We slept in until 11, i think - man we were tired. Our feet still hurt, our legs still not wanting to move. We got up, finally, and had breakfast.
We got to the Colosseum again, this time we didn't stop at the lovely café on our way. There we split up. Tom used the second part of his ticket to get into to the Colosseum, Rebecca and Lisa went shopping.
There was a huuuuge line, not as long as it can be in summer, but still long enough. Cute little italian/english signs told people where to queue up - Groups to the left, tickets to buy to the right and - cool - if you already got a ticket, follow the path in the middle! I walked and ... walked, passing lots of people waiting in line on my right, feeling a bit uneasy if that's really the right path, arriving at the audioguide booth - paid 5.50€ - and went right in - no waiting at all. I felt so lucky. So listen everyone: Next time you go to rome, FIRST go to forum romanum, hardly waiting at all for a combined ticket, THEN go to the colosseum, maybe the next day to skip all those long lines :)
The Colosseum is really a sad story. Basically it used to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Everything decorated with marble and also colorful with a huge awning on the top, so nobody got sunburned. But over time, when 'the games' stopped it fell apart and all the marble and the massive amounts of the structure were used for other buildings in the town, really sad.
Parts of 'The games' themselves where really brutal, however there used to also be really good shows, where eg. a huge painted manmade whale appeared out of the wooden floor (the ground is two stories deep) and 50 bears stepped out of its mouth, which totally awestrucked the audience. Besides that the seating was pretty much the same as in every theater today. The closer to the arena you sit the more important the people were. In the ring close to the arena, they even had toilettes built in and stairs were more comfortable to climb.
(few remains of the marble decoration to the left, sewage system in the middle and front rows to the right)Stairs to the upper parts where *really* steep. Think of the steepest stairs you ever climbed. Those were even steeper!
(stairs, covered with dirt)
There are so many people who ask you to buy glasses, bracelets, guided tours and also these guys, roman guards. Ever wanted to sit next to one. I didn't ask how much it costs to take a picture with them:
They look pretty cool, don't they? I took this picture from the top of the Colosseum :) (gotcha)
From the same platform I took this panorama picture - Doesn't it look just great!
(From left to right: Colosseum, arch of Konstantin, some ancient fontain, forum romanum, arch of titus, temple of venus)If you are interested in the games and the history
Also to see how big the whole place is, I tried to capture just the dimensions of the outer ring where the entrance is
Outside again, on my way to meet up with Rebecca and Lisa, I past the arch of Constantin with the remains of the fountain in front of it
There is even a part of the old pavement there, which is really fun to walk on, jumping from stone to stone - and not just children like that :)
