Day 7 -- Sam's POV

Compared to the other days, today wasn't as busy! We were given some free time to explore Rome before our Florence journey. 

We started the morning by visiting Tempio Maggiore, housed in the middle of Rome's Jewish Ghetto and one of the oldest Jewish communities in Europe. It was gorgeous on the inside. I couldn't believe what we were seeing and how big it was on the inside. There were guards on the outside, and I was curious why that was. It turns out they need the extra protection because of a terrorist attack that happened in 1982. Our tour guide informed us that security has been required out front of the building since then. 

We found out only about 30,000 people believe in the Jewish faith in all of Italy, and half of them are in Rome alone. Once we concluded our visit, we went to the Theatre of Marcellus and walked through its ruins. It had a very similar structure to the Colosseum, but it was clear it had been added to since it was first created. It was Mussolini who funded the project, and did so to highlight the strength and profound history of Italy. The juxtaposition of this building was visually stunning -- one side reflected ancient Rome, while the other reflected the modern era of Rome. 

At this point, we were all hungry and stopped for lunch at Roscioli. They had some of the best salami, mozzarella, and cacio e pepe I had ever had. It was so delicious! 

Afterward, I went to visit the cemetery for those who weren't of the Catholic faith. The first area we walked through had John Keats' grave, the famed English poet. However, I didn't know it was his at first because it was only marked with the phrase, "Here lies a young poet". It was the grave next to his that identified his rest spot. It was for his friend, Joseph Severn, who was identified as a painter and close friend of John Keats. The more I explored, the more languages and religious beliefs I witnessed. Greek, Arabic, French, Italian, and English, it was remarkable. 

The other grave I saw that I want to highlight is the pyramid grave stone -- Pyramid of Cestius. It was huge and I was not expecting a gravestone this size to be in the cemetery! And the more I wandered, the more emotional I became. I saw graves of people who died in the 1800s. The oldest burial happened in 1716. Each gravestone I passed was a reminder of human mortality and how what we do with the limited time on Earth will be determined by how people remember us. It made me start to have an existential crisis when I began hyper-fixating on this fact, specifically on the words used to define the life of the people buried here. It made me ask myself, "What will my words be?" Daughter, friend, student? This thought progression was cut short, however, because of all the cats that were roaming the cemetery. They were sitting atop the graves and were acting so peacefully!

We ended the night with pizza and it was so delicious! I ate a tomato, mozzarella, and sausage pizza, and it was truly divine. Tomorrow begins our adventures for Italy--yay!