The Roman Colosseum

We'd really been looking forward to this part of the trip. Pop had been to Rome but never inside the Colosseum, and both Chris and Ruslan had studied and learned about the Romans. It was really exciting to actually set foot in this amazing structure.

C & R take in their first view of the Colosseum

Timing is so important here in the summer, and our guide rushed us from our ship overland to Rome and made sure our first stop was the Colosseum itself. The later people get there, the longer the lines to get in. We only lost about 15 minutes waiting and still had a good amount of time to explore all the way around on both the lower and upper sections.

It was actually pretty easy to imagine what is was like for the Romans who attended here in the First Century, AD. Though only the stone and concrete/cement parts of the structure are still intact, you can see holes in the walls where wooden supports help hold up seating for everyone, and outside the holes around the front were where marble was attached. All the marble panels have been recycled, many to churches that were built in other parts of Rome over the centuries.

The missing Colosseum floor exposed the hallways and the understructures. Visitors have to use their imaginations to fill in the missing parts, but historians have given us an understanding about how nearly every part was used.

Still an amazing sight after 2000 years!

You can sense a quiet awe felt by everyone around you. Visitors all seem to sense that they're visiting a site like Gettysburg where something very important once happened, and those who come after need to have a sense of solemnity about it.