It is hard for me to believe that we are in our sixth day here in Roma. We have been go-go-go ever since we arrived, but yet there is still so much to see and do. I am looking forward to going to Mass, at the Basilica tomorrow. That is the plan at least, unless the line is really long. Then I guess we will go to Mass at the Pantheon. My professors said that they actually shut down the Pantheon to visitors for respect, so Mass can proceed without interruptions. This sounds really cool, but ultimately I want to go to Mass at the Basilica, of course!
Today we adventured back into many of the popular touristy places. We had a tour guide today, so it was a little frustrating to us when the same places were being shown to us again, and in so much depth that it was putting us to sleep. It was the little places that to us do not seem to be the most important pieces of our trip that were being dragged out. So to the more important part of what we did today.
The Colosseum
The Colosseum, is a 2,000 year old Roman built stadium. In the ancient days this is where the gladiators would have fights. The Colosseum was built in 80 A.D. when the Roman Empire was at its peek. Only a third of the Colosseum still exists due to many earthquakes and during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it was used to get easy pre-cut stones for other buildings. For this reason it is referred to as the "Swiss cheese" because with all of the holes in the building it looks like a block of Swiss cheese.
*If you look closely you can see the holes in the concrete, which gives the Colosseum its nick name, "Swiss Cheese".
The Colosseum could fit as many as 50,000 people and with 80 exists throughout it could empty in less than 15 minutes. Entertainment in the Colosseum was free, this was a way for the Emperor to gain favor from the people; or even to win them over.
The games began with dog fights, or female gladiators, or even a dwarf take on a one legged man. Then the main event would begin, the Gladiators. The Gladiators, would not only fight each other not only to rank up, but to prepare them for battle. Sometimes the Gladiators would even fight animals and animals would fight animals as well. The stadium celebrated its grand opening by having a 100 day festival in which 2,000 men and 9,000 animals were killed. The stadium workers went around and sprayed perfume to help mask blood odor. If a gladiator fell helpless to the ground the opponent would approach the emperors box and ask "shall he live or die" and based on the fight the emperor would make his decision by a thumbs up or down.
*This picture gives you an idea of what the audience would have seen while watching the fights.
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