Day 95 - Roma II

Woke up early (again). Target today - clear the major attractions within Roma. First stop: Colosseum. We were there early to beat the notorious queue.

Take photo with Roman Gladiators? Need to pay money one.

It cost us €12 to get in. It's a combined ticket with Palatine Hill though.

Then how to go up?

There's an exhibition that explained the history of the Colosseum. The Colosseum was actually the "Flavian Amphitheatre", and the site that it stood on was part of Emperor Nero's extravagant Palace of artificial lakes and garderns. After the Flavian Dynasty took over, Emperor Vespasian decided to give back the space to the Roman public, and hence ordered the construction of the Colosseum.

There was also an exhibition describing more about the Flavian Dynasty, along with archaeological finds of the Colosseum. Thanks for such things. If not, I would think that €12 for ruins is highly overpriced.

The colosseum. In the ancient times, wooden retractable screens will be covering most of the top of the colosseum when it is needed to shield the spectators from the sun.

Paranomic view. The extremely wide corridor where this photo was taken from would have been covered by overhanging seats, much like what we see in stadiums today.

I made a stupid mistake here. While relaking-one-korner, I realise that my camera wasn't in my main pants pocket. Searched around my bag, my pockets and panicked. Just when I was about to walk around to see if I drop it anywhere, it turns out I've placed the camera in the hand pouch of my jacket. Idiotic me.

This would be VIP level. These "pillars" would actually be covered with a wooden stage in the past. These "pillars" are actually compartments of the "backstage" (more accurately under-stage). Gladiator fights at this time wasn't just man and beast, or man against man. There were sets which were winched up to the main stage, water for naval battle scenes etc. It's more theatrical than I imagined. The partial wooden stage you see here was reconstructed by Mussolini.

At the ground level

Ancient Graffiti. Apparently spectators would carve the names of their favourite gladiators on the walls of the colosseum when they were bored.

And the notorious queue appeared. Thank goodness we were here early.

Next stop: Palatine Hill. Thanks to the combined ticket, we just enter without needing to queue up for the ticket. Palatine Hill is considered sacred among the 7 hills which Roma is on, and it is where Roma was founded by Romus, its founder. It was the heart of the political life of the Roman Empire.

All returns to nothing

I didn't take much pictures of Palatine Hill. It was all ruins, without any description. Would appreciate more if there were some signs telling me what these ruins used to be.

View of the Roman Forum

Went down to the Roman Forum

Some people seems to be ignorant about what the barriers at the bottom of the stairs are for. When I wondered this aloud, Shiyang looked at me and say "Actually I was about to do the same......"

Campidoglio, one of the 7 hills of Roma

Circus Massimo. It was a stadium built by Emperor Maximus. Now it's like a open field with mud trail.

The Chains that held St. Peter during his martyrdom. An accidental discovery among all the small churches we went around to see.

Went back to our hostel to move to another one. Cause for this night and tomorrow night, the other hostel is cheaper. Although it's in a rather dodgy neighbourhood, the room is actually very clean.