COLOSSEUM

You have now arrived at the Colosseum, home of Rome’s gladiators and largest building ever constructed by those engineering masters of the ancient world. Admire the grandeur of this massive stadium, the model for all our modern sports arenas: 615 feet long, 510 feet wide, 160 feet high, with the central arena floor like a football field, 287x180 feet. One of the reasons it miraculously survived for 2,000 years is that it was built on the site of a lake, so the ground underneath is soft and spongy like a big shock absorber protecting it from earthquakes and from vibrations of the heavy traffic that drives by every day.

First, some practical tips: you should already have your ticket purchased at the Forum entrance, so don’t get on the end of that big line of people who are actually queued up waiting to purchase their entrance tickets. You can happily walk past them in the clear aisle on the left side and head directly to the turnstile where you enter the site.

Then walk up the rather steep, original staircase, to the upper level with minimal effort. On top there is a museum-quality display of statues, maps, diagrams and photos that is worth looking at before you enter the arena itself. Many ongoing improvements for the visitor have been provided in recent years and this display is one of the best examples.

Now step out into the arena and turn left, walking around to the first clear spot along the railing for your initial view, so awesome it was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. This spot is crowded with selfies, eager snappers, and serious photographers. After soaking up the grandeur, continue walking all the way around to the far side for another excellent view of the arena, then turn in the opposite direction for an overview back across the Roman forum. Exit down the big staircase for a ground-level view of the arena and continue walking around the right side towards the exit. Before leaving, stop at the emperor’s box for the grand central overview of the entire site: thumbs up or down?

This is the granddaddy of all sports arenas whose round form, open stadium seats and vast size have been copied countless times ever since. It took only eight years to build, completed in the year 80, thanks to hard work by those Jewish slaves captured in Jerusalem. This is beyond doubt the greatest standing building left from the ancient Roman Empire and a beautiful sight to behold, however...we tend to look at it as a magnificent work of architecture without fully considering its bloody past as a killing machine of great efficiency, filled with death and destruction. Roman society was a far more violent culture than we might realize, based on centuries of military conquest, domination and destruction of tribes throughout the continent, so in Roman context this bloodshed fit naturally into their world view.

Packed with 60,000 spectators screaming for blood nearly every day for 400 years, it was the place where commoners were entertained to relieve the tensions of their otherwise difficult lives. “Bread and circuses” kept the masses of people occupied so they would not cause trouble for their imperial rulers. Free bread and entertainment kept their minds off daily problems which stemmed from their hard life in this very crowded city of one million. While ancient Rome might have a Hollywood image of grand public buildings and wealthy aristocrats enjoying lavish banquets and orgies in splendid palaces, the reality of life here for commoners and slaves was quite different. Most people lived in crowded apartment tenements stacked five floors high with several people packed in each stuffy room, lacking running water or sewers. Attending fantastic spectacles for free at the Colosseum enabled them to socialize and blow off steam while enjoying the suffering and death of less fortunate people and tormented animals. Schadenfreude distracted the masses from their own misery.

We see only fragmentary remains of the stadium in the extensive ruins of brick and stone, with perhaps half the original structure missing. Mentally fill in the blanks and reconstruct what it would have looked like originally. It helps to visualize the scene by looking at the illustrated photo books available from vendors which show the before and after pictures and give you a clear idea of how magnificent this structure originally looked. One block of marble seats remains below where you first came in to give some idea of how seating looked throughout the lower levels. Top levels were standing room only for those of lesser status and women.

Actual capacity of the stadium is somewhat in dispute – some claim it held 80,000 people, while the lower estimate is 50,000. They sometimes pulled a canvas roof over the seats for protection from sun and rain, making this the world’s first retractable covered stadium. Sailors skilled in the use of ropes, pulleys and canvas were employed to extend this roof from posts high atop the arena rim. Foundations for these posts can still be seen jutting out from the upper exterior of the highest preserved wall.

That strange maze of brick walls you see on the floor of the Colosseum was originally an underground labyrinth of halls, chambers and cages topped by a roof that functioned as the arena floor. A series of levers, elevators and trap doors managed to bring wild animals up from their subterranean cages and release them into the arena combat zone.

This floor was covered with a layer of sand to absorb the gallons of blood. Sand is “arena” in Latin, which reminds us once again of the connection to our modern sports spectacles. It is believed that during the Colosseum’s early years the floor was solid, without cages down below, which enabled Roman engineers to intentionally flood the arena floor with water for mock naval battles involving half-size ships. Notice the small portion of wooden floor on the arena level which has been recently added to give you an idea of how the original floor was designed.

Exotic animals were brought back in great numbers from throughout the empire, especially Africa and Asia, including lions, tigers, giraffes, crocodiles, ostriches, rhinoceros, hippopotamus and elephants. It took extraordinary efforts to transport and then maintain these animals before their final appearance. During the inauguration of the stadium, festivities lasted 100 days brutally killing 5000 animals and murdering countless humans. Sometimes the battles were gladiators against the animals, but more often captured enemy soldiers or local criminals were tossed into the arena to fend for themselves against the angry beasts. It was the favorite public execution grounds, entertaining the mob while disposing of criminals.

There are two major misconceptions about the Colosseum: that Christians were sacrificed there and that the main battles always involved gladiators fighting each other. Christians were indeed tortured and sacrificed in Rome but elsewhere in the city, and gladiators were generally too expensive to be wasted killing each other. Gladiators required extensive training with high maintenance and were valued like our professional athletic heroes today, so they were given the upper hand in fighting against untrained captives and usually lived to fight another day. Particularly heroic gladiators were given pensions at the end of their careers and could live out their retirement years in provincial villas, although most of them died a brutal death on the arena floor. On one especially difficult day, 1000 pairs of gladiators were forced to fight each other during celebration of the 1000th birthday of Rome in the year 249.

Many other kinds of spectacles, purely theatrical in nature, took place here. For example, there are legends about construction of volcanoes that somehow spewed what looked like lava. Some performances were religious pageants with elaborate movable sets, others were dramatic scenarios set in re-creations of natural environments, often funded by wealthy private donors and designed by teams of artists and architects. Gladiator combat was banned in the fourth century and animal killings ceased in the sixth century. In later years the Colosseum went through a variety of uses, as a fortress, building quarry, housing project, factory and finally abandoned.

Extensively looted as a building quarry, the Pope stopped that plundering in 1749 by declaring it a sacred site, in the mistaken notion that Christians were martyred here. Somehow it has endured for 2000 years, despite earthquakes, fires and looting for us to enjoy today one of the great sights of the ancient world.

After touring the Colosseum you might be hungry and, fortunately, there are some good places to eat in this neighborhood, especially tasty when tired and starving. While they might look touristic (after all most of the people eating here are tourists) the food is quite good in several outdoor restaurants at the corner of Via Cavour and Via dei Fori Imperiali.

Angelino ai Fori restaurant is quite large and busy because it is so popular, so it might help to use the following strategic techniques to get good service, eat well, then get your check without waiting forever. Be friendly with the waiter even if you have to wave your hands to get his attention; order a simple meal like pasta and salad, and when the waiter brings the food, ask him for your check. Otherwise, you might have to wait a long time after finishing a meal: getting the waiter’s attention to ask for the check, waiting for him to come back and pick up your payment, waiting again for your change in a boring waste of time 15 to 20 minutes beyond the end of your meal. Avoid this by asking for the check when he delivers the food.

By the way, restaurant tipping is optional. A service charge is included in the menu prices, but it is customary to add 5 percent if you had good service. Poor service should get no tip, and even the very best service doesn’t rate 10 percent. Locals often leave nothing, or only a few euro coins. If you get one of the notorious waiters telling you “tip for the waiter not included,” don’t believe him. Also, European servers are generally paid a better salary than those in America and don’t rely on tips the way we do.

Keep in mind that any restaurant recommendation depends on the variable of individual luck and skill. The place might be so busy you are waiting 30 minutes before even seeing a menu and another hour before you start to eat, yet the party next to you arrives, gets served, eats and leaves all while you’re still waiting. Maybe last year the place was great but now has new management, or the regular cook didn’t show up today. It just depends, which is one reason we are not recommending very many specific restaurants in this guide. Instead, we provide tips here and there and leave the heavy lifting up to you. Restaurants we do mention are classic establishments that have been around for a long time, famous for good food and service, and where we generally have had good luck. On the other hand you can wing it by simply walking along looking for something good, off the beaten track. Restaurants listed in guidebooks are prone to get overrun with tourists, so avoid that contradiction by finding your own place to eat. Discovery is part of the fun of travel. Look at the menu, always posted outside, then glance at the tables to see how the customers are doing. A room full of customers waiting to be served with no food in sight should make you run, but contrarily a place packed with people eating is your best bet, especially if they are speaking Italian. Don’t be shy: walk in, ask if you can take a look, then walk around and observe what food is on the tables.

San Pietro in Vincoli

A few blocks away along Via Cavour you could visit the small Basilica of St Peter in Chains (San Pietro in Vincoli), to admire the marble tomb carved by Michelangelo, including his famous Moses. It was originally intended as part of a 47-statue, free-standing funeral monument for Pope Julius II, but instead it became the centerpiece of the Pope’s tomb in this, the church of the della Rovere family.

San Pietro in Vincoli was dedicated in 442 to house the two chains that bound Saint Peter. They remain fused together and are kept in a reliquary under the main altar in the basilica. However, keep in mind that churches are closed for siesta from noon-4:00pm.

If you did not eat at the previous restaurants, you might be ready for a food & beverage break, which could be greatly enjoyed by walking 400 meters over to the Monti district, just beyond busy Via Cavour.

MONTI

The Monti neighborhood, just on the other side of Via Cavour, has become a hip destination where you will see the typical laid-back local lifestyle. Walk two blocks over to Via Baccina, which leads to the little Piazza della Madonna dei Monti in the heart of the district: it has a fountain in the middle that is surrounded by a church and cafés.

There are no historic sites or tourist attractions in this neighborhood, making this a refreshing change of pace. Several characteristic streets you might enjoy walking on are Via Del Boschetto and Via degli Zingari. An excellent hotel, Monti Palace, would be a choice 4-star place to stay or dine in Monti.

End of Walk 3. Walk 3 starts next at the Vatican.