The Colosseum

The Colosseum is an Ancient Roman amphitheatre, built between 70 AD and 80 AD. It was used to entertain Roman civilians by getting animals or trained slaves, called gladiators, to fight each other (often to the death).

Some gladiators even had their own fan clubs if they were popular enough. They got popular by winning fights. Fights either ended with a gladiator being killed, or them being spared by the emperor for putting up a good fight and entertaining the fans. Sometimes the emperor let the fans vote on whether the losing gladiator should live or die.

It was a gruesome and grisly sport, though thankfully not practised any more. The gladiators that fought in this place were mainly slaves or criminals. Here's a picture of one:

When we got there, we walked around the outside of the Colosseum, fearing pickpockets, saw a few views and made our way inside. Thankfully, the lines weren't too bad, so we got through quite quickly. 😀

Once we got in, we listened to Rick Steves' audio tour. He showed us how to get into the main area of the Colosseum, and then we started exploring while he told us about its history. We saw the arena and the secret passageways under it, capable of making both animals and gladiators seem to magically appear.

Then we climbed up the stairs and circled the arena.

J and I went into the bookshop. We also looked over the rail and saw the amazing view of arches and ruins and masses of people, with parrots dancing in the sky.

After we left, we walked up a hill and saw a church, then we spent more than 2 hours waiting for buses that didn't come! (Not that we didn't expect this — it was like that when we went there in the morning.) Rrrrgh!! That was so frustrating!

I think the Colosseum was quite fun, and I learnt some cool information about its history.

So bye!

(Words by F; editing help and some of the typing by A.)