Not only was our Rome apartment a fun place to stay, even if I did have to share the Divan (Bed) with my beloved brother, Hamish (not!), it’s location was perfect for our plans. Today was the day. The day I had been waiting for. The day we finally would explore the history of Ancient Rome.
A short 5-minute walk and a left turn away and we were presented by the sight of the Colosseum at the end of the street. Wow! What a thing to find at the end of your street. I started to blurt out random facts about the architecture, culture and history of the Colosseum – I couldn’t believe that it was more than 2000 years old.
We walked up the street to a point where we were looking right at the middle of the Colosseum. We were happy to see that the crowds were not too big yet. I stayed with Mum and Hamish to take photos and update Instagram while Dad went for a wander to see how we could get down to the ground level to buy our tickets.
We had learned a little bit about the Colosseum from our guide on the Pompeii tour and combined with the reading I’ve done before I had a bit of an idea of what to expect. Did you know, that the Colosseum today is about 66% original. Whatever that really means – the Colosseum has had many uses in its history. It was even a farmyard at one point. The Colosseum was once covered with marble but marble is expensive and a lot of it was needed for Catholic chapels and Basilicas so the Colosseum was stripped of almost all its marble. Go for a walk in almost any of the major Catholic churches in Rome today and you are almost certainly walking on part of the Colosseum. Holes were drilled into the walls and columns of the structure and the marble was held up by iron pins. The holes are still visible today. The Colosseum is only the skeleton of the gigantic arena that sat thousands of people to watch events including gladiator fights over many years.
Dad soon returned giving information that the stairs were the opposite way to the way he had gone. After dodging tourists, salesman determined to sell selfie sticks or plastic models of Rome, or tour guides offering their services, we finally made it to the line. Most surprisingly the line was quite short. We soon made it to the front of the line where excitement grew as we realised that, by chance, we were in time for an English guided tour around the Colosseum.
Nothing could dampen our enthusiasm even after security checks, lining up again, getting lost trying to find our meeting point, located by a big cross which we never actually found (the big cross – we found our group).
Finding our meeting point we took a flurry of photos, shaking our heads in disbelief at just how big the Colosseum is. Francesca soon arrived – she was our guide and heavily accented English she set about giving us information and facts aided with before and after visuals from her book. Francesca began every sentence with “We really must say that …” or “We should say that …” Francesca’s tour was very interesting but brief and I could tell everyone was itching to go and explore on their own.
Click! Posing for a picture. It wasn’t the first, as we had made our way around the circumference of the Colosseum many photos had been taken, enough to fill two family picture albums (kidding). I love taking pictures (as you probably already know) because they can capture little moments in time and help you to relieve memories forever. I look forward to future years where I can sit down and look through the old photos and remember this trip. Anyway, back to the topic of the day. The Colosseum and the Roman Forum.
The Colosseum was very inspiring. I kept asking myself, how were they able to build something of that size and structure so long ago when in modern day we can’t even agree on basic matters. It is truly amazing!
After a quick visit to the gift shop where Hamish bought something for one of his friends and himself, we considered buying Francesca’s book again and had a quick visit to the toilet …. or not so quick as it turned out. After waiting for nearly twenty minutes, just to use the restroom (what is it with ladies and using the restroom?), we left the Colosseum, once again surrounded by tourists, salesman and tour guides.
Walking across the piazza past the gate created for Emperor Constantine (gosh the Romans loved their gates), we entered the Roman Forum.
The Roman Forum covers a seemingly giant expanse of land. It’s core is the Emperor’s Palace (on Palatine Hill) in its various incarnations but it is so much more, including wealthy families’ ginormous homes, the location of Nero’s Golden Palace and Circus Maximus.
Our Pompeii guide, Roberto had also given us a bit of information about the Roman Forum but the majority I had already learnt from mum and my guidebook. However, despite the knowledge I already knew and the general idea I had in my head, that was almost for nought. I was in complete shock by the sheer size of the place and the amount of archaeological finds that were on display. Did you know, that it is believed and is currently being extensively researched that the Emperor had a secret tunnel from his palace to his fancy, front row seat in the Colosseum because his council and advisors didn’t want him to mix with the locals? Life was certainly vastly different back then, can you imagine travelling to school or work in a chariot instead of a car? Visiting the Roman Forum was certainly a unique experience that I will never forget and I would highly recommend it for anyone who is visiting Rome.
The Roman Forum takes a lot of imagination as many of the buildings are far from complete. Dad reckons that this will be an awesome opportunity for Augmented Reality. Can you imagine walking around and being able to put on a set of goggles that shows you an image of what the buildings, gardens and baths once looked like?
After spending two hours in the Roman Forum everyone was fatigued, desperate for lunch, and with the weather turning for the worse, we decided that we would have to finish the Roman Forum on a later visit (I would love this to happen, I have thoroughly enjoyed the first part of this trip!)
Exploring ancient Rome is quite out of this world. I had previously done an assignment at school on Ancient Rome with my friend Tilly, but being able to see, feel and be in places that I had only read about was truly an amazing experience.