We arrived in Rome about 6pm Friday. We stayed at an Air BnB less than a mile away from the Coliseum! After checking in, we walked up the steep hill and it just came right into view! The inside was closed for the evening, but we wandered around the outside for awhile.

Again, well-armed soldiers patrolling. Not sure if this was a heightened thing because of the recent attacks or just normal procedure for a 2000 year old icon. We returned to our apartment, in a high rise building, and had an amazing pizza at the cafe on the ground floor, sitting at a table on the sidewalk watching people and enjoying the breeze.

You can definitely tell where the assorted attempts at restoration and outright emergency salvation, were attempted. As with many ancient landmarks, as the ages passed, civilizations scavenged the marble and gold and assorted building materials for other projects. The grid of holes you see in the Coliseum walls is the result of where Marble slabs used to hang, in it’s heyday.

Originally, the entire ‘floor’ was covered with wooden planks and sand, to soak up the blood of the millions of beasts that were slaughtered there. This recreation is believed to be an accurate representation of how it looked. And worked, as there were several elevators in the floor that would bring the people and animals up. PBS actually had a documentary on the building of this platform, and also one on the elevator that is there now. (I love PBS!) At the height of it’s popularity, the stadium would be waterproofed, and mock navel battles would be held inside!

Saturday morning, Paul booked us on an afternoon walking tour that covered the Coliseum, The Roman Forum, and Palantine Hill. All are right there together, along with many other ruins. After a delicious lunch across from the Coliseum, we walked forever! We actually ate at the cafe on this placemat! The place has been there for decades!

The tour was well worth the €40 each, as it was three hours, our guide spoke excellent English, and she really explained a lot the details, intricacies, and misconceptions about the Coliseum. It wasn’t just a thumbs-up/thumbs-down, fight to the death place. We walked around for three hours, looking at ruins and imagining what used to stand there. Our guide had an excellent book, with transparent layovers, so we could see how things were situated before crumbling.