Colossal fun

Highlight for today: the Colosseum. Or, as it is properly known, The Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: "Amphitheatrum Flavium" in Latin, "Anfiteatro Flavio" in Italian).

Once again the forecasts for rain were wrong, so we set out on foot, passing the Piazza della Republica, and the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. 

It's an impressive piece of construction, and big, capable of seating something like 50,000+ people. 

It is also a magnet for people preying on tourists. In addition to the people peddling junk toys, scarves, and tourist trinkets are the guys dressed up as gladiators who offer to take pictures of you with your own camera, and then ask for money - five or ten Euros. We'd been warned by the guide on the bus the previous day ("Gladiators used to kill people. Now they rob them."), but two still managed to ambush us on the way down the steps to the entrance. 

"Gladiator", huh? Give me a lion and I'll see how good you really are.

We opted to take the 40 minute tour, which let us skip the queue, and spent another 40 minutes wandering the building. 

The colosseum was built between 70 and 80 AD, and was in use until the 5th or 6th century AD.

The building is currently undergoing substantial restoration, with the largest scaffolding I've every seen in my life covering much of the exterior. Primarily constructed with brick and limestone, with marble facings, the building was looted for materials over the centuries until Benedict the XIV prohibited the removal of materials, and consecrated it in memory of Christians martyred there. A much better policy than that of Pope Alexander VI, who leased it as a quarry.

Victorious gladiators often became professionals, and some who earned sufficient fame were buried in the colosseum. Archaelogists have found a number of tombstones for these gladiators, which often include the number of their victories. The high-scorer found so far is fifteen. Which suggests his sixteenth fight didn't go all that well.

From here we headed past the Arco di Tito and Palatino, a major archelogical dig just north of the colosseum, and up to the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele (or as we dubbed it, "the white building"), a 19th century building dedicated to the first king of a united Italy. 

On the other side of the square was a protest march with people from Naples. We watched an Italian cop stop traffic to let them cross the Piazza Venezia. He held the traffic back for about most of the group. The last six guys had to scurry very quickly when the cop let the cars and scooters go, dodging cars and scooters before reaching safety.*

Mario and Anna had to meet Mario's mother Mara, who was flying in from Croatia, so we cut the touring short and went back to the hotel. Dinner was in the restaurant on the roof of the Savoy, where we were joined by Simon and his Italian friend Pepe. A good meal, not as remarkable as the one in the Trastevere the night before.

This marked the end of the holiday for Mario, Anna and Mara, who were heading back to Australia in the morning. For Emma and I the plan is to move hotels. We like the Savoy, but the beds are hard and it's at the pricey end. Plus Emma had a coughing fit, which may be due to mold in the hotel. The downside of Europe is most of those beautiful old buildings are damp, with centuries of mold hiding in the corners.

Tomorrow we're moving closer to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, to the Relais Hotel Antico Palazzo Rospigliosi. 

Which I can neither remember nor pronounce. My Italian needs work.

* We saw several buses of men unloading the day before, marching towards police standing by with riot shields in case things got out of hand. Mario asked a Carabineri what the protest was about. He shrugged indifferently and said "I don't know." We thought it looked volatile, but apparently this is just business-as-usual.