March 16th

March 16^th

Today I saw the colusseum , Saint peters square and Basilica. The coliseum was fascinating, and with that much history also come fallacies. According to common belief the colosseum was used for chariot races this however is incorrect chariot races were held at Circus Maximus . Another fallacy was that 1 gladiator would be against five or some other unfair advantage, again this is not true, gladiator fights were always one on one or one against a wild animal. A wooden floor used to be stationed over the stone cells that held animals and the gladiators. The wooden floor would be where they fought, as you can imagine the wooden floor became slick with blood and very difficult to walk on, so to help absorb the gore to help add tread, slaves would sprinkle “reina” or sand over the fighting surface. The center or the stage became known as “a-reina” hence the title arena for a circular stadium. The colusseum was built after Nero’s death and only took a total of 18 months to complete.

Today also happened to be Palm Sunday and we were in the Vatican City, so while we were visiting St. Peter’s Square I got the chance to in person watch the Pope give mass. Although I am not Catholic this won’t be something that will likely happen to me again, so I treasure it. One thing I noticed that was saddening was the fact that the Pope had the NEED to sit behind a wall of bullet proof because he feared for his life. What are we coming to?!? The fact that someone… anyone finds the need to sit behind a wall of bullet proof glass because they fear for their life is sickening. That is a simply revolting realization.