12 Days in Italy - Day 3 Part 1 - The Coliseum
Day 3 Part 1 - A Tour of the City (7/22/2019)
This first post will mainly involve the first bit of the day at the coliseum. Basically we toured the city starting with the coliseum and then moved across town by bus to the Vatican. I'll walk you through the first bit of the tour and then the next post will continue bit by bit until we wrap up the day.
We woke early, around 7:30 to get ourselves through breakfast and a taxi ride to our meeting place for the tour. We popped into I Dolci Di Checco, a local spot within meters of our doorstep for a Cappuccino (they had decaf for Cindy also), a vegan Croissant, a pizetta (mini pizza) and a panino (a little sandwich). Breakfast for two at 7,20 Euro - not bad. The folks were at first a little confused by us. I had little confidence so I wasn't speaking up and the owner was probably a little frustrated with my ignorance of how to use the language properly. Another patron would echo me - when I said "Un panino per favore" quietly he would look and develop a questioning look. When the other patron said the same thing he smiled and pointed at the items to ask which one specifically I wanted. It made me realize that Italian with a North Carolina accent might be a little problematic for a native speaker. Luckily most folks, including the ones at I Dolci, were patient and let me work out my language issues over time. We actually went back there a few times.
We had arranged a walking tour of the city (300 euro for 2 people) and had to get checked in with a small group before we could start. It was a fairly efficient process to get checked in, but the local folks know that tourists meet there so there were offers of everything from water to umbrellas (for the sun I suppose - it was well over 90 degrees our entire time there) and plenty of people asking for money. One thing I realized was that when you see a tour guide with a group it's best to just let them pass or walk around a different way. A minor gridlock in foot traffic will develop because the group is trying to stick together to keep from being left out of something or from losing ground with their group. It happened to us from both directions with people crashing through the group we were in, and also with a group trying to board a boat and basically holding up a line because the guide stepped in front and his group of 30+ just fought their way through to follow him. The truth is, we all ended up where we needed to be so it was easier to just let things move past you or to avoid the groups altogether if you were able. The tour guides are obvious because they have a flag or decorated stick of some sort that they use to guide their folks through large and crowded areas.
Another thing I had no expectation of was that we were given little receivers that attached to earbuds. Everything our guide said was very easy to hear through the device and you could still hold a normal conversation (if you are able to multi-task that is). That was a nice touch. In researching the tour we looked for one that had limited size and that was in English via a native Italian speaker. There were things we noticed that some might want to be aware of also. The walking wasn't strenuous, but if you aren't used to walking 2-4 miles in a day you may want a different tour. I think we walked closer to 10 miles that day but a walk of that nature is possible if you usually walk places beyond just down the driveway and back. Don't expect a shuttle or golf cart for these tours and wear good shoes. Also the tours are not kid-friendly. The official notice is "No strollers allowed" due to the nature of some of the historic sites, but it would have taken a toll on anyone younger than mid-teen in my opinion. You see great things and hear lots of history but there's very little adaptability to stopping for breaks (restroom or otherwise) and the tour moves as planned regardless of it's participants. The stroller issue was obvious as we climbed the vomitorium in the coliseum. It was so named because it's steep nature and one-way direction allowed the coliseum to "vomit" large crowds from it's inner regions when it was time to clear the space (and also allowed large numbers of people to enter without a huge issue with congestion). The joke is that after hoofing it up all those steep steps one feels the need to divest oneself of his or her lunch but the truth is definitely found in the Latin root vomo, or "to spew forth" as in the masses.
We were checked in and given our earpieces and then moved towards the coliseum. What an amazing structure. It's surrounded by modern streets and structures but stands apart from everything due to it's sheer size. Here are a few pictures that I managed to get as we approached. Notice the moon in the first one!
As we moved inside our tour guide walked us through the "no wait" line and saved us maybe a half hour. I can see that it might be hours saved later in the day (as we later found out at the Vatican) but the lines were fairly short in the morning hours (9-10am).
As we moved inside the actual beauty of the structure fades and the true condition becomes more apparent. I don't mean to detract from the coliseum at all, but from afar it is a magnificent monolith that you just can't look away from after you spot it. Up close it is very much an ancient building that has been scavenged and neglected for almost 2000 years. The fact that it still stands is a tribute to the skill and planning of the ancient Romans, but the fact that it was created with forced labor and then home to so many acts of violence does leave a lingering negativity that was hard to get past. The structure itself was fairly cold and lifeless but the knowledge was still there. Our guide did try to lighten it up and mentioned that gladiators could buy (read: fight) their way out of servitude if they were good enough or crowd favorites, but what she didn't mention was how one could have become a crowd favorite or the "best of the best." Historically, creative ways of killing, numbers of deaths credited to you, or the goriest, most brutal, acts were the ways one could ascend to the ranks of crowd favorite. It was a little tough to disassociate the violence of the place from the place itself. Here are a few images from inside that you may find interesting. Notice the light crowds and easy access to most places.
Another notable fact - when any agency digs in Rome and discovers any indication of ruins or remnants of the historical city, all efforts come to a halt while a study is made of the area. The site is usually then taken over by the city and efforts made to gather info on it. This is the primary reason that the subway system in Rome has only two main tunnels that form an "X" across the city. Nearly every excavation today leads to a new discovery and new tunnels just aren't able to be completed. You'll note that we used the taxi service mostly with the exception of a bus later on during this tour but those were our only real choices since we had so many specific destinations planned. The underground system is very general and leads to specific points in the city but is not even close to extensive and can turn an short stroll into a hike if you don't plan well as the stops are few and far between. Here are the Rome and NYC subway maps for comparison - note that the NYC map is not complete.
Rome vs NYC
Quite the difference!
In my next post I will be taking you through our next few hours of the tour so look out for 12 Days in Italy - Day 3 part 2. Enjoy!
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