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| Despite cruel jet-lag and the evil eye of the Roman sun training its merciless gaze on two pale-bodied Seattle residents, we managed to have fun our first full day in Rome, visiting the massive ruins of the Forum and Colosseum. Ruins like this are humbling, as the amount of history contained in the crumbling bricks and columns can't help but dwarf our own personal human experience. |
| A view of the forum from Capitoline Hill. We're already just trying to stay in the shade. |
| Mark pretends he is one of the Caesars. According to legend, the columns behind him are the remains of the Rostrum, where Mark Antony gave his famous speech. All I know about the history of the Forum comes from two Shakespeare plays, so I can't confirm this, but it certainly would be cool. |
| Mark in front of some old things. Sorry, it was too hot that day to take specific notes about what was what. We had planned to not wear shorts, so as to avoid being too conspicuously American, but the weather nixed that plan, so we reveled in our bad fashion. |
| A view back up towards the Capitoline Hill, including an arch constructed in 203AD to celebrate the Roman victory over the Parthians.. |
| The justifiably famous ruins of the Roman Colosseum. Apparently it was used as a quarry after the fall of the Empire. Before then though, it could seat 50,000 people. Not bad. Not bad at all. |
| A view of the Colosseum's interior from the upper level. |
| The floor where the battles would've taken place is gone, so you can see the tunnels through which hapless fighters and beasts would have walked before being led to their probable deaths. |
| Mark reenacts another famous battle, this one from Bruce Lee's Return of the Dragon. MEOW!!! |