We took a bus to
the Colosseum or Coliseum (also known as the
Flavian Amphitheatre…thank you, Wikipedia) and it great to finally see it. You might now know this already but it is
old. We got there early when it was still not too
hot. It was a bit surreal to see something so famous that I’ve seen so many
times in shows and movies. At one time,
it apparently had a retractable awning or velarium. As the temperature and sun rose, it made me
wish that the velarium had survived until present day. Fifty thousand people could fit in
there. The guide mentioned how it was
built so it could be emptied in minutes.
He also talked about some words that we have in our language today that
came from terms in the Colosseum.
We
took a section of the Roman Road that was still in place to the Forum
nearby. While I am impressed with the
road, I have to say that it was Not easy to walk on. I guess given a couple thousand years, all
roads might need some work. The road
still had the large main stones but they were not even and there was no longer the
gravel between them. After awhile of not
trying to trip on them, I was glad to get back to cobblestone walkways. Imagine that—I finally was happy to see
cobblestones!
In
Rome, the water fountains come from nice, cool springs. It is so weird to be traveling and able to
drink the water from taps that are around the city. I think I tried water from at least three
different fountains this day. There was
a “long-nose” fountain that the tour guide demonstrated how to you if you
didn’t have a bottle to fill up. You
just plug the bottom of it with your finger and the water shoots up a smaller
hole allowing you to drink directly from it.
One
of the highlights of the Forum was when the tour guide started the “Friends,
Romans, Countrymen” speech. It was given
near where Julius Ceasar’s ashes had once been.
We
also went to the top of Capitoline Hill.
I made the mistake of sitting down up there. I did not want to move again afterwards. There were some huge statues up at the top
that were difficult to show the scale in a picture. A random cool thing was that one set of
stairs leading down from the hill was made so horses could use them. I personally liked that they were easy to use
for people too. Maybe that’s what I need
to do…just find stairs that horses would like and use them.
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