The system within the system

As everyone may know by now through other posts or general knowledge that the Romans build the aqueducts. At the high point of Rome's population the aqueducts were bring in around 150 million gallons per day. So the real question is where is that water go after it got to Rome. Some went into storage tanks, but the rest had to be taken care of. So the Romans built the first under ground sewer system. The system would take the water and deposit it in the river down stream of the city.  Then after, the first public bathrooms were built over the sewer system. Which was better than going in pots and taking to the sewer.

In the shadow of the aquaducts

It was a beautiful summer morning as we made our way out to the old roman aqueducts that brought water into Rome. It was amazing that they had the engineering and construction skills to build these giant structures with precise angles of  slope to control water flow. After all those years since its construction the structure was still standing. I was able to walk around and through the structure and as the day got warmer I was even able to put my head into the water flowing out of an adjacent and more modern aqueduct.

Pisa!

Pisa was supper awesome and very pretty. The walk from the train station to the meaning tower of Pisa was very pretty with all of the old buildings and streets. It was amazing to see the tower in person. It was awesome to see just how much the tower was leaning and then to be able to go inside! It was very difficult to climb the stairs because as you were going up you could feel the angle of the tilt in the stairs. Plus each stair was used so many times that there are now smoothed out dips in each step. This made it really hard to go down the stairs as well. It was really cool to see how as you walked up the stairs the place of the dip changes as well.

Aqueducts and mystery beige animals

During our visit to the aqueducts I was personally impressed by the precision of engineering of the waterways. To have them slope exactly enough to transfer water over such a long distance required a great deal of measurement. I didn't previously know that it was common to have two different duct systems run atop each other. This allowed for a much great total flow rate of water. Having the opportunity to feel the water that would have been transferred, it was surprising how cold the water could stay over such a long distance. 

Museum of the History of Medicine Basement

At the Museum of the History of Medicine, the exhibits stretched back to ancient medical practices until present day. Fortunately enough for our group we were given a guided tour of the basement exhibits. This includes full size rooms we could enter setup as historical places; an alchemist's laboratory, an apothecary, a physician's examination room etc. these rooms had mostly original artifacts, with a few reproductions scattered among them.

In the alchemists laboratory there were several original and real crocodiles, no more than about six feet in length. This is very fitting as the crocodile was the symbol of alchemy, similar to the snake being a symbol for medicine. Other artifacts included many specially shaped glass bottles, tools for handling the heated materials, and many of the materials used in alchemy reactions. These materials included a narwal's horn, and various animal tusks, as well as other odd materials. All in all this was a very interesting exhibit, and I learned that alchemy eventually fell away from the magical aspects associated with it and would be very important with the development of apothecaries and mixing elixirs and so forth, eventually leading to modern medicines.

Water Distribution, Ancient Roman Style

I had an awesome time visiting the aqueducts yesterday! It was impressive to see the size of the closed channels used to transport water to the city. Even more impressive for me was the understanding of hydraulics and treatment that the Romans had at the time which are still important today (as an Environmental Engineering student, this stuff was exciting). The channels couldn't be built with too steep of a slope otherwise the water would travel too fast and cause erosion. In addition, they used inverted siphons to lift water over ridges or buildings and sedimentation pits to remove large particles from their drinking/bath water. The men also knew that lead pipes could leach the chemical into the water over time which is why they typically aren't used today. We also learned that to compensate for the large amounts of water being brought into the city, a sewage system was designed to carry wastewater out of the city to the Tiber River.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was so cool! I've seen pictures, but it's pretty funny when you get there and it's actually leaning so much. I think it's so cool how they tried to fix it as they finished constructing it. You can see that it gets straighter towards the top. With over 200 stairs to the top it was a long trek, and your body could definitely feel the lean. At the top, there were seven bells. I never knew it was supposed to be a bell tower!

Leaning Tower of Pisa

On July 31, our group went to Pisa and visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Even though I've learned a lot about it, I still couldn't believe that it was actually leaning. When going up in the tower, I never imagined how difficult it would be to walk up the 257 steps, as they're at different angles. The steps also had indentations in them where everyone has walked up and down them over the years. My favorite part was seeing everyone take pictures with the Leaning Tower as if they were holding it up or as if theh were pushing it down.

Leaning tower

Yesterday we all went to go see the leaning tower of Pisa. It started out taking a train over to Florence and the. Another train from Florence to Pisa. Once we arrived we walked towards the tower, passing through a large shopping district and several restaurants. After some lunch, we were split up into two groups to go up into the tower. We were t allowed to take our backpacks or even our purses so we stored them in small lockers. Once in the tower we were given a small introduction and a little information about the tower. I noticed that the tower was hollow inside and that as we climbed the stairs, the stairs had smoothed out from so many people walking on them. Some stairs even had dips in them that it sometimes made it difficult to climb back down the stairs. As we climbed the stairs you could feel the tilt from where the tower is leaning over and sinking into the ground. It apparently sinks into the ground 8-10 mm every year, but they fix it every year so that it doesn't sink too much. The view at the top was spectacular as well as the 7 bells that were originally supposed to ring for the church right next to it. However, I don't think that the bells were ever rung. After we climbed down, the second group also went up to experience what we experienced. However, I wonder what the bells would sound like since they have never been rung.

Museum of the History of Medicine

On 29 July we visited the Museum of the History of Medicine, which is run by the Sapienza University of Rome. The museum covered everything from ancient medical theories and practices to modern day technologies and those that will likely come in the future. I thought that the section about Hippocrates was very interesting, since he was the first individual to understand that diseases were caused naturally, and not the result of gods. Hippocrates believed that a combination of environmental factors, diet, and living habits could potentially cause an imbalance in the fluids of the body, leading to disease. Even though it is known today that the biochemistry of the body is more complex, and that genetics play a huge role in our health, Hippocratic medicine was a huge step to the modern-day medicine is seen today. In fact, the oath that medical professionals take is based on the philosophies of Hippocrates, regarding the ethics that define good medical practice. The original version is not usually used, however the general ideas of morality in medicine still apply.

The Great Roman Aqueducts

On Thursday after a long metro ride and a bit of adventuring (aka not being sure where to turn then crawling through a fence), we walked up to the magnificent ancient structures known as the aqueducts. We visited the longest above ground stretch still standing, the Aqua Claudia, named after the ruler Claudius. It was crazy to imagine the 150-200 million gallons of water that would rush through these 11 structures daily to quench the Romans' thirst and bathing activities. What I found most impressive however was the math and engineering behind making sure that the water was at just a slight decline all the way from its source to Rome and the ridging in the aqueduct waterway, to make sure the water would make it there and flowed at the right speed. It was also interesting to learn that rulers built fancy public drinking water fountains to show off these awesome engineering feats as well, but really who can blame them... I would have too.

Aqueducts

Today we went and saw the aqueducts, which were Rome's ancient ways of getting water into the city. Most of it was underground, but we saw the parts of two different aqueducts that ran above ground. The partial ruins of the two we saw were actually 4 of the 11 aqueducts that ran to the city. After the initial construction the Romans built on top of the existing aqueducts to save cost. They most used lead pipes, and coined the term plumbing hence the symbol for lead on the periodic table is pb. They didn't get lead poisoning though because the natural sediments in the water built a protective  coating not allowing lead to get in the water. The oldest one dating I think back to 300bc still had water being piped to it which we and some other people and their dogs enjoyed the ice cold liquid flowing out of it.

Walking tour part 1

During the first part of the walking tour that took place in Florence, we saw the Ponte Veccio, which means "old bridge." The bridge was full of different shops and is where the term "bankruptcy" originated. If the merchants couldn't make the payments, their tables on which they sold their items would physically be broken. Also during WWII, this bridge was the only bridge in Florence that was not destroyed by the nazis.

Walking!

I really enjoyed the walking tour of Florence. It was fasinating to see the Ponte Vecchio bridge and how everything was still in use. The fact that they built shops on the side of the bridge is awesome and very clever. When walking through it felt like I was walking back through time because all the stores were still in use and the siding of each store still looked original. Plus the bridge was able to survive the devastation of World War II. Just amazing and so beautiful!

Galileo museum

Once again out group had a good experience with a knowledgable tour guide. At the Galileo museum we saw two different collections: the Medici and the Lorenese. The Medici collection contains older artifacts whereas the Lorenese collection has newer pieces geared towards educating the public during the time of the enlightenment. The Medici collection including many artifacts for navigation and measurement like telescopes, calipers, globes,and many others. Other parts of the exhibit includes early alchemy and chemistry tools, early static electricity generators, and many of galileo's works were also on display. The Lorenese collection included some models of children in the womb during complicated childbirths(to educate mothers about their anatomy and potential complications of childbirth). These were very interesting and also quite accurate anatomically, unfortunately their accuracy is due to mothers and their children dying during births and subsequent dissection. Still there were many other medical displays in this exhibit.

Trajectories

At the Galileo Museum, it was fascinating to learn about the original uses of different tools available at the time. The telescope was originally advertised for navigation and military purposes before it was pointed towards the heavens. In addition, compasses (the mathematical compass not the directional compass) were used to calculate distances and angles for navigation and trajectories. I enjoyed learning about how it was discovered that artillery followed a parabolic path. Because of this discovery, compasses were used to calculate the distance and angle required to hit the opposing forces.

Walking, walking, walking

On Monday we walked ALL OVER Florence, Italy on this super cool walking tour. We saw the Ponte Veccio, which was crazy beautiful, and learned some history. On the Ponte Veccio there are a bunch of shops. People used to take out loans from wealthy men to have these shops. If they couldn't pay back their loan, the men would go and destroy their table and take the wares as compensation for the lost money. The Ponte Veccio is the only bridge in Florence that wasn't destroyed by the Nazis. We also walked up this very menacing hill to see one of Galileo's properties. It is sometimes referred to as "the house of Galileo", but wasn't actually his home. It was a property he purchased for his son. Even so, Galileo did spend time there, so it is still awesome (and really old).

Homemade Telescopes

Many are aware of Galileo's contributions to the field of astronomy but what really struck me was that Galileo built his own telescopes. I had known for a while that Galileo built his own telescopes but it hit me in the museum both the manufacturing and engineering skills he had to have in order to build these telescopes. The precision of lens shaping and positioning of the lens are truly amazing. Galileo's work really makes me want to design and build my own telescope.

Some sacred grass

On the walking tour in Florence one of the stops was at the Santa Croche. This was the final burial place of Galileo. It was a fascinating building not only because of its size and art work, but because of who has their tombs there. It was a nice feeling to know that Galileo was finally recognized for his work and was given an appropriate burial spot. His daughter Maria Celeste had also been moved so that her casket rested alongside her fathers. Across the church laid Michelangelo's tomb. We concluded this section of the walking tour by trampling over some sacred grass.  

Influence after death

In the first part of the Galileo walking tour, in Florence, we visited places like the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti, Galileo's house at the end of his life, and the Bastica di Santa Core. The bastica was the most interesting place for me. There in this beautiful Basilica rested the tombs of six people (actually seven people resting). Two are Galileo and his daughter. Seeing his tomb refined my understanding of how important Galileo was. As that basilica was not the first resting place of Galileo, but was put there a lifetime after he had died. Galileo was put in a unmarked grave outside of town with his daughter because of his run ins with the church. Thanks to friends of Galileo, his grave location remained known. Not until the church renounced their objections against Galileo many years later  was he placed in this beautiful Basilica. Since Galileo was already buried with his daughter, they decide to rebury him with her in the Basilica.