-8 hours today.