When morning came around we were all awake and excited to go explore Rome and it's vast history. We were walking for less than 5 minutes when all of the sudden we saw the Colosseum right ahead of us. We could imagine all the poor slaves and animals that had walked right where we were and entered the Colosseum in chains and had never come out.
The Colosseum was huge and could easily rival anything built now a days but you have to put in perspective what it was built for. We all crossed the road and stared up at it. We had done our fair share of research on it in the summer and it was cool to now stand before it. We decided to go inside after we went to the Roman Forum because the lines were really big.
So we headed over to the Roman Forum where the Roman's built markets and meeting places for the Senators and the Roman citizens. We walked around examining the ruins and imagining how it would have looked over 2000 years ago. We read all the signs about what the buildings were for and checked out the designs and carvings everywhere.
Somewhere in there Zaddek even found a wallet that was tucked inside one of the ruins, probably someone who had pick pocketed it and was hiding the evidence. Sage was hungry and it was almost lunch so we left the Roman Forum and handed in the full wallet to the security guy at the exit. We told him where we found it and asked him if he and the police could mail it back to the lady who lost it. The wallet had an ID in it so they could mail it back to her house.
We left the Forum and got some calzones for lunch before going back to the Colosseum. We got our tickets and went inside and climbed up to the top layer of seats. Once inside the energy was deep and dark from all of the bloodshed, power and greed that had happened down there. We walked around the top layer and took in all the history and death. We went down to the second layer and walked the perimeter looking at the maze of walls in the middle. These walls were actually where the trap doors that the slaves and animals would go up in wooden lifts and pulleys. The Colosseum also had a shade system made from sheets of cloth tied to wooden poles that people operated to shade the stadium. The shade that was provided kept the crowd cool and out of the sun but never the prisoners or gladiators. We finished checking out the second layer and headed down to ground level where the important people sat right next to the action. Among the maze of walls were different tunnels and pipe systems dug out of the stone that could flood the battle field back in the day and re-enact sea battles that happened far away and then drain it all right back to normal.
Somewhere in there Zaddek even found a wallet that was tucked inside one of the ruins, probably someone who had pick pocketed it and was hiding the evidence. Sage was hungry and it was almost lunch so we left the Roman Forum and handed in the full wallet to the security guy at the exit. We told him where we found it and asked him if he and the police could mail it back to the lady who lost it. The wallet had an ID in it so they could mail it back to her house.
We left the Forum and got some calzones for lunch before going back to the Colosseum. We got our tickets and went inside and climbed up to the top layer of seats. Once inside the energy was deep and dark from all of the bloodshed, power and greed that had happened down there. We walked around the top layer and took in all the history and death. We went down to the second layer and walked the perimeter looking at the maze of walls in the middle. These walls were actually where the trap doors that the slaves and animals would go up in wooden lifts and pulleys. The Colosseum also had a shade system made from sheets of cloth tied to wooden poles that people operated to shade the stadium. The shade that was provided kept the crowd cool and out of the sun but never the prisoners or gladiators. We finished checking out the second layer and headed down to ground level where the important people sat right next to the action. Among the maze of walls were different tunnels and pipe systems dug out of the stone that could flood the battle field back in the day and re-enact sea battles that happened far away and then drain it all right back to normal.
After we had taken it all in we left the Colosseum and went to Altare della Patria. If you were wondering Altare delle Patria is a grand marble temple honoring Italy's first King and the first world war soldiers. We walked around the entrance and looked at all the statues. In front of the temple was an internal flame that the guards would re-lite every time it got close to going out.
We were all tired and it was getting dark so we decided to go to the apartment for the night. We walked back to the hotel thinking about all that we had just seen and how the ancient stones and places were side by side with modern day buildings. Once we got back we had salad and pasta for dinner and some gelato for desert before settling in for the night.
Total miles walked: 6.8 miles
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