Coliseum

Rome is the city of bells. You hear them all the time. It is a very musical city. I think that Italian is the prettiest and most musical of all the romantic languages. Remember Kevin Kline in a Fish Called Wanda?

We set off to walk to the Coliseum and crossed over the Tiber. Aren't we lucky? First the Seine and now the Tiber. We found the Coliseum and the crowds.

Here I am with our tour voucher. So far everything we've booked in Australia has worked out well. And today is no exception. We meet up with our tour leader and attach our headsets. Even though it was really crowded it was well organised with lots of little groups plugged into their different languages followed around their guide.

Tom posing with the Coliseum. It is an imposing structure.

Our tour ended up inside the Coliseum but first we wandered around the Roman Forum and listened to the history of Rome as we goggled at the ruins.

This bird and I shared a viewing spot looking down from the Forum over the the splendour of Rome.

This site was first developed in the seventh century BC. As we walked amongst ancient temples and basilicas I found it hard not to muse on the fragility of life. We went inside the remains of the Julius Caesar temple and saw the spot where his ashes were cremated.

And then as we entered the Coliseum the sky turned threatening. It was as though it was reacting to those ancient stories of greed and barbaric cruelty. For four hundred years gladiators and animals fought to the death for the amusement of the crowd and after the Christians stopped killing the people they still kept on killing the wild animals for another two hundred years. Bread and circuses bought the loyalty of the public.

And here we have a good picture of the stage. The covered bit is where the original floor would have been. It would have been made from sand to soak up all the blood. 

One last shot as we leave the Coliseum. Glad that we live today and not then.