Well, not the first night but it was our first night out on the town, site seeing and learning. Today was beautiful and I couldn’t have chosen a favorite monument from today. Not only did we get to see the Colosseum, we got to see the Roman Forum, the Arch di Constantine, the “Wedding Cake,” Trajan’s column, the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, and so much more but we were also able to attend a lecture at the University of Rome. We received a wonderful lecture about the impact of American Literature on Italian culture and people from Professor Mariani. I learned that Italy loved American literature because it was modernized and wasn’t regulated by the government. Much of today was a great learning experience, we all learned so much about the Roman Colosseo. While we did learn a lot, I think the coolest part of today’s learning experience was that if the gladiators that fought in the Colosseo were good fighters, they were able to teach the younger gladiators and were paid to do so. When the Colosseo was in its prime, it could hold 70,000 Romans. Although, it held 70,000 people, only 50,000 had seats. The rest had to stand. The people who had to stand were the poor and women. The lower you were in the Colosseo the richer you were. Being on the top floor of the Colosseo made it hard to see and you had to stand up on the third level. The stairs in the Colosseo are very steep and the higher you got in the Colosseo the closer the steps were. This was to save space. I also learned that gelato is way better than ice cream and pigeons like whipped cream. Who knew!