Wednesday June 12
The day starts with a a tour of the Colosseum. We get picked up from the hotel along with another 4 people from other hotels. The ride reinforces my belief that Romans are some amalgam of frustrated race car drivers, crazy and suicidal.
The Colosseum was constructed between 70-80 AD and at its peak was estimated to hold 80,000 spectators.
The mental images from the history we have been taught is basically one of of lions tearing Christians into slabs of Barbecue Steaks, BenHur racing chariots with nasty spikes on his axles, gladiators fighting to the death and Russel Crowe standing supreme.
Rarely do we think that its capacity exceeded many of our current stadia, and that we can no longer give a thumbs down to permanently get rid of the likes of Garry Ablett, Richie McCaw or any/all Manly players. Our guide Simona corrected this, saying thumbs down meant ‘let them live’ while thumbs horizontal meant ‘slit their throats’
Unfortunately they don’t restrict numbers in any way, so queues are long and everything is crowded. One is also constantly harassed to buy water at €1 a bottle, but there is no guarantee that they are not just old bottles filled from a tap.
Hadrian’s Arch
Each of the original gates/arches had a number carved in above it, to make it easy to find the correct entrance for your seat.
There is still an ongoing archeological dig in middle of the arena.
In its original form, the arena was a wooden platform atop the stone supports, which in turn was covered in sand. (Gruesomely the sand was there to absorb the blood.) In fact the word arena is derived from the ancient word for sand. The whole structure also had a fabric and rope roof, which could be deployed on hot days, or in rainy weather.
One of the artifacts uncovered was the body of a horse
Graffiti is not a new phenomenon, spectators carved it into walls, and some still survives today.
Some of the original marble seats have been restored.
Hot though it was in the Colosseum itself, worse was to come.
As we made our way to the Palatine Hill and the Forum, we had over half an hour standing in the boiling sun with no shade anywhere, and only the occasional whisper of a breeze. All to go through what I am sure was a token x-ray screening of our bags.
