Colossal Colosseum
11 July 2019 | Colosseum Rome
Paul Barker | Hot & sunny 32c
Today I think I have paid for all my queue jumping, again I was told to walk to another part of the entrance this time for the Colosseum. I estimate I saved well over an hour of standing and shuffling along, the pay back came when I got to the security and body scanner. I took my rucksack 🎒 off for the X-ray, then walked through like on previous checks, the buzzer went off as usual for me. What was a shock was the rather officious guard ( now I’m all for security and have never had a problem, I take it very seriously 😐) but I was picked out and made to go back 4 times, first time I had to remove my phone 📞 and camera 📷, next was my belt and shirt 👕 then my necklace, finally I removed my leg 🦵 and had to hop back through, this for the first time ever I was rather embarrassed 😩. What really got to me was that not one other person around had to remove anything other than their bags.
There are quite a few levels in the Colosseum but the public are only allowed to go to two of them unless you pay for a private tour. I wandered around looking in a lot of the alcoves, on the ground and second levels, at the moment there is a lot of renovations going on, so lots of scaffolding especially high up. There is quite a lot of reading to be done so can get a bit heavy and monotonous, there is a shop that sells everything from expensive fridge magnets 🧲 to thick books 📚.
It’s quite easy to let your imagination run away here, with the gladiators walking through one large arch and the slaves (cannon fodder) coming through smaller arches from below ground level, I saw where the wild animals, like tigers 🐅, lions 🦁 and other beasts were kept. I saw little evidence of any weapons that were used like swords and tridents, or any armour.
Every where seemingly scattered around were broken pillars and walls, this place was huge which could hold over 50,000 spectators, there was even a class structure for seating, they expected to see fair play when matching the combatants.
Despite the start of my trip today has been a good day