Part 2: The Colosseum, Lunch, and walking the Tiber

So after a dramatic pause, I'll continue my retelling of the monster-day yesterday was.

From Palatine, you head down the backside of the Domition's mansion and you come out on a street that leads right up to probably the most spectacular of the arches in the Forum / Colosseum area, and that's the Arch of Constantine, which is shown to the left. It too, like the other arches in the Forum, is really intricate and describes the battles and triumphs of Constantine, or the Emperor who allowed for religious tolerance in Rome and really paving the way for Christianity to be the dominant religion (and now seemingly the only religion) in Rome. That arch is the same one you see behind me in my picture next to the Colosseum from yesterday, as it sits directly to the west. Enlarge that picture to see some of the intricacies of the sculpting, it's just fantastic.

After we make our rounds past the Arch, the group all headed past the gates, went through the metal detectors and headed into the long corridor leading towards the entrance into the Colosseum. You enter on the bottom level to see the fantastic pillar-work and supports that line the interior, and really get the first true glimpse of the world's original major sporting venue. The seating of the time could hold over 50,000 people in its original setting, and equally impressive, it could empty out in as short a period as 5 minutes. Talk about an exit strategy. The inside really works as a maze, with tons of stairs, doors, and archways leading to ways up, down, and around; you really could take about 20 different ways around and end up at different place every time. If you can't tell, this was probably my favorite place I've been so far, just because it's the combination of everything I've liked about Roma so far: it's incredibly, unfathomably old yet so intensely well-preserved; it's absolutely gigatic, and it's unlike anything that could be built today. This could not be done today, especially not in five years and built out of stone, it just couldn't happen.

It was brilliant. I took a ton of pictures, and I guess now would be a good a point as any to show them off. They start to progress into the upper levels here, and looking down on the Arena (which means sand. . . it used to be filled with sand and was changed in the 200s to not be and instead be filled with the labrynth-like maze that you can see in the following pictures from above. The shape, size, and scope are all just so impressive, it's really tough to argue that it isn't one of the top man-made structures of all time. It takes a good 20 minutes to walk all the way around it, and to think of the ancient battles (think Russell Crowe in Gladiator, it's actually semi-accurate I guess) between man and beast, man and man, and just straight public executions, and that the full 50,000 would fill this place several times a week is just so cool. Now that I've flooded this with pictures, how about a chance for some video, eh?
It really makes you feel small and insignificant in some ways, and I am so glad I've had the chance to see it now. It's one of the defining features of Roman history and architecture, and I could've easily spent an entire day in there, not just an hour or so. The guys and I all liked it so much we decided to eat across the street at a Trattitorria that we knew was overpriced from the get-go, but it literally was right across the street, and with a view like that, who could complain?

Please, excuse my goofiness in this picture, but it's me, Chad (center) and A.J. (left), at the restaurant with the Colosseum in the background. We all had really good food, I ordered a pizza and we split a cheese plate that was awesome, and we each had two cokes a piece, and if you've never been to Europe, they don't list their drink prices on the menu, and they offer to bring you them all the time. So we each had two, and got the bill, thinking ok, they're going to be ridiculous, but like 3 euro per can ridiculous, but NO, it was 6 Euro a can! As in almost 9 bucks! We all had a pretty good laugh about it and I'll totally look back fondly at the experience, but damn, 9 bucks for 12 ounces, it's like 75 cents a sip. Oh well, such is life I guess.

We then decided to walk back from the Colosseum to our apartment in the Prati neighborhood, or about 4 miles or so, but come at it from the South, where we'd yet to go, and just see Tiber Isle and everything along the West bank of the Tiber south of the Vatican. We did eventually make it there, but not eventually handicapping ourselves about a mile and a half by accidently walking east on a road we were supposed to be going west on . . .yeah, not our best moment. But we saw residential Rome, and eventually, Tiber Isle, or this little island one of the bridges runs over the top of and there are a bunch of old castles on, along with some restaurants nearby. I took another cheesy picture here, so enjoy I suppose. I also included one without me to see the island, so enjoy that more if that's your fancy. Andddd that's really about it I suppose, we made it back and I nursed my sore feet, got some groceries and we had a few friends over to just hang out for a while, pretty nice times.

And I'm going to mention this in the email, but I've created a Snapfish account to show off all my pictures I've taken, so if you feel like getting more of a slideshow, then check that out. If not, I'll be blogging regardless, just thought I'd give you more of a glimpse into what I'm seeing.

And, as always, ciao.