Extreme Roman Street Crossing Behavior.

You're probably wondering why this post is titled "Extreme Roman Street Crossing Behavior"... Well you see, ever since the second day here, Dr. Anderson likes to yell out something similar to this phrase when we're about to cross the street. The Italians drive like crazy people and don't slow down for anything, unless it's like a huge group of people clumped up tightly and crossing the street in a timely fashion. So we don't get separated or ran over, he'll yell this out and of course, it makes us all laugh and then actually pay attention to what we're doing/where we're going. I've been meaning to title a post this for awhile now, so I decided today would be a good day as any. 
Anyways, today we saw some more of Rome as a Republic.

This is a seating portion of the Circus Maximus. Believe it or not, this horse/chariot racing arena held more people than the Colosseum did -- 110,000-150,000 people as compared to 50,000-55,000 people. Crazy, I know. Also, this Circus held all of the martyrdoms that took place, with many historical documents backing this up. And you would think the Colosseum held them too, but it didn't. There is not a single document that records a martyrdom in the Flavian Amphitheater (the Colosseum).

This is just a picture looking down the spina of the arena, which is just a dividing barrier between the turning posts.

The Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin floor. This pattern is called cosmatesque -- I think I may have mentioned it before. But the Cosmati family were the main practitioners of this style and further enhanced an older version from classical antiquity by adding spoliated pieces of colored glass. 

La Bocca della Verità, or the Mouth of Truth, is in the portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin. It is said that if you tell a lie while your hand is in its mouth, it would be bitten off.

Originally thought as the Round Temple of Vesta, this is actually the Temple of Hercules Victor in the Forum Boarium. It has 20 columns encircling a small temple -- 11 of which are fine, imported Greek marble, and the remaining 9 being that of Italian marble. Some speculate that this is the result of serious damage and instead of importing more Greek marble, the Romans used a similar, cheaper marble.

The facing of the Temple of Fortuna Virilis, or manly fortune, just finished reconstruction and refurbishing months ago. It was built in the late 2nd century BC in the Ionic order and overlooked the Port Tiberinus, where the god Portunas overlooked things coming in from Ostia.

The Tiber Island, since antiquity, has been associated with healing.

Basilica of Saint Bartholomew on the Island. Since the Tiber Island is associated with healing and medicine, they constructed a church and dedicated it to Saint Bartholomew, who is also associated with medicine and hospitals. Oh and there is a hospital on the island too. I'm tellin' ya, these Romans truly believed in their gods.. even to this day the idea of coming to the island to get better still exists.

Just getting a few more floor designs for my future house. :) But this is the floor in San Crisogono, a church in the Trastevere region in Rome, dedicated to the martyr Saint Chrysogonus. 

The beautiful ceiling depicting the Virgin Mary's assumption into Heaven.

I don't know if you can tell or not, but I'm semi-obsessed with the cosmatesque style of flooring. #futurehouseideas

The apse of San Crisogono. 

After today's little excursion, a few of us girls had planned to drop off our laundry at the Laundromat and then go shopping; however, we got back to the hotel and all passed out. I'm still not sure why this tends to happen almost every day! But before we all took our naps, we tried to go over some notes and compile them all into one document -- I think we did this for about ten or fifteen minutes, then gave up. My nap was awesome, my laundry got done, and my belly is full from dinner -- a successful day in my book.

Tomorrow we are going to the beach after class, and I'm soooo excited to get my Mediterranean tan on. :) And then on Friday, Pompeii bound! Eeekkk!! :D