Tuesday, April 26, 2016 – after our long day yesterday, we had a lazy morning and a late start today. It was rainy so that may have been part of the reason we were not too anxious to venture out of our luxury hotel, but after all we were in Rome so we needed to get out and get going with our day.

We took a cab to the Colosseum and immediately upon arrival we all bought cheap ($5.00) umbrellas that were probably worth $1.00, but they kept us dry when it rained so they were priceless to us and we had no complaints. We waited out the worst of the rain in the subway shelter (us along with a few hundred other tourists.) Then when the rain let up, Linda and I stood in one line to purchase tickets while Mom and Kathy stood in a different line to get into the Colosseum. It worked out really well, because originally we thought we would be in line for over an hour and it turned out to only be about 10 or 15 minutes. (Maybe the weather had something to do with that.)

Isn’t this just a cool structure?

Somewhere around 70 A.D, Vespasian (a respected Roman ruler) returned the land near the center of the city to the Roman people, and proclaimed that a new amphitheater would be built for the public to enjoy gladiatorial combats and other forms of entertainment.

Construction took approximately 10 years, which was very quick for the period. Vespasian died in 79 A.D. so his successor, Titus, officially dedicated the Colosseum in 80 A.D. with a festival which included 100 days of games. The Colosseum, 620 feet by 513 feet diameter and 157 feet high with a 1788-foot perimeter, was the largest amphitheater in the Roman world.

The Colosseum had seating for more than 50,000 spectators to watch gladiator combats, hunts, wild animal fights and even mock naval combats for which the area was flooded with water (this was at a tremendous expense). Most of the warriors who fought were men, however there were some female gladiators. The gladiators were usually slaves, condemned criminals or prisoners of war. This period of history really seems to have been a barbaric time for humans as they were force to fight to the death against each other or worse yet against a wild animal.

In the following photo notice the oval shape in the floor with sort of a maze or stalls. This section was uncovered at some point, but during the glory days of the Gladiator, this maze of rooms and tunnels was where the wild animals as well as some of the prisoners were kept. This underground area included ramps and elevators used to transport the animals and Gladiators.

The amphitheater remained in use for about 4 centuries with the last recorded games being held in the 6^th century. (Maybe because the human race was becoming more human or more civilized.) Earthquakes were the main cause of destruction of the amphitheater.

Now this is team work! Not sure if you can tell, but, Linda is holding the camera / phone (she has the longest arms) and I am reaching over pressing the button. She couldn’t hold her arm out far enough to get all four of us all in the picture and press the button so it truly is teamwork! (Oh yes, Mom and Kathy smiled when they were supposed to, so they did their part too.)

This is an old entrance into the Colosseum – we didn’t come in this way but found it when we toured around afterward.

Where to next? Well believe it or not, sister Kathy wanted to go to a Harley Davidson shop so she could get some t-shirts for a friend of hers. Mom and Linda didn’t care where we went and I was up for anything so we hopped in a cab and went to the nearest Harley Shop. (Sometimes with the drivers we just pulled up the location on our phones and showed him where we wanted to go, which was usually easier than trying to speak Italian.) The shop was small but it did have a selection of shirts, caps, coins, shot glasses and a few pieces of jewelry.

We spent some time and money in that shop and it was sort of fun even for the shop owner I think. I purchased t-shirts and a shot glass for Keith and Heidi and 2 coins for some friends in Texas. Mom purchased hats for my Uncle Bruce and Brother Bill, and as I recall Kathy purchase shirts for her friend and a hat for Bob. I just do not remember what Linda purchased but it may have been a shirt for Chad.

I didn’t take any pictures of the Harley shop but I do have a picture of the coins and pictures of Keith and Heidi in their shirts.

Notice behind Keith and Heidi on the wall, not sure if the new one is there in the photo, but that is their shot glass collection with glasses from all over the world.

We left the Harley shop and decided to walk, trying to find a local’s restaurant. As usual it may have been dumb luck or just coincidence but we found the most amazing little local restaurant hidden away on a back street. The place was empty, I think because we were early for dinner, we were tired and hungry and the service and food the best we had in Italy. I would really love to go there again someday.  (Bonus, someone there speaks English.)

http://www.ristorantevladimiro.com/

Thanks everyone for tagging along on this trip. The next post will be of St. Peter’s Basilica for mass with Pope Francis and a tour of the Vatican museums.