Mamma Mia, It's Italia!

Rome, Day 3

            You can always tell when Mike starts to get bored. He becomes shifty, runs around in circles a lot, and pulls out his Iphone to play games, call random people, or take spontaneous videos. As we were waiting in the 30-minute queue to get inside the Coliseum, Mike chose the latter. So Mom, you can thank me now for the 15 videos I will be sending you of Mike narrating his own history of the great Gladitorial Monument.

            Despite Mike’s initial boredom, we were both astonished by the detail and craftsmanship of the ancient stadium. The Coliseum has layers upon layers of maze-like alleys underground, which can be seen clearly when viewed from overhead. I stood over one of the ledges where the Emperor himself would have been seated and, drowning out the noise of the tourists, I tried to imagine Rome in its prime and the heat of battle directly in front of me.

            The Romans had quite the taste for gory entertainment. While gladiators fought other gladiators, they also fought wild beasts and exotic creatures. One plaque described a day when hundreds of ostriches were set loose on the stage, and surrounding archers shot them all for the crowd’s entertainment. Bets were taken on beasts fighting other beasts, and the entire setup was quite theatrical. The gladiator wore extremely overdramatic costumes with bright feathers and shiny metal armor. It is hard to imagine such spectacles today, however. The closest similarity I can think of is a bullfight, but even those are tame in comparison.

Tour Guide Mike discusses Roman Culture

            After the Coliseum we made our way over to the Forums, which are an impressive amount of ruins of the Emperor’s palace, marketplace, and more. Essentially, it was the hub of central Rome. It still amazes me that many parts of these buildings are still standing and preserved 2,000 years later. As an American, anything past 50 years is considered ancient; anything beyond a few hundred years is simply incomprehensible. I would say more about the Forums, but by that time we had been in the sun for hours and were exhausted. We made our way back to the hotel, but had about an hour to kill before catching the bus to the airport.

         “I still have 15 euro left,” Mike announced, which meant 15 euros were about to be set loose on several gelato counters. We decided that we would help humanity by taste testing every gelato shop around the Trevi Fountain to find the best one. To this day we cannot give a definite answer, though we did put in our best effort. Mike worked so hard, in fact, that he needed to give his scientific testing some thought, so he rested his eyes on the edge of the Trevi Fountain for an hour to think it over. I watched as the walking policia blew their whistles at anyone misbehaving near the fountain. My particular favorite was when a French woman tried to give her naked baby a bath in the not-so-clean water of the fountain. After being persistently whistled, she decided to stand next to the fountain in the crowded area and wash her baby with a bottle of water for all to see. She wasn’t bothered, and neither was I. What can you say but, “when in Rome…”

Sunny Coliseum

My gladiator face (I even scare myself)