Rocks on rocks on rocks

Well...I wish I could say that I am really interested in rocks from Roman ruins and that our Italica excursion was exhilarating for me, but instead I'll tell the truth: we saw more rocks than I've ever needed to see. The story behind the rocks is actually interesting though, so I'll share that part!

Maggie and I in the part of the amphitheater where the
gladiators enter

(Disclaimer: if you aren't interested in random history about the Roman empire then skip over this part). Italica was an important city during the Roman empire, and is located about 20 minutes from Sevilla. The city was once full of houses and an amphitheater where gladiators fought, and Roman baths, etc. Now it is literally a pile of rocks, but the amphitheater is still fairly in tact. Why did it go from being one of the most important cities in the world to being a pile of rocks for Americans to tour? Well apparently, when the Arabs conquered Spain from the Romans, they decided that they wanted to build some really big, beautiful structures (like the cathedral in Sevilla, and the palaces that we visited, etc.) To do so they needed rocks, and lots of them. Where better to find rocks than a town built completely out of them. So they destroyed most of the houses and buildings in Italica to use the rock for their own buildings.

Some columns...much more interesting than
my rock pictures, I promise.

An original tile floor

Although this excursion was the most boring so far, we still made it fun! The amphitheater looked like the one out of Gladiator, and the baths were HUGE. They also had gigantic walk in closets, which we all found pretty funny. How many togas can one man have, right?

Maggie and I have seriously been craving pizza, so after the excursion we went to a pizza place by the cathedral. We must not have been the only ones wanting pizza, because pretty much half of our program came along too. The place is owned by a guy from New York City and he told us about how he met his Spanish wife and moved back here. The pizza was really good, so I'm sure we'll be regulars.

The ampitheater. The part above the doors are
kind of like bleachers. 

This morning we woke up early because we had seen this website on line that advertised an animal market in Sevilla on Sundays. There were a few different websites with information and they said that it used to be in one part of the city, but got moved to another. There weren't any real addresses, but we decided we would try to find it because there were some really cute puppies in the pictures (and most people know I'm a sucker for puppies). We went outside to get our bikes, and the weather was perfect. Sunny with a breeze, but cool enough to wear a long sleeved shirt and jeans. We set off to the first address they gave to find a dead end, and continued riding all the way across town to find another dead end. Even though we didn't find the puppies, the part of town we ended up in was beautiful and it was nice to ride our bikes by the river in the breeze.


I'm sure we'll set out to find the puppies again next Sunday, because we were both pretty excited at the prospect of playing with them. Even without puppies this day can not be ruined, because Sunday means paella, and paella can brighten anyone's day.