We are Air Conditioner People

 It. is. so. stinking. hot. Really, miserably hot. Cormac went out on our deck this morning and came back in complaining that it was already hot. I doubt it cooled off much last night. You get the idea, it is hot. We decided today as we walked around under the sweltering sun that maybe we are air conditioning people. Maybe, from now on if we vacation in summer we will go to the southern hemisphere or will go scuba diving. The kids all think we should have done Rome in June and saved the Alps for when it was hotter out. I suppose we should have.

I asked Cormac today if he thought he chose water polo as his sport because he knew playing sports out in the sun and heat wasn't for him or if water polo is the reason he does not like the sun and heat. It's a chicken and the egg sort of question. We aren't sure which came first. 

Anyway, moving on. Today we woke up before any of us really wanted to wake up considering we worked last night to head into town for our tour of the Colosseum. When planning our trip we had asked the kids what they wanted to see and do. Lucette wanted to rappel (check). Azure wanted to go to Germany and especially to see a concentration camp (check). Cormac wanted to see the Colosseum. Today we checked that box as well.

I say "into town," but we are actually in town. Very much so. Just not the center of Rome where all the tourist stuff is. As I sit writing this it is nearly midnight and there are so many sirens going by. I swear they go by every 15 minutes. There is honking and shouting and all kinds of noises of the city. Definitely different from previous posts with the choir, cow bells, and bleating goats of Switzerland. 

Our first view of the Colosseum was right as we came out of the Metro station. They are doing construction on a new metro line. Our tour guide told us they have been working on it for 10 years and have said it will be ready to go in another 10 years. Crazy. The construction around where we were today is part of the metro project.

Inside the Colosseum we got to glimpse some of the original parts. Some places have had to have things added for safety/stability, but some places remain completely untouched by current restoration.

The stone blocks are original and are enormous, this picture really doesn't capture their size very well.

Despite being an unreasonable temperature outside everything outside and inside the Colosseum was packed. I am so glad we bought tickets in advance. We wanted to be able to see as much as possible as well. The tickets we bought allowed us to go with a group and tour guide throughout the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We were even able to go underneath what would have been the stadium floor of the Colosseum. Our tour guide told us that what we see of the Colosseum today is just its skeleton. The walls and floors were all covered in marble. The ceilings were painted with murals. The place would have been truly grand.

To the very right of this picture you can see a reconstruction of one of the elevators that would send animals, slaves, and other contenders to fight the gladiators. There were many such elevators so the gladiator never knew where his next opponent would show up at.

Our tour guide, Carmelo from Sicily, told us that the Colosseum had a retractable roof that was made of the same material as the sails on ships. All of the "windows" that you can see from the outside of the Colosseum had a marble statue in the space. The statues were usually the Roman God's or the Emperors. Some of those disappeared during the medieval times. The marble that was all over the walls and floor was held up by metal and all the metal was taken during the medieval times and melted down for weapons. The marble eventually got recycled and much of it is now in the Vatican.

When the Colosseum was in use they could use tunnels like the one above to flood the floor to recreate naval battles. Our guide suspected they didn't do that too often as it was a huge undertaking to flood the floor and then drain it again, but the fact that this was built and used over 2,000 years ago and that they could bring water in and out blows my mind.

This shows the original floor of the basement or underground portion of the Colosseum.

Camilo described the underground portion as "backstage," but also explained that it was not a happy place. It would have been filled with the screams of the slaves and the trapped animals. It was also a place of blood. He said that there were over 1 million animals killed and 1/2 million slaves killed in the Colosseum and that was before it was used as a way to execute Christians. The underground portion was filled with tunnels and cages. While it has a bloody history, I still marvel at the skill and dedication that went into the construction. 

We were lucky to be allowed to go into the underground portion of the building. It was only opened to tourists about 5 years ago. Prior to that it was reserved for archeologist. 

This was the ceiling of the one of the large cages that was used to hold things like elephants.

Azure was very good at seeking out even the tiniest patches of shade to find refuge in.

We next climbed up to the arena floor. The entire floor decomposed long ago as it was wood. They rebuilt a portion of the arena floor so you can stand there and picture yourself as a gladiator with thousands of spectators. 

Our guide told us that the emperor allowed free entry and food to the citizens as a way to get their support for what he was doing. In the stadium there was division among the classes. The poorest people were at the top while the elite would be down near the stadium floor. Ammon pointed out that that really isn't different from how are stadiums are today...except we generally try to avoid killing people in most of our sports.

In this picture you can see some marble that is original. It also shows what the stadium seating was like.

Lucette is touching some of the original marble.

We next walked up to the upper level. I think it is even more impressive from up high. 

This is an original staircase still intact.

From several of the windows we could see the Arch of Constantine. It sits between the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. 

These 2 pictures are of part of the original marble pillars.

We eventually left the Colosseum and continued on to the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum was basically the town square. It was open to the public and was a place of gathering and of business. It was also rather large and impressive.

Upon entering the area with the ruins we got to see The Arch of Titus. Apparently, when Rome won a victory the opposing general was murdered and paraded under this bridge. One of the carvings inside the bridge has the image of a Jewish Menorah. According to Camilo, the Romans got the means to build the Colosseum by taking it from the Jewish people.

 

Our tour officially ended shortly after we left the Arch of Titus and we were left to wander the ruins as much as we liked. I don't know if I mentioned, but it was unbelievably hot outside. The kids were also starting to get hungry by this point, but we forced them to soldier on. We spent a couple more hours looking around and probably could have spent many more.

There were lots of museums or little rooms with relics to explore. In the first museum we went into they had a video playing of a woman all dressed in white like a Roman wandering the ruins and narrating, then a man showed up and narrated with her. It was in Italian so we couldn't understand, but it was air conditioned and had seats so we stuck around. The music was incredibly dramatic. Then at one point the 2 stand face to face rather close to one another and dramatically look at one another while music plays. I started cracking up then so did the kids. It was random and hilarious, though I do not think the folks sitting next to me found it that amusing. 

Inside one chamber we could see a painted ceiling that has been restored. We also saw a few walls that were original to the forum.

I found these trees to be fascinating. They are a species of pine tree.

This guy would forget his head if it weren't screwed on...wait...

I wish we would have had the bandwidth to keep exploring a little longer, but between the heat and the hunger we eventually left to go in search of relief. We headed back to our neighborhood on the metro and eventually found a restaurant that served fast food tapas style. It was a bunch of tiny sandwiches or other tiny treats like hamburgers and french fries. It was kind of fun. Then we stocked up on groceries and headed back to our place to cool off and let Ammon get to work.

The kids watched a movie this evening while I got caught up on some work, did some laundry, and made dinner. Somewhere in that mix the kids were wrestling and Cormac rolled over the top of Lucette's glasses. The glasses are now broken. So that is sad. But apart from that mishap the day was pretty great. Don't worry, we are staying hydrated. Thank goodness for the free water spigots all over where you can refill your water bottle. The fresh water refill stations all over is a super awesome feature of Europe.

So that was today. As Cormac said, "We survived the Colosseum."