The Coloseum Experience

The first full day that we were in Rome Lizzie, Mary Ashley, and I went over to the Coloseum in the early afternoon. We got off the metro looked up and instantly knew we got off at the right stop. The coloseum stretched for what seemed like a mile because of the height and circumference of the large structure. This was the first place in Italy that I have been where what I imagined and saw in a textbook is truly what exactly matched what was right in front of me. We easily found our way inside and wandered around taking pictures, touching the structure, and trying to guess what the Coloseum looked like back when it was originally built. What was the most impactful and biggest lesson of this experience was to do your research and plan the time

However, we did not know much more than that. Yes, we could of walked around and looked at the signs and got out are cellphones, but with the blazing heat and herds of people we wandered into the shaded areas and walked quickly passed signs to avoid being pushed by others. We thought we learned from our mistakes when we went to Florence on our first travel break with little plans of what we wanted to do other than seeing the David and finding our way to the leather market. We left feeling exhausted. We had seen Florence but had suspicion that we had missed something or did not do a good enough job catching the “highlights”. Don’t get me wrong, the Coloseum is something that I will never forget, but had we come in with a better plan we could of conquered it better and felt more informed about the purpose of our visit. This was a great learning experience about making sure I have done great research before going to a notable landmark and a mistake I wont make

I was fortunate enough to be able to go with Lizzie’s family and their tour guide whom that had met and spent numerous days with over the course of their stay. I learned very quickly that the Vatican is one of the places that I would recommend to anyone that is at all interested in visiting, that you need a tour guide. Our tour guide pointed out pieces of artwork and sculptures that I would not have known the historical background on or significance and truly would have being myself a disservice. The greatest moment of being at the Vatican were the questions that I found Lizzie, Mary Ashley, and myself asking. We were no longer walking by old pieces of artworks and saying, “wow!” We were taking a closer look, examining the strokes, looking to see when it was originally done, and who the artist that painted it was. We were more interested in the reasoning behind Michelangelo’s work and the relationship that he had with the Vatican. We did not develop this skill set over night. It took multiple trips to different museums and Basilicas to look into a room and pick out what we thought was more important and look there. Before I came on study abroad I would of gone to the Vatican and being frustrated by the amount of people, lack of air conditioning, and the pain my feet felt walking around for over four hours, but on week four those things all shift to the