Dia Tre…Hop Off at the Colossseo

A less classic view of the Coliseum taken from one of its ends.

We decided last night that we would do the Hop On, Hop Off bus today, to expand our horizons and give us a quick glimpse so we can better plan the rest of our week. The fact that it was drizzling sealed the deal. Walking in the rain is only romantic at our stage in life when we are in the tropics and our bathing suits!

We had a bite in the apartment and headed out to the closest Open Tour stop. If the rain let up, the Coliseum would be our destination and low and behold after an interesting drive around parts of the city we haven’t seen, the clouds parted as we pulled up to our stop.

The iconic structure is huge…50 metres high, 189 long and 156 wide. It covers six acres and in it’s hey day sat 80,000 people, not including the ones who were in the wings to be torn apart as dinner or a treat for wild animals. The Open Tour audio suggested that the animals were only fed “criminals” and there was no evidence to support the “stories” that Christians were sacrificed. Wow, that is surprisingly strange spin. I guess it implies that “Christians” were “criminals” at the time, so they shouldn’t be thought of as martyrs? It was a strange story that made us both go hmmmm.

We walk the circumference of the huge oval admiring her age. She looks remarkably robust for someone born in the first century AD. Sadly, since it is a national holiday, we couldn’t enter, but took pictures through the gates. Many of these will be great for future collage work.

Almost beside the Coliseum is The Arch of Constantine, which I think I like even more. The carvings and sculptures that animate it are excellent and numerous. They have weathered the time well and something about it feels present and relevant, yet it is obviously ancient. We walk a lovely narrow road that gives us some views down into the Forum, and great views of the tops of monuments and church domes in the distance. We will try to come back to see the Forum, but already we are conscious of how much there is to see and how short the time is until we head north.

Dennis’ video camera battery dies and that cements the decision to hop back on the bus and find a restaurant close to the apartment. Dinner is pasta again. Is there ever too much fresh pasta when you have given up your diet for a month?

After returning to the apartment to plug in, we grab our devices and stroll to Piazza Navona. As I write, we are happily installed at a table with a bottle of Cinzano Prosecco, as I blog and Dennis reads newspapers from home in the iPad. Pretty tough stuff.

When we get back to a stronger WiFi signal I will post yesterday’s blog, which is just waiting for photos and if I have the desire post Prosecco, I may do this one too.

Tomorrow we are shooting for a big day at the Monumento a Victtorio Emanuele II, the Capitoline Hill and Capitolini Museum. 

Random thought for the day: Over the past couple of days – well, all the time that we have been in Rome  ;-) – we keep running into obelisks. It was something unexpected. Heck there is even a statute somewhere of an elephant, carved by Bernini just to hold up an Egyptian obelisk. So it got me thinking that these were very big souvenirs the Romans must have taken if they invaded Egypt, or very big gifts if they were, say, to Mark Anthony, love Cleopatra. Anyway, my musings had Dennis search the web. Rome has 8 ancient Egyptian obelisks, five ancient Roman obelisks – imitation being the most sincere flattery and Italians know their flattery – and several modern obelisks. So, you guessed it, Rome holds the title of being the city with the most obelisks in the world. Bet the Egyptians are just a little pissed at that.

Buona sera. Time to finish this delicious bottle of Prosecco with my honey.

Note on Photos. From now on, it is likely that there will be only one photo in the blog and the rest will be on Facebook. I have learned that I pretty much hate how difficult and slow it is to move photos into blogger. If anyone has tips, I'll take them.