The Roman ruins of Italica, bits of Sevilla

I'm ashamed to admit I almost opted out of the city visit to Italica yesterday. I wasn't feeling too well when I woke up at 6:30 for a run, and afterwards I seriously considered staying home and preparing for midterms (which are next week. Mid-terms. It can't possibly be). Luckily for me and for you I managed to suck it up and walk the 3-4 miles over to the bus station to meet up with group, and off we went. I left so early that I felt inclined to take a few photos of notable buildings and details in Sevilla so you can gain a little more perspective on what I see and experience every day. Comments will be under the pictures.

 These are all of the Plaza de Espana, which is a massive semi-circular structure that sits on the northeast corner of the Parque Maria Luisa. I must admit I'm guilty of just almost taking it for granted anymore because I run in and around and through the park all the time. When I take a moment or two to take in the Plaza I'm always blown away. The picture at the top of the blog is also of the Plaza, one I found on the internet before coming here. The craziest part about it all isn't the ornamentation, or the soaring belltowers, or the pattern in the central plaza made out of hundreds of thousands of black and white stones taken from the Guadalquivir river; the nuttiest thing is this structure houses normal government offices, like offices of the department of parks and recreation and mundane crap like that. Can you imagine going to work for the local department of miscellany in a building hundreds of years old?

This is a little tower that overlooks the river. There are several of these up and down the river.

 The yellow building is such a neat little place. It's a gatehouse and restaurant where they make a mean sandwich. Also, those cool looking rings that decorate the bride supports? You can definitely use them to crawl up into the underbelly and cross over. You think Spaniards look at me funny walking in the streets.

 This is the bridge we cross to get to calle Betis, which is where we spent many a night when this experience started. 1 Euro shots seemed so appealing once upon a time but our group got collectively sick of those bars very fast. It's all international students and creepy Spaniards trying to sell you some drugs or get with foreign chicks.

Little history first and then I'll unload the other photo bomb.

Italica was once the city of retreat for Roman patricians and politicians alike. Like many other cities of note it boasted a colesium, in this case the third largest of the Roman world. Capacity crowds during it's spring festival exceeded 25,000. During these games an average of 2000 condemned prisoners and professional gladiators died every day. As you can see in the pictures only parts of the second tier of seats remain. There were originally three tiers rising around the arena. Though the stadium was undeniably the most prominent feature, the villas owned and lived in by the patricians are very much worth contemplating. A single villa, which could easily house three generations of a family as well as their hired or, more likely, slave laborers. These homes were hundreds of yards long, complete with running water, huge central courtyards, central heating and many other "modern" amenities which the Romans understood and used intricately in their construction. Italica was surrounded by a massive wall, one of the original gated communities if you will. It's ruins are approximately 9 Km north of Sevilla and today they are being ever so slowly excavated and refurbished.

 Here we have the rules and regulations for gladiatorial conduct, inscribed on this piece of metal circa 200 B.C. In typical Spanish fashion, this ancient and priceless artifact is simply hanging on the wall in one of the small chambers under the crowd seating. You can walk right up and touch it (I did. Goosebumps) There is no security to speak off. One could conceivably rip it off the wall and walk out of the park with it if one were so inclined and built like the Hulk.

 This is a replica of the original statute of the Roman emperor Trajan. Unfortunately, up until the 50's Italic was like a scrapyard for Sevilla's elite to come and plunder whatever they felt like. It sounds too stupid to be true but all of the statues and much of the original marble, along with many of the mosaics within the villas, were taken and put in mansions around the city. Much of them have since been collected and placed in a museum here in Sevilla.

 Judy took us to a restaurant after our visit where the food was very very good. For 15 Euros it was a decent lunch. She claimed that the steak you see below is the best she has ever had anywhere in Spain. It was good, don't get me wrong, and the sauce you can see in the picture above was delicious, a combination of olive oil, garlic, a little pimiento or whatever the Spanish equivalent is, and cilantro I think. Unfortunately, like many of you, I have experienced true American beef, especially of the James' Ranches quality out of Durango CO and thus anything prepared in a country where they prefer to kill the animal while it is young so the meat is more tender......well it's just not comparable.

After having flan prepared in a small Cuban diner in Nick's grandma's neighborhood in Miami this stuff was just laughable. Curses.

This is a fish eyeball. In most restaurants in Spain if you ask for the fish you get the fish. The whole fish. So Sam and I sampled the eyeballs. Not recommended.