Political Instability

While we were on our flight back from Prague, there was a (supposedly) peaceful demonstration near the Colosseum here in Rome. It was one of the Occupy demonstrations, which have been happening all over the world, including the United States. It turned very violent, ending with police tear gassing some of the protestors and a car catching fire. I've never seen that kind of violence in the United States, and its kinda scary that it was so close to where we've living. I've noticed that the economy and government here are really unstable, and I keep seeing signs for various protests and seminars for various political parties. The violent demonstration on Saturday is probably just the beginning. I've also been hearing rumors about the euro being unstable, and the possibility of it completely collapsing (or of Italy and Greece being kicked out of the EU) because all of the economies of Europe are so inconsistent. Eesh. You don't realize how other countries function until living there. I don't really believe that America is as stable as it seems either, but I'm positive that we're better off there than here. The value of the euro has been dropping steadily since we've been here. Its gone from about a $1.50 to a $1.30. As much as I'm enjoying not losing tons of money in money conversions, I don't think that's really supposed to happen in such a short amount of time.
Find out more information and photos here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/15/501364/main20120893.shtml?tag=cbsContent%3BcbsCarousel
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/16/501364/main20121114.shtml?tag=mncol;lst;2

To anyone concerned, we're all fine. We're at least a twenty minute walk away from the Colosseum and most major landmarks where they would protest. Most of us weren't even in Italy when the protests on Saturday happened.

Also, blog post about Prague is below. I just split into two blog posts because it was getting ridiculously long. Yes, I know I talk too much. Enjoy.

Colosseum by Twilight

Though we've been kept busy with the Piranesi Prix de Rome competition, Rachel and I still found time to take a nighttime walk through Rome. Our destination was the Colosseum, but we ran into Capitoline Hill and the Arch of Constantine along the way.

Capitoline Hill

All three places look beautiful at night. Its amazing to think that we walked where so many famous people in history once walked. A lot of Roman history happened all of these sites. It amazes me that people who have lived in Rome their entire lives actually become used to seeing stuff like this everyday. Rachel and I took this weird back way to the Colosseum (not to mention kinda shady) and all of a sudden we were standing on Capitoline Hill. That just doesn't happen in the United States. The Italian participants in my group for the Piranesi competition were actually asking our opinion about this because they feel that they don't know how the rest of the world views ruins, as they are so used to them themselves. All of Italy (and probably a lot of Europe too) is like that. Its just so different than what we're used to. The United States have only been a united country for a couple hundred years, whereas Europe has been organized for much much longer than that. It doesn't seem like it makes a difference, but it definitely does.

Colosseum

Our next stop was the Colosseum. I'd really like to see it during the day so I can do the tour. That's on my very long list of things to do while I'm here. It looks amazing at night. I love how they illuminate all of their ruins for tourists to see. I wish I could have seen it when it was in its prime way back in the day, but its held up pretty well. I think both the Colosseum and the Pantheon are especially impressive. They're both thousands of years old, but they're still basically intact. Villa Adriana and the Baths of Caracalla are impressive too, but its much harder to imagine what they actually looked like when they were built. They both look like they were magnificent too, so it's a shame that they weren't able to stay as intact. The Arch of Constantine is right by the Colosseum as well. I didn't even realize it was there at first... it seems like its just sitting there off to the side. It was still impressive to see, though.

Walking through the streets of Rome at night is peaceful, but at the same time, there's some strange people out. You have people walking their dogs, tourists, and then some generally shady seeming people. I guess that's the life of a city, though. I do appreciate how many dogs I've seen since being here though. Villa Adriana has random dogs just running around the villa. I think they must be strays, but the staff there must feed them. They're actually very cute dogs. I also saw someone walking a white german shepherd that reminded me of Bolt.

That's all for now. I think we're seeing the Musei Capitolini sometime soon after this competition has ended. I'll be sure to keep this blog updated.

Thanks to everyone who takes time to read this. Ciao for now.