Advertisement
Published: June 29th 2006
Edit Blog Post
US Embassy
The US Embassy at via Veneto, Roma. It is conviniently located nearby Hard Rock Cafe - the American sector of Rome. Rome has been a major city for more than 2,000 years. Although it is quite illustrated on what we've seen so far, but going to one location and experience it all helped us to understand how the process works.
San Clemente is the only church in Rome that literally shows how 'modern' Romans (we're talking about the 12th century Romans) built their city on top of the ancient city of Roman Republic (c. 100 BC) or early Christianity. The present San Clemente structure is a 12th century church that is dedicated to the fourth pope of the Catholic popedome. From the outside, the structure is not inviting to be checked out; just a regular church among more than 3,000 churches and chapels in Rome. Walking around the first level of the church, we saw several arches that looked like doorways sprouting from the floor. Up to this point, the church is free of charge; but we had to purchase a ticket to get down to the basement to see more history of the earlier church, and even lower, ancient structure of a Roman temple.
Down at the lower level is a structure that was used for a church back
Details on a saint's robe
They made everything in detail back then! in the 4th century, when Christianity was prohibited by the Romans. An excavation process is still going on, revealing more and more delicate mosaics and artifacts. The most impresive of all is a mosaic of two saints, which was created in such details. This is probably one of my favorite mosaics, apart from San Marco's in Venice. Down below, a set of stone stair brought us to the lowest level of the site, an ancient Roman temple with an artisian well and underground river. It was a weird feeling to realize that you're way down below the modern asphalt street level, but yet next to you is stone road that was the street level 2,000 years ago where chariots drove by with their horses during Jesus' time.
Since we were in Laterano, we managed to check out the San Giovanni in Laterano (c.1646), one of the seven pilgrimmage church in Rome. The scale of this church is unreal; everything needs to be grand in scale. On top of that, they all are made by marbles and tiles. I cannot imagine how expensive it would cost for a modern building to be built like this.
The Hardy Boys' San Clemente
Arches emerged out the ground of San Clemente. birthday party at HRC Rome
For Ryan's and Jason's birthday, we went to our lovely Hard Rock Cafe in via Veneto. There were many reasons that HRC has to offer above other places, but most of all, nothing beats the free refill on pop on a hot Roman summer evening. As greedy as we were, big food ratio is always good, compared to Italian size, which is close to nothing. No wonder Italians are so fit and thin, compared to the Americans counterparts that mostly are unfit and no-so-thin figure. The second reason why HRC is the best: after almost six weeks away from the US, HRC gave a taste of home. American food, American music. Just a little bit taste of home, not too much.
Speaking of which, Mt. Dew has been our greatest fantasy right at the moment. I would give up anything to taste the cold Mt. Dew down my throat. I still couldn't believe it, after all, Italy has Dr. Pepper and Pepsi, but where is the greenish-yellow label? Sprite is the closest taste I could think of to subtitute Mt. Dew, and we have been drinking it like no other. Italy might have
banned Mt. Dew due to the food coloring #5, as I recall, it is considered to be a carcinogenic element that cause testicular cancer (?). Or lowering your sperm count, one of the two.
We had a big group tonight at the table, us three and friends Macy, Arphan, Nick, Dietz, and Stafford. We had a blast sitting in our limited space table, eating and drinking, having a good time and enjoying our company. It maybe because finally we digest the fact that we are in Rome, Italy. Maybe because the sugar content of the pop and beer finally set in our blood system and gives us a kick of ecstacy. Maybe because of the happy thoughts that we will be on the class' field trip to Northern Italy tomorrow.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.428s; Tpl: 0.026s; cc: 26; qc: 129; dbt: 0.15s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb