The Roman Colosseum

I had my first full day in Rome today and I really like the city a lot. It's clean, well kept, there are Police around ensuring people don't park on the sidewalks or run over pedestrians though they still don't stop for anyone in crosswalks! It's a much more modern and nice part of Italy in my opinion than I've seen so far and it reminds me a lot of a nice city in the US. This is not to mention the hundreds of museums and ancient buildings to see!

Before I got here, I knew exactly what I wanted to do first, head straight to the Colosseum. I learned so much about it on a tour I took today and it was probably the coolest thing I've seen so far on this trip.

One floor above where the Gladiators entered.

This is me on the second floor. It's one floor above where the gladiators entered and exited if they won. If the gladiator did not make it through the fight...they took him out the far opening to a burial ground.

Another view from the second floor.

The center of this photo is where the emperor would sit. The seats are missing now, but you can see lines on the rocks where his area would be.

Original Stucco Decor

These tiles are the only remaining cosmetic stucco surfaces that show us what the original walls and ceilings looked like.

This was the line to wait in to get in. I was thinking when I was in the line that just being in line was great haha...you wait inside of the ancient Colosseum....can't ask for much better of a place to stand and think.

Hallway

One of the hallways around the seating areas for people to move around between fights, get food, mingle.

Entrance to the Colosseum for the fights that lasted 100 days once per year was free for all guests. It was a gift from the emperor to his people.

A closer look at the basement of the Colosseum. You can tour in the basement, but the tours are full for the next 2 months.

The bricks are the original stairs while the concrete is not.

Examples of games found

They found dice and other pebble type games along with entrance tokens and other items that the people used to get in and see the fight and pass time between fights with friends and neighbors.

The tour guide told us that the bricks you see are the original flooring while the concrete is not.

Another great view from the second floor.

If the gladiator did not make it through the fight...they took him out the far opening from where I'm standing in the photo to a burial ground.

There was a wooden floor in the shape of an oval one floor below where the fights took place. It would have been on top of all of those structures you see in the basement. Those are pully's and elevators to raise animals like bears and lions up to the wooden floor through random trap doors for surprise and "special effects" as our guide told us. There would have been other workers and preparation chambers for workers and gladiators etc. down there as well. Normally you could not see that part of the Colosseum from here, but the floor has since been removed by looters and for recycling.

In the center of the second photo is where the emperor would sit. It's an oval shaped arena, so he'd be sitting on the side with the closest view and the gladiators would enter from his right. There would be matches where he would decide whether the losing gladiators would live or die. There would be some matches where there would be no choice, the emperor would declare before the match that it was to the death. The Colosseum was built around 80AD and was used until around 430AD. After that, it was abandoned. Because of this, people would come in and steal items from the Colosseum or recycle them. They did not see it like we do as an important structure that needs to be preserved, thus we are left with only the skeleton of what the Colosseum used to be.

The tour guide emphasized one key aspect of viewing the Colosseum. Since looters and townspeople took everything of value from the Colosseum, you have to use your imagination and picture what it would have looked like. There would be a wooden floor with trap doors bringing animals and trees up at random locations for show. The emperor would be in his place at the left side of the below photo. All of the slanted portions and many of the other areas would be covered with stone seats and stairs. The Colosseum walls and ceilings would have been covered with decorative white stucco with intricately molded designs like the one ceiling panel left in the photo above. There would be 40,000-70,000 spectators and 1,000 workers all here at once. The elites would be on the first viewing level and the common people would be on the third level. People would be talking and cheering, playing board games in between matches, chanting for gladiators, betting 0n the outcome. They would have their favorite gladiators they would root for and bet on. When the gladiators would fight they would scream and chant for which gladiator to win and when one was subdued, they would call for life or death of the loser. 

I also stopped by a fountain of Poseidon that internet sites say you should visit. Here it is in all its glory:

To me it's no colosseum, but it makes for a nice photo.