Roma, sei (say)

If you're confused by the meaning of the blog titles, they are counting (in Italian) the places we visited over our weekend in Rome.  This means that we have arrived at our sixth tourist destination...

THE COLOSSEUM

I must admit that we all find it a little odd how much we celebrate, photograph, memorialize this place where so much brutality and gore happened.  It's not like it was the place to go see Disney on Ice or such.  Yet, there we were, awed by it nevertheless.

We approached the Colosseum from alongside Palatine Hill and were greeted by the Arch of Constantine, commemorating his victory that resulted in his conversion to Christianity.

this was the view of the Arch from within the Colosseum

We made our way to the front of the line (yay us) with our prepaid tickets and into the Colosseum.

We slowly walked around two levels of the Colosseum, taking it all in.

This lower level, partially covered by wood in the background, would have been completely covered and where the battles would take place.  Below is where animals and Gladiators would be kept

Once outside again, we walked the full perimeter of the Colosseum taking loads of pictures.

And then, after a full day of other sightseeing, we returned at sunset for more pictures, this time with our own gladiator.

Day 2, Stop 6, Check