Ward Family Vacations

Italy 2001

Colosseum

Group picture of our tour group in front of the Colosseum and Arch of Titus to the left.  

Jessica and I are on the far right.

The Roman Colosseum sits in the heart of the city of Rome with normal city traffic cruising right by.  The view of walking up from the Forum up to the Colosseum was breathtaking.  The Colosseum in it's hey day could seat 50,000 people.  The way it was built allowed for people to be quickly ushered in and out in less than 15 minutes.  Above every arch is a Roman Numeral and spectators had a ticket corresponding to that section number.  The seating within the Colosseum was done by importance.  The first level of seating was restricted for Roman senators and included the emperor's private box. The section above the podium was for lower Roman aristocrats. The third level was divided itself into three sections. The best of these seats was reserved for wealthy citizens, the upper part for the poor and a third, wooden section was left for lower-class women. 

The movie, the Gladiator came out just before we went to Italy (Bryan's and my favorite part and makes us both cry is when Russell Crowe at the end of the movie walks through the wheat field brushing his hands in the wheat).  Anyway, they had a platform you could walk on and go through the center of the Colosseum.  It was something to look own and see the bars that housed the animals and prisoners that once fought here and see all of the tunnels that were once underneath the floor. 

Notice the humongous video camera hanging around my neck. 

 Funny looking back at it - I can fit the one I have now in my pocket.

 Roman sentries still guard the Colosseum today *S*

I did get some pieces of mortar and small pieces of the Colosseum when I was there.  I do not think you were supposed to take them but what was so bad is I saw a decent piece that had fallen and was outside of the fenced barriers.  I wanted to go get it really bad, and I looked it for about a minute, but knew there were cameras everywhere and you were not supposed to so was satisfied with the few little pieces I had!