Roman Holiday

We only had four days in Rome, but we definitely made the most of it. 

I had been to Roma, twenty (something) years ago, but it was a first for the rest of the family. Many warned me that lots of things have changed in The Eternal City; while others joked nothing ever changes in Rome.  With just four days, it's hard to make that assessment but, off the cuff, I'd venture to say that not much has changed.  In my book, that's a good thing for a city like Rome, being, like you know, two and a half THOUSAND years old.  If globalization hit a road block in Rome (and Paris, for that matter), it would be OK.

We enjoyed a nice mix of neighborhood walks/dinners, along with visits to a few key monuments.  The Colosseum was stop #1.

Without older kids in the house, we've been wondering how long it would take for "play fighting" to take hold of our household.  It's been brewing for a while, and we did what we could to stave it off, but it was only going to take one "colossal" gateway experience to unleash it all.  

Introducing the queen and her gladiator:

The Colosseum just finished restoring the underground dungeon level of the the arena where the gladiators and live animals trained and prepared for games.  We had the grand, guided tour, and it's unbelievable to (try to) make the imaginary leap of two thousand years to the era of the arena's heyday.  

Dungeon level.

Wild animals were kept in these little niches (seen below). The emperors would bring exotic animals from all over the empire (everything from lions to hippos to elephants).  Animals fought each other to the death, although humans and animals never fought each other.  Killed animals were cooked in the dungeon level, then doled out to spectators as free food. 

This was all a political move, as the spectators (including the lowest classes) could watch the game for free and then get free food--the event sponsored by emperors and Roman senators vying for political office or favor.

Gladiators were captured soldiers from all over the empire who were basically slave fighters.  I underestimated the supply of these slaves, and learned it was so expensive and time-consuming to train the gladiators that winners were only allowed to fight 2-3 times per year.  If they stayed alive for 10 years or so, they could win their freedom and return home.

Imagine the platform in the photo above if it extended across the entire oval area, covering the underground prep area.  This was the arena floor, covered in sand to absorb all the blood.  

The emperor's box is at the very edge of the platform on the right.  Strangely, it paid to be a third class citizen of Rome because your seats were up high where you couldn't be eaten by the wild animals jumping off "stage" into the stands.  Often, these animals had been caged in extremely tight spaces and starved so that by the time they made it into the arena they were completely crazed.  It wasn't uncommon for an animal to lurch into the crowd of spectators seated in the lower levels, which were the senators and VIP crowd.

This was the largest ampitheater in the Roman Empire (seating up to 70,00 people) and is the best preserved.  Even today, it is the largest in the world..  It only took eight years to build and opened its doors in 80AD.  Wow.

And for all that play fighting, these little ones still love a sweet, informative children's book about a cat's adventures in Rome.  If you haven't had the chance yet, please check out my friend, Shannon's, children's series about KeeKee, the cat, who travels all over the world.  Your kids will love it!