Skip to main content

Our first full day in Rome






Buongiourno from Rome!







Today was so busy and full that it will be hard to write about all of it, so I'll focus on the most important event - touring the Colosseum! We had a wonderful guide who shared his impressive knowledge of the history of the building. Before going in, we met at a small grassy area just outside the Colosseum where we were told Nero (you remember him, the guy who charged the Romans a huge amount of taxes to pay for his lavish lifestyle) built a gigantic statue of himself - 30 meters tall and made of bronze! This was called the Colossus of Nero. Once Nero was forced to his death and his emperorship ended, this statue continued to bother the Romans. Their new emperor named Vespasian (of the Flavian Dynasty)
did two things to help improve his people's feelings about the Roman government.

#1: He melted the face of Nero off the statue and replaced it with the face of Helios (god of the sun.)

#2: He began constructing the Colosseum as a gift to the Roman people. He wanted this to be a place where everyone could be entertained FOR FREE. It was supposed to be called The Flavian Amphitheater.

The structure itself is unbelievable. Pictures just don't do it justice, though I have included a few below. It is massive, beautiful, and strong. In the end, people began to call the amphitheater "The Colosseum" because they would meet to enter right where Nero's statue used to stand. I think that is a cool story!

Being inside The Colosseum, it's hard not to imagine the people who walked its corridors thousands of years ago. Check out the picture below of the place where a gladiator would have been held before being released to fight in front of the roaring crowd.

                            WOW!!!! Can you imagine waiting in this cell to fight to the death?



Something I didn't know is that there were two doors to the Colosseum used expressly by the gladiators. Once called the "Gate of the Dead" where anyone who died in battle was taken to be embalmed, cremated and buried. As much as Roman's loved to watch a good fight, they couldn't stomach seeing the gory remains of the the gladiators that didn't survive. The other door was called "The Gate of Victorious Living" and was where the survivors went on to be praised and glorified by the Roman people. Though they were slaves, they would receive a gold coin upon the completion of a successful battle from the emperor himself!

To this day, experts who study the Colosseum wonder where the emperor himself sat to enjoy the entertainment. There are two possible areas. One of them is closest to where his palace would have been on the Palatine Hill. Just about thirty years ago, a major discovery was made of a room/tunnel beneath this seating area decorated with frescoes and other artwork. Some say that if the emperor of the time was not very popular, he would take this fast route from his palace and pass the time in this private room before sitting for the games. These same experts think that a more popular and beloved emperor would have taken the longer route from his palace and paraded around the periphery of the Colosseum in order to please his people and soak up their cheering.

I find history so exciting and compelling because of what we can't know. It is a lot of fun to imagine just what things really would have been like so long ago.

More tomorrow!

Ciao!

Mrs. B.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Duomo - Florence's Cathedral

Ciao! Today, we visited The Duomo , a major cathedral in the center of Florence. From the ground, it is quite a sight to see, but when we climbed the cupola to the very top, we were overwhelmed by the breathtaking view of all of Florence. Here are two views of The Duomo from the ground - can you guess why it is called The Duomo ? Here is an incredible picture (that I did not take myself) of Duomo from a distance at dusk. Domes are amazing architectural achievements. You might be reminded of The Pantheon in Rome from a recent blog post. Rome's Pantheon was indeed a inspiration to the Florentine people. But of course, they wanted their dome to be even larger! When looking at the pictures above, can you imagine how this dome was built? Can you envision the workers putting it together piece by piece? How did they do it? How long did it take? How did they get the materials from one place to another without modern technology? Here is a brief expla...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pompeii - Part Due

Hello friends! My last blog (Pompeii - Part Uno) covered a lot of information about the roads and set up/organization of Pompeii. Romans are famous for building long-lasting roads that connected the villages and cities of their empire as it grew larger and larger. Perhaps we take our roads for granted now, but if you think about it, the” paths” we travel over and over again to get to school, the market, to see family/friends, and so on have become the roads of our lives . Not really "paths" at all, but modernized and fortified with strong materials like stone, asphalt, and concrete. They allow us to feel connected to one another and to travel easily from place to place. They also enable us to share our stories, ideas, plans, and concerns throughout our communities. The stories, ideas, and values of the Romans were shared and passed on over time by way of the people who traveled the ancient roads that still exist in Italian cities today. This is just one way they uni...
Post a Comment
Read more

The last Italian adventure…for now

After my visit to Pompeii, my husband and I spent a few days exploring the Amalfi coast. This breathtaking part of Italy is made up of many small villages built into the tall jagged cliffs of the seashore. Here is a map! Driving along from Pompeii, we were simultaneously amazed and terrified by the dramatic twists and turns in the road as we moved further southeast. All the way, steep drop-offs to the ocean had us glued to the car windows. We marveled at the engineering it must have taken to construct this highway and were filled with admiration for the people who have lived here for generations - building their homes, churches, and local businesses right into the landscape of the rocky coast. Throughout our visit to this part of Italy, we never got used to the magnificent views that could be had from each hamlet or village where we stopped along the way. While reading up on one particularly distant pair of rocky islands and coves that could be seen a bi...
Post a Comment
Read more