During half term 15 Lower Sixth students travelled to the city of Rome for the wealth of cultural, classical and historical knowledge the ancient city has to offer (and the food of course!). Over the five days we delved into numerous museums, roman ruins and beautiful churches, discovering the roman world with the help of Mrs Tate’s endless knowledge.
We started our journey early on Wednesday morning and were in Rome by midday, ready to see what the city had to offer. Like all great trips, our first stop was for ice cream but soon after we were off on our way to the Imperial Forum, quickly being introduced to Emperors’ forums, their mark upon the city. This included Trajan’s column which depicts the Emperor’s great victories over the Dacians. This was followed by the staple of urban roman life: a public bath house. Our final visit that day was the famous Pantheon, once a temple to the roman gods, and now a catholic church, which we soon learnt was commissioned by the famous Roman general and statesman Marcus Agrippa, and houses the tomb of Italian artist Raphael. That night we got our first taste of pizza – and some would eat only pizza for the remainder of the trip!
Exhausted from our early start and long day we were quick to seek our beds however, the next morning we were off promptly once again to visit the home of the Pope and Catholicism, the Vatican City. After a short wait in the Plaza designed by Bernini, we were in St Peter’s Basilica, a beautiful building of renaissance architecture. While in the Vatican we also headed into the Sistine Chapel, admiring Michelangelo’s masterpiece (though the general agreement seemed to be that we preferred the map room on the way there). After our short detour to some more modern architecture, we were back in antiquity enjoying the colourful frescos and mosaics, and marble statues within several museums.
Over the next couple of days we explored the grander sites of Rome. Our first was the Domus Aurea, Nero’s grand palace that took up a square mile and involved baths, beautiful rooms and an artificial lake; and the Circus Maximus, which was the main hippodrome in Rome where chariot racing took place. The next day we toured the Colosseum, originally called the Flavian Amphitheatre, which was built during the reign of Vespasian (though finished by his son Titus) and was home to the famed gladiator fights of Rome, after its opening celebratory games were held for a hundred days afterwards, a testament to its importance and popularity. Then we explored the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill, a meeting place for many which included the Senate House and many temples to the gods; the roman museum up on the Capitoline Hill, where the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus once stood. Our last stop was a later hippodrome built by the Flavian emperor Domitian.
On our last day we visited the Ara Pacis, an altar dedicated to peace by Augustus, which sits next to his mausoleum. Not long after we were leaving Rome for its port of Ostia where we could walk around the Roman town freely, enjoying the chance to explore and visit some of the mosaics we knew from our CLC textbooks. Then we were off to the airport and after a short flight home we arrived back at school just in time for Monday morning.
This trip would not have been possible without the work of our teachers on it who put up with us over the five days and toured us around the sites, creating a fantastic itinerary and teaching us much about what we saw, so thank you to them.
Caspar Evans, L6
