Many people who like history know of the amazing city called Rome. From the Colosseum to the ruins, this city has been a magnet for tourists all around the world, and today, my family and I went there.
Arriving in Rome seemed to be a nightmare, at least, to my dad who was driving. At certain parts of the road, the markings seemed to have vanished and it was a chaos zone. Cars tried to overtake you on either side, places that were supposed to only have three lanes somehow became five, and the list went on. Somehow, as a miracle, we managed to not crash the car as we found parking. I got out of the car and looked around and, there! Right in front of us stood the mighty Colosseum looking over us. It was surprisingly taller than I had expected. As we walked towards it I could see just how pristine its condition was. Well, apart from the massive section missing its back wall even with that the fact that it isn’t just a bunch of rubble by now still takes me back. We walked around the entire Colosseum before looking for the ticket booth and when we did, our jaws dropped to the floor. Sure, we knew that the line would be long but right there in front of us was a line that wrapped around the whole block and still kept going. Also, it was still a weekday! Nevertheless, our dad kindly volunteered (*cough) to stay in the line while the rest of us went around and explored the other ruins. We first saw part of the Venus temple which was converted into a church. The inside was still richly decorated with paintings and carvings and looked as though it could still be used even today. We then went back to see how the line was doing and to our surprise, it hadn’t moved that much. So, we decided to go and walk around the Colosseum one more time properly to see all of the details before heading back to the line until we got our tickets. The tickets for the Colosseum were for 15:00 and it was still only around 13:00 so we went up to the remains of Circus Maximus.
Once a bustling city, now just ruins for tourists around the world to enjoy. I liked to imagine what life would of looked like a few thousand years ago right where I was standing. Gilded chariots are being pulled down the streets by mighty stallions, people in robes, and the temples standing in their former glory. We walked past the ruins, reading signs, and taking photos but before we knew it we only had around 10 minutes left before we needed to be in the Colosseum. Still wanting to the Piazza Del Campidogolia (designed by Michelangelo), we ran up the slope, through the gates, and into the piazza. An interesting thing about this piazza is that it is oval so that it can divert the traffic into the staircase. It also has a very cool floor pattern which looked like a spider’s web. Pressed on time, we ran back down the hill and sprinted what felt like a marathon before getting in line just in time. We signed in relief as we walked through the entrance into the first room.
We couldn’t see the arena when we first went into the colloseum. It was converted into a museum which sadly we couldn’t stay and see because of our time issue but we took photos of the signs and moved on. One of the strangest things about the Colosseum was the amount of pride the people had about the elevator. There were almost more signs about the elevator than the Colosseum! When we looked down into the Colosseum I was shocked. The other night I had also watched the ‘Gladiator’ movie so it was fun to finally be here. Another amazing thing that I noticed was that the entire floor beneath the Colosseum is an elaborate maze with contraptions to pull up animals and stage props into the arena. I was shocked to see just how sophisticated people were back then. Concluding our visit to the Colosseum we went back down to ground level to get a closer look at the underground section.
The Colosseum was one of the most interesting structures I went to on this trip and I definitely recommend that you go and see it too.