The Adventures of Climbing Stairs, Hills and Buildings

Stairs

Not one is the same as the next. For example, in my apartment one flight of stairs will be very steep while the next are rather flat. Some are worn out in the middle while others are just fine. The Colosseum stairs were quite steep! I had to have my hand on the rail the whole time. It amazes me how older people can move about in the city of Rome. Anyways, I had the chance to see the Colosseum twice (well actually three times) this past week. On Thursday I went and toured it with my art history class. SOOOOOO cool! The history behind these places is what makes it cool. Our instructor shared with us the different types of fights that would happen in the place and where everyone would sit. Did you know that ex-gladiators were never allowed to go to the Colosseum after they retired? They were afraid ex-gladiators might jump into the action if they saw their gladiator friend in action not performing too well against the challenger. Gravediggers also weren't allowed in because of bad omen.

I saw the Colosseum for the second time this past week on Sunday. It was the 140th celebration of the Roman government and a lot of places had various events going on. The Colosseum ended up being lit on fire. Yep, that's right; it is all gone now. Kidding. Some artists created the display by placing screens between the arches on the second and third levels and projected a fire image onto them. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, my camera wasn't good at catching an image of it. I did, however, get this cool photo of the Arch of Constantine which is right next to the Colosseum!

Hills
Assisi is built on the side of a hill. This makes for a lot of various alleys and layers to the city. It is basically a small strip of established buildings and homes and is very quiant. I went into St. Francis of Assisi church and St. Clare's. Churches are starting to get a bit repetitive. Don't get me wrong, each one is beautiful but they tend to blur together. What was special about these two churches were all the relics they had including garments of St. Francis and St. Clare and even St. Clare's hair. Other than churches, the rest of the city was filled with places to eat and tourist gift shops. It is really pondering to think that all of those tourist shops can exist in such a small place. Seriously, it was one after another of basically the same products.

Buildings

I forgot my keys last Thursday as I was starting a little shopping adventure. Luckily, my roommate, Morgan, was sleeping inside, so I thought I'd be okay to just go and return later and just have her let me in. My excursion took about 1 1/2 hours, and when I came back I had no luck in waking her up. I pressed our speaker button on the outside of our building and yelled her name but nothing seemed to work. I didn't think much of it and went to go buy some groceries. Half hour later I came back and had the same problem. So, off to go wander and get gelato I went. Came back; no luck. So, off to the Piazza Navona I wandered. Came back; no luck. So, this time, I sat in front of our building. At this point I was getting really strange looks for calling out her name and having my hands full with groceries but no place to go. Finally a woman went into the building and I was able to convince her to let me in. After I got up to my apartment, I rang our doorbell repeatedly and still could not wake up Morgan. Being quite exhausted from my long afternoon out, I decided I'd do whatever I could to get inside. This involved going out onto the community patio, climbing up on the ledge, and walking it over to our kitchen window. Sounds daring, right? Well, it was considering we live on the top floor which is 5 stories up. But the walk was just a quick 5 steps away and the ledge was large that I walked on. I made it safely and now have learned to always carry my keys. Walking on the outside ledge of our building once was enough for me!