Italy Trip 11

It will probably take me several posts to get through all the pictures I want to share from Rome. Although I was there on my trip eight years ago, I really didn't see very much of the city (mainly because a lot of our time then was consumed with figuring out what we were going to do about our impending visit to Florence). This time, I had a full two days to do little but explore. The first morning was spent in the area around the ancient ruins in the center of the city that go back to the days of Julius Caesar (and actually earlier). It's kind of amazing to be driving down a modern street and coming around the bend to see the Coliseum in the middle of the city:


Alongside the Coliseum is the Arch of Constantine:

And hanging around outside the Coliseum are a bunch of Centurians looking for tourists to take their picture (for a fee of course). I snapped this one surreptitiously so I wouldn't have to pay:

Once inside the Coliseum, you can sort of imagine massive crowds turning out to watch the games, even though virtually all of the interior has deteriorated down to the infrastructure. At one time, the venue held 80,000 people-- just about the same number as Rich Stadium!

The "playing field has completely disappeared, so looking down into the arena, what you see today is the staging area/storerooms that initiallywere in the basement of the Coliseum. There are a lot of passageways and chambers where they used to keep animals, and where gladiators woudl prepare. Nowadays, it apparently is a great hideaway for cats.

Here's a view of the Capotaline Hill taken from inside the Coliseum. You can see some other ruins that at one time were part of the political center of the city (and empire):

Tomorrow I'll post some more images from the Forum and some of the other ancient diggings.