"These are...the Baths of Caracalla."

Today was the first day of my last weekend in Rome. SO, I had to explore more.

Brukab and I left our apartment around 10:45 AM and headed for the Mamertine Prison at the foot of Capitoline Hill, where supposedly the Apostles Paul and Peter had been imprisoned. The clouds this morning threatened to unleash rain at any minute, but the breeze felt so great after weeks of 90 plus degree weather. So we hopped on the bus with our t-shirts and cargo shorts, ready to check out a tiny prison near the Roman Forum (how'd we miss it the first time?).

Then, we got sidetracked.

Our bus took us to the foot of the massive, unbelievably white Vittorio Emmanuele Memorial, the imposing structure built in commeration of Italy's first king after unification in 1861 (the locals call it the "wedding cake," among others name--they're not huge fans of it because the new--relatively speaking--structure detracts from the historic ancient sites in the area, including the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Trajan's Column and Market, and more). We pass it about every other day, but we hadn't climbed it yet. So we decided today would be the day.

That's when I took the first of a few weird panorama pictures from today. Take a look at the picture above again. Can you spot anything unusual?

The monument is massive though and is completely free to visit, aside from the ridiculous panorama elevator that charges you something around 7 Euros to go up for a few minutes. Almost as bad as the 15 Euros (reduced student price) for 15 minutes on a hot air balloon in the middle of Berlin.

The weather changed very quickly during our 20 minutes at the monument. By the time we got to the equestrian statue at the top, the dark clouds had moved off to the south.

I tried taking pictures of myself with the equestrian statue of Vittorio Emmanuele in the background with the self-timer on my camera, but that failed miserably until Brukab saved the day.

The equestrian statue is one of the largest of its kind. It's a couple stories tall and looks smaller than it actually is. When it was only half-way constructed, one of the kings came to visit and check on the progress of the construction. They laid a table in the belly of the horse statue and had dinner for a handful of people.

This equestrian statue makes the one of Marcus Aurelius in the Campidoglio look like he's riding a pony.

After hiking up all the stairs of the Vittorio Emmanuele Memorial and down the steps of the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, we walked back up Capitoline Hill to get to the Mamertine Prison. Entrance was free, but donation is requested, so we dropped a few coins in the offering box.

The prison itself was tiny, dark, and humid. Imagine dozens of prisoners all piled on top of each other in this small crawl space with fat rats scurrying around the corners and water dripping from the stone ceiling.

Against the wall, there is a thin column with a circular railing around it. This is supposedly where Paul and Peter had been chained. Hmm...

The donut-shaped basin on the floor is a pool of holy water as symbolic iconography of Peter baptizing his Roman captors inside the jail cell.

The upside-down cross on the altarpiece is an allusion to Peter's execution, when he was crucified upside-down per his request.

After a short visit at the Mamertine Prison, we took a bus toward the old Circus Maximus grounds, where we would walk to the baths of Caracalla. The Circus Maximus was the massive racetrack where ancient chariot races would've taken place. Think Ben-Hur, except in Rome (although the chariot-racing scene for the movie was actually filmed in Rome).

It doesn't exist anymore today as it's been buried many times over; however, the grassy field where it would have been is today used for different concerts and events, including the first ever Nike 10K Run two weekends ago.

There's not much else to do at the Circus Maximus site other than snapping a picture, so we walked down the street toward the Baths of Caracalla. The Romans liked public baths, and the emperors liked building them. Caracalla was one of those, even though he was a horrible emperor.

You can see the massive structures from the outside, and you're not quite sure what you'll find on the inside. Neither Brukab nor I really wanted to pay 6 Euros to find out, so I grabbed one of the guide books in the bookstore window. A couple flips later, the AP Art History nut in me convinced me to go check out the inside at least. After all, I'd made it all the way here, and when else would I get to come see the Baths?

Brukab decided to listen to his mp3 player (what a great friend) while I went in. So I grabbed his camera too and strode through the grounds, taking pictures with two cameras. Must've looked like an odd spectacle to the other visitors.

The entire complex is extremely impressive in terms of size and scale. As Brukab noted before I went in, I was like a kid in a candy shop. I spent about 30 minutes running around, taking pictures, panoramas, and videos of everything in sight. These Baths were the 2nd largest public bath complex in Rome, so it's no surprise that there is a ton of history here. Even without a guidebook, it's impressive just to stroll through the complex.

After the Baths, we headed southwest for the Catacombs of St. Callixtus, the largest and most historic of the 60 Christian catacombs in Rome. Our bus took us along the ancient Appian Way, another historic sight that I wanted to see. We ended up getting off a stop too early and walking a huge circle to get to the Catacombs.

Once there, we ran into some other UW students who are participating in the law program, so we toured the catacombs together. Too bad we couldn't take pictures otherwise I'd have uploaded some. These particular catacombs housed the tombs of 9 Popes from the early centuries of the church, so it was a sacred place for the early Christians.

Overall, there were 500,000 people buried in these catacombs. 40% of them were young children! We learned from our tour guide that the early Christians dug down as needed, so the oldest tombs are nearer to the surface, but the entire complex spans 20 meters below ground.

They stopped burying people in the catacombs in the 4th century. Why? (I was so excited that I figured this one out...) Because after Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 A.D., the Christians began burying their dead above ground.

A major myth that our tour guide debunked:

• The Catacombs were not a secret Christian hiding place during Roman persecution--the underground space was too moist and cold for human living conditions. Plus, they weren't actually secret; the Romans knew about them but left them alone because Roman law prohibited any disturbance of burial grounds outside the city walls, regardless of religion.
  

Well, after our 45 minute tour of the Catacombs, we headed for our last stop of the day (with a brief stop to see an Egyptian pyramid from the Mark Antony and Cleopatra days)--the church of St. Paul-Outside-the-Walls.

I can't remember for sure if I had studied this church in AP Art History before, but it was impressive nonetheless. It was the largest church in Rome until St. Peter's was built.

In the altar area is the supposed burial place of the Apostle Paul. There are signs that point to the Sarcophagus of Paul beneath the glass.

At the front of the church, there was a Catholic service going on, so we had to stay in the back of the church.

We ended up visiting the courtyard outside with its colonnade of white marble columns, palm trees and green bushes, and a tall statue of St. Paul with a sword in the center. My camera's battery had already died though, so unfortunately, I have no pictures. Brukab does though; I'll have to steal them from him.

I'm glad I was able to see everything I wanted to see today. It was a long day, but I can finally check off a few more items on my list. Tomorrow, I'm heading to Pompeii with Manmeet, so that should be fun. Sometime next week, I will have to go to the Etruscan Museum, so I can see the Man and Woman Sarcophagus, another AP Art History piece.

I also need to get a bunch of work done for our research project presentation on Wednesday. We have very little information so far, and we're still waiting to hear back from all our contacts. Hopefully, we'll make some progress on that early next week. Time for bed!

P.S. If you haven't figured out what's unusual about my panoramic picture of the Vittorio Emmanuele Memorial, look out for magic buses. =]