Day 177: Flavian Amphitheater

Colosseum day! We'd booked a behind the scenes and underground group tour at the Colosseum for 9:20, so we were up fairly early, taking a half hour stroll over to the famous stadium.

What I can't get over is how much the interior of the place looks and feels like modern day stadiums - separate entry gates depending on seating, multiple levels that separated socio economic classes, areas for concession stands... Even guys running up and down yelling "popcorn here!".... Well, that last one has not been proven, but I'm sure it happened.

The tour was good. Short and sweet and full of information, entertainment and some history. Our guide, a petite, middle aged archaeologist was able to answer every question from the crowd and she kept things moving. The girls loved how she added a vowel at the end of each word "the crowda woulda nota be interested ina boringa showa, theya neededa the granda spectacle-a!". Speaking passable Italian is so easy, you just need a liberal usage of additional vowels and an uncanny ability to perform hand puppetry sans puppets.

Most of the areas we went were restricted to our tour type, so it was nice to be away from the crowds. We started out on the reconstructed portion of the main arena floor. She showed us how the trap doors for props and animals worked to bring surprises on to the main stage - very cool.

Next, we went downstairs and had a look at some of the behind the scenes parts of the structure. She reminded us that the real name for the Colosseum was the Flavian Ampitheater (named after the powerful ruling family at the time of its construction from 72 to 80 A.D.) and that the name Colosseum just stuck by being associated with a large statue, the Colossus, that was nearby for many years.

We saw where the ships for the reenacted naval battles were kept before launching into the main arena. Flooding the whole place just to put on those naval battles in the morning, then building a temporary wooden floor for the afternoon gladiator battles sounded like a ton of work and it must have been extremely expensive at the time.

It was crazy to hear the stories of the really long exhibitions, where they would kill thousands of men and tens of thousands of animals over "celebrations" that sometimes lasted over one hundred days long.

The dismantling and recycling of all the limestone and metal in the structure made more sense when she put it in the context of the time. Imagine what we we'd do with a large office building that was no longer in use? That's what they did with the Colosseum over the years. All of the limestone was stripped and burned in furnaces to produce a powder that was used in concrete (an Italiano inventiona, by the waya). The metal was also stripped and melted down and reused. It's actually amazing that so much of the structure remains, but that's largely because it was continually repurposed - a fortress, a trading Center, a small village, a church.

 By the end of the tour, Beth's back was in a a lot of pain from all of the standing around. We walked around the structure for a few minutes to take it all in, then we headed out. We were going to walk through the Palatino hill then the ruins of the Forum, but she needed a coffee and a Piazza, so we headed past the beautiful Terrace of the Chariots building and over towards Piazza Navone.

The coffee and a break halfway there seemed to recharge Beth, so we headed over to the Piazza for some lunch. Abby had been, hilariously, wanting to eat at a "real" pizzaria (as opposed to all the fake stuff we'd been eating), so as always often sometimes rarely we indulged her.

We found a nice place just within sight of the square, and sat down to some delicious pizzas. My first real quattro formaggi since 2001....yum.

We heard a cool trio of musicians start up, so we paid our bill and walked over to check them out. They were great, however as soon as I started to video them, it started to rain and everyone packed up.

It didn't look like it would last long. Beth and the girls used the opportunity to duck into a souvenir shop, and I watched the commotion outside as everyone reacted to the sudden rain.

An enterprising guy came by two minutes after the rain started with an armful of ponchos. It was funny, he was practically running between prospective clients as the rain didn't look like it would last.... I laughed as two women bought ponchos just as more blue sky peaked over the western edge of the buildings surrounding the piazza.

As quickly as it had started, the rain was gone and blue sky was back. I hope for their sakes it rains again so they can use their new ponchos....just wait until we leave ok?

Once again, before we knew it, we were back at he Trevi Fountain, hefting euros over our shoulders for new wishes or to solidify old wishes... None of us know, as the wishes are to be kept to oneself for additional luck. Right? I personally hoped this wish thing wasn't for the birds...

I personally wished that we would be able to see another souvenir shop, and my wish was soon granted as we'd entered and dropped a hundred euros or so on useless junk....well, except for my Rome shirt - that was awesome!

It was time for a nap. We'd let the girls stay up late last night, and we have a really early morning tomorrow. While the girls were still fast asleep, Beth woke up and slipped out. She was armed with a map and instructions for her shopping venture. The girls and I had a four o'clock date with Daniel Craig and the new 007 movie Spectre!

The theater was in an old building, but it turned out to be fantastic. If you don't know how James Bond movies start (Beth and Probir), they always start out with the iconic white circle moving across the screen with Bond walking, then he turns to shoot at the audience. This is usually followed by a ten minute action sequence to set the movie up, then the lavish opening credits that feature the new "Bond song". To be fair, Abby had not seen a Bond movie before, but I almost lost my lunch when, during the opening credits, she turned to me and asked "is it over?". Oh, God love her, she really needs to get back to school. Lol.

The Bond song was not the strongest, but the movie was on par with Skyfall - one of the better Bond movies for sure. The girls loved it and there were surprisingly few questions throughout. It did suck that James Bond died at the end... That was a shocker. Oh, spoiler alert. Sorry.

We met Beth and her bags back at the hotel, and the girls were pleasantly surprised with more new clothes on their bed. They have, here's a superlative, "the best mother of our generation that I have personally witnessed".... Sorry other mothers of our generation that I have witnessed :-).

We had an amazing dinner at a little place near our hotel that Abby had noticed was always busy at night. Would Abby order penne Arabiata for the fourth night in a row? Each meal it seemed to be getting progressively better, so before she had time to order it, I preempted her and ordered my own Penne Arabiata. She followed suit and it turned out to be the best batch of the four.

When we got back to the hotel, we got busy packing up. For the first time, we have an extra carry on bag full of artwork that may never make it to one of our walls. I keep joking with Beth that our house will be like the famous Taiwanese museum where they only display 10% of their items at any one time because they don't have the space to display it all.

Robin volunteered to expedite the drying of some laundry that Beth had hand washed.... Jesus... We had to do our own laundry for the first time on the whole trip - the horror! Robin's little creative genius always flourishes at moments like these, and she soon had an elaborate setup with hooks, hangers and a hair dryer blowing from above. Genius.

Well, we are leaving Roma tomorrow. We decided on really seeing the city from the ground and not spending too much time in museums or churches. Today, we logged 22,000 steps and 15 more kilometers of walking these amazing city streets (editor's note: Beth would like to point out that she earned the last few dozen steps on her own during her shopping expedition and that the lazy theatre goers do not deserve those steps.... Well played, Beth, well played).

Four days and close to sixty kilometers of walking the beautiful streets of Rome and there has not been one squeak about sore feet or tired legs. These kids of ours are amazing and I'm in constant wonder at their love of life and what we're doing on this adventure. The history can come later, if they want. These girls have their finger on the pulse of what Rome is all about.... and the beat goes on tomorrow when we fly to Paris.