What an incredible day!!!
We were off on our usual modus operandi, after our usual breakfast, into two taxi cabs. We were meeting our guide Christina at the metro station entrance outside the coliseum.
Christina has a PHD in archeology, in case I didn't mention it previously, and she is very patient and thoughtful with all our questions. The weather was chilly and raining a bit but not as bad as was forecast. She gave us a short description of how she planned to go forward with our tour and we were off! Since the recent problems in Paris with Je suis Charlie the security has been ramped up at the entrance, we must put our purses through an airport type security machine. Our guide is well known to the various workers at all the sites we have been visiting so we are treated with less scrutiny, which is nice! All the arches that make up the lower floor are numbered there are 80 of them. The numbers signify where each person must enter. A person has a shard of pottery with their number on it and that doorway is the only one they are allowed to use for their lifetime and they are seated according to rank or position in society. The second tiers are also arches and originally a statue stood in each one, it was built in AD 72 and took 8years to construct. It was built on the site of Nero's palace on top of the artificial lake that was destroyed. Emperor Nero was a hated tyrant who had someone kill him (bizarre!) because he was so hated by the people. He had built an immense golden statue to himself, whose height rivalled the height of the coliseum. The gold was repurposed in the new building and in its place 3 pine trees were planted. These trees today stand outside the coliseum .....they are not pine trees as we know them, but they are pine trees nevertheless.
It is difficult to describe the coliseum, you can walk around on the upper levels and look down onto the arena where all manner of events took place, gladiators fighting each other, gladiators fighting wild lions and tigers, also prisoners were thrown in the arena and they met their execution in that way. There would even be women fighting each other. There were also markets and theatre events. There was always some event taking place. After an hour and a half we made our way to the Forum , we were able to walk among the ruins where the Romans had worked and lived. Julius Ceaser was cremated at this site and people still leave flowers and coins here especially at the ides of March , there isn't a grave as such. The forum site was the most important meeting place located in the Center of Rome and where all manner of life took place.
Our guide was the principal director of part of the site excavation in 2010 and her and her students made some important discoveries.
Our time with Christina came to an end.....our "3 hour tour" 🎶🎶🎶. We said our goodbyes and promised to share pictures. All of us were heading for the metro and lunch, which was highly recommended by friends of Sandy's , the Osteria Barberini. It was our most expensive lunch and parts of it were delicious........nothing ventured nothing gained and we are happy we had made the choice, black truffles a speciality were in season, and they were divine over pasta.
We then walked by the Trevi fountain on our way back to our hotel. The Trevi is under a massive restoration and is barely visible under the scaffolding but people are still lining up to walk past it, and we were no exception! It is the largest and most spectacular of Roman fountains, most well known and famous in the world. It stands 85 feet high and 65 feet wide.
We arrived at our hotel in time for Judy, Sandy, Marion, Joanie and Joan to attend 5:30 mass.
Jan and I took a rest! We were all still quite full from our big lunch and decided to forgo going out for dinner.
Tomorrow Judy, Marion and Joan are saying arrivederci to Rome and traveling homeward.
The pilgrims will be here for few more days.
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