Tabor College European Seminar Journal

ANCIENT ROME

I had another nice Roman breakfast from the hotel and then sat with the group as Doc talked to us about our agenda for our last few days in Rome.  We again went to the metro and rode the subway to our destination: the Colosseum.  As we emerged from the subterranean tunnel, the gigantic stadium appeared. It looked old, large, and epic.  Doc bought us group tickets and we all began wandering through the ancient arena.  The Colosseum was the site of gladiator battles and even had the capability to be covered in water for naval skirmishes.  I could almost hear the raucous chants of 50,000 Roman spectators as I stepped out from a dark arch on the second level to look out over the ruinous field.

Doc and Andy survey the ruins around the Colosseum

We moved on from the Colosseum to the Palatine ruins.  These remains comprised the emperor’s palace grounds and included the Circle Maximus (the chariot racetrack).  It was fun walking down the ancient Roman roads amidst the old brick structures, the arches staring down at us as we walked past buildings and aqueducts.

Me taking a look at antiquity in the Roman Forum

We went to the Roman Forum after that, the remains of which were the places that the Roman people did business in ancient times.  The former economic hub and center for justice contained many columns and pillars that reached up into the sky among the surrounding stones.  Our time among these ancient Roman sites was marred somewhat by the rain that seemed to fall almost constantly, but even with the cloudy skies the sites were exhilarating to see.

Jenae and the Arch of Constantine

PAUL’S ROMAN PRISON

Doc had to ask a passerby how to get to our next location (Paul’s prison), and I think the guy thought that Doc was asking if he himself had ever been in prison before.  It made the situation funny, but awkward.  We eventually found the location of the Apostle Paul’s Roman imprisonment mentioned in the Bible.

We descended the steps to the cave where the great hero of the Christian faith had been forced to wait for his trial before Caesar.  It was strange thinking about walking in the same place that Paul walked as he contemplated what to say before his imperial accusers and how best to encourage various churches through epistles.  Walking into that cave enlivened in my mind the situation of Paul and how he most likely spent his last earthly days.  It was a surreal experience.

THE CATACOMBS OF SAN SEBASTIANO

We took the metro to McDonald’s in the Termini (train station) and ate a bit of lunch, fighting through crowds to order our cheeseburgers.  We met back up with the big group after a while and took the Metro to a bus station where we were had to stand in the rain for 30 minutes.  I grew tired of using my malfunctioning umbrella, but I was thankful for a way to deter all the water that seemed to come from an endless reservoir in the sky.

After the cramped bus ride, we arrived at our stop and walked toward what we thought was the entrance to the catacombs.  Instead, it ended up being the wrong way.  Cars drove through puddles near the sidewalk several times on our errant journey, splashing several of the students and providing a nice dose of excitement in the middle of the long stroll to the wrong destination.

We eventually arrived at the right spot, the Catacombs of San Sebastiano (Catacombs of Saint Sebastien).  We took a guided tour of the catacombs beneath Rome for about 30 minutes, the leader picking his way through the vast array of tunnels formerly used as a final resting place for the the lifeless bodies of Christians and Jews.  As we walked through the underground tunnels, I kept a sharp eye out for skeletons but failed to see any.  We came out of the tunnels in the burial site of and church dedicated to Saint Sebastien.

The catacombs were quite impressive to see.  If only they had let us wander off by ourselves, I could have had a lot of fun down there.  After the catacombs, we squeezed back onto a bus at the bus stop until it was jam-packed and every one of us had made it on.  People at later bus stops looked at us with incredulity when they were forced to stand in the doorways of the bus just to get a spot.  It was rather humorous knowing that we would add to the wonderful reputation that American tourists must have already developed in Italy.

HARD ROCK CAFE IN ROME

Zac, Andrew, Jenae, Stephanie, Katie, and I went back to the hotel and freshened up a bit before taking the Metro to the Hard Rock Café in Rome.  I again had a bacon cheeseburger and a free-refills pop.  I really enjoyed eating there.  We sat and reminisced about the trip for a long time before heading back home on the Metro.  We all realized that the trip was winding down and we had experienced far too much to digest in one evening, but it was fun recalling our most fond memories nonetheless.

On the way back, we saw a creepy guy that was acting really sporadically and seemed to be staring at the girls.  It also seemed like he was following us for a while, so Zac and I became a little bit paranoid watching him.  We eventually lost him after he went another direction (but that didn’t stop us from watching our backs the whole way home).  We arrived back at the hotel, used the Internet, and then went to bed to recover from the day’s activities.