Rome: The Colosseum

The Colosseum or "Flavian Amphitheater," was our first site to see in Rome and we queued up in a line that was long, however I suspect it may have been short considering how long it could be. We started the line almost immediately within the lower outer ring of the structure giving us something to gawk at as we waited. Kate was a little indecisive thinking that the line would take too long and we should get out and buy our tickets from a less popular site such as the Roman forum. This was of course after we'd already had waited ten minutes and made considerable progress. (sighs and eye-rolls from yours truly). In another ten minutes or so we were in so, no big deal on the wait. The line was a good venue to watch people anyway, it was comprised of many cultures, surprisingly a lot of Italians. There were nuns in the line, and people of many different backgrounds. People used their selfie-sticks which was the item of choice sold by the pushy under-the-table street vendors walking around. I didn't know what they were at first, but I would quickly become really sick of them.

 This puppy dates back to 72 AD, and according to the informational signs at the Colosseum, held as many as 50,000 people. Wikipedia suggests even more, (80k) but alas, that is Wikipedia for you. The floor of the arena is gone, and instead you see the infrastructure where animals, props, and participants may have been held and brought through only to appear before many blood thirsty fans after perhaps being elevated through a trap door.

Someone lost their Frank Sinatra hat. It belongs to Rome now. These were being sold at every tourist kiosk in Italy. As someone who often just wants to be contrarian, I immediately sort of despised them. I will say that these hats are actually still worn by Italians, but you did see a lot of Griswalds walking around with these on.

In the lower right portion of this, you can see some intact marble seats/bleacher which at one time covered the entire stands.

 The free standing arch which you can see just outside of the Colosseum, is the "Arch of Constantine," which was erected by Constantine who adopted Christianity, and of course created what we now know as Catholicism, essentially it is what is left of the Roman Empire. Like most government (or religious for that matter) sponsored art, this Arch was a lovely propaganda piece. Constantine intended to marry Roman History and religion/mythology to Christian ideology to help ease the conversion of the Roman population. Catholicism is very much a amalgam of Roman mythology and Christian ideas. Being in the presence of this sort of art constantly in Italy, you get the idea that modern Christianity may share much more with Roman mythology than is commonly conceived of. We would see stories of saints in the Vatican pretty much directly co-opted from Roman mythology that we would later see at Roman ruins.

 A view towards Palatine hill from the Colosseum grounds.

The arch is surrounded by Roman paving stones which would be the first example we would see. The age of such items really is amazing, and it is astonishing how it has held up.