Rome as Oppressive or Exhilarating

My oppinion of Rome is that I think it is both oppressive and exhilarating. I feel like it is definetly exhilarating because everywhere you look there is some part of history that is so significant. Just like when we went into that museum there was so much art and every piece has a history behind it. I also think that it is exhilarating because this is the city that used to be the center of the world and I felt like I could still feel how powerful it is by just walking around it. I don't see how a travelor could come to this city and not get excited everyday when learning about these things.

In the book the Italians it talks about Italy as the teacher of many arts. Throughout my time here so far I can definetly see how Italy is a teacher, and how a lot of that teaching is done in Rome. The Italians book said how Italians have created a variety of crafts and skills and taught it to the foreigners. I think this adds to Rome being exhilarating because even just by admiring the art I felt that I was being taught new crafts and skills. I never imagined someone being able to create such art work before coming to Rome.

I can also though see how Rome could be oppressive because the atmosphere here is very different then what I've seen before. The streets are very crowded and there is the language barrier that a travelor would deal with everyday. The lifestyle people live over here is very different and I think a travelor would need to have an open mind in order to feel comfortable in Rome. Personally I still don't feel completely safe while in the city. We've heard a lot about how stealing goes on everyday and that has impacted the way that I have felt here. If someone were to have a negative experience here I think it would defintely impact the way they look at all of Rome. I think that in that way it could be oppressive for some travelors.

Reflection 1 on Colloseum

When we went to the Colloseum the first thing that impacted me was the size and beauty of it. I think it gave off a really humbling feeling by seeing how people back in that day could build something like that. I also think by hearing how old it really is made me respect that it's still around a lot more.

The part of the tour that impacted me the most was comparing it to our White House. It felt kind of scary to imagine our country falling one day the way that Rome did. The people back then had no idea what would come of their city or that thousands of years later people would be touring through it. I think the tour guide comparing the Colloseum to something in our own country made it a lot easier to realize how important it is also.

I'm also really glad that the Colloseum was the first tour we went on because I feel like it definetly sparked an interest I didn't think I had. I never really enjoyed history classes or anything like that. I think being able to be there and see it in real life made it a lot more interesting. In the Italians it talked about how tourist come and some come to look at the sites. I didn't think coming here I would be one of those people necessarily just because I didn't know a lot of background on the stuff were seeing but after the Colloseum I think I'm definetly more of that type of tourist than I thought.

It was also I think more interesting because i felt like it had a distinct purpose. It wasn't just a painting or something to look at but there were stories behind it. The tour guide talked about how it was used to fighting and how all these "important" people would go to it and watch. She also pointed out the cross were the emperor would sit. I thought it was really cool seeing the similarities we have with the people back then because we still have a lot of fighting for entertainment going on now.