The Colossuem was on the agenda for today. We woke up and it was sunny but a little bit cool. However that was a vast improvement on the weather the first time we went there. That day it was cold and it poured buckets the entire time. Not the best way to see it, so we were excited to go again today with Mom and Uncle.
But before we went to the Colosseum we went to Palatine Hill. This is the hill where the Roman Emperors used to build their palaces, hence the name.
Palatine hill is beautiful. And it is very easy to see why the emperors liked to live up there. The views are amazing. And it’s very green. I suppose it was probably less green then, but maybe not. We saw a lot of mysterious ruins. I had of course forgotten the guidebook so I had no idea what anything was. But it was a lot of fun just wandering around looking at stuff. The C-man tripped over an artfully placed piece of marble debris and did a full Chevy Chase pratfall onto the pavement. No blood was shed but there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
As we were walking around I was struck once again by how amazing it is that nobody in all these years looked at those ruins up on that prime piece of hilltop real estate and said “you know what would be really great up there? A big gated community of McMansions.” Amazing.
After we had wandered around the ruins for an hour or so we left and found a little bar to get some lunch. The C-man and I split a pizza and Mom, Uncle and Princess O had crepes. First they brought Uncle’s crepe. Then our pizza. Then mom’s crepe. And then we waited, and waited and waited. We all started eating. Still no crepe for the Princess. We all kept eating, still no crepe for the Princess. We were almost finished eating, and STILL no crepe for the Princess. Poor thing was almost in tears. Then FINALLY they brought it out. I am not sure if they forgot or if they crepe machine was having technical difficulties but once it finally came she gobbled it right up. Of course she had ordered a crepe with Nutella and chocolate, so really, what’s not to like?
Once we finished stuffing our faces we went back down the hill to the Colosseum. The crowds were much smaller today despite the greatly improved weather but there was still a big queue to get in. We walked happily past them all with our tickets from Palatine hill and walked right in. The tickets are good at both locations but there is never a queue at the Palatine ticket booth. So if you go there first, you save yourself a bunch of time. And you get to walk around in some amazing ruins.
The Colosseum is big, amazing, everything you think it will be. You can see down into the holding areas under the floor. And you can see all the tiers of seats. It is very cool. Again, amazing that it survived so long. Especially since for years Romans essentially used it as a quarry for marble for other projects. I also read that at one time there were something like 200 different exotic species of plants and flowers growing in the Colosseum thanks to all the seeds dropped by the lions and tigers and bears (oh my). Part of me wishes I could have seen it like that. The way it was when Keats and Shelley saw it. I’m sure it was beautiful.
And we found out it used to have a roof. There were some sort of wooden ribs and canvas sheets that could be opened to provide shade or cover the crowd from rain. So it was the first retractable roof stadium. Apparently they had sailors work the rigging to open and close the roof. I never knew that.
Tomorrow: the Sistine Chapel (and the rest of the Vatican Museums) and Saint Peters. It is shaping up to be another full day. And I know I shouldn’t complain because it has been really really cold at home, but I wish it would warm up a little bit. It was only about 50 today. Poor poor me.
Posted by goitaly 
