Today was my last full day in Rome, before flying back home the following day, and was overcast and a lot colder than the previous days. I had prebooked a tour of the Colosseum for today that included Palatine Hill and the Forum Arena. The tour lasted for about 2.5 hours and included a head set so that you could hear the tour guide more clearly – I found these headphones to be a lot better than the ones at the Vatican. One important thing to remember about this tour is that passports or ID cards are required for entry, and, like the Vatican tour, quite a lot of walking and standing is involved; so, make sure that you come prepared with comfortable shoes, and warm clothing if you come in the winter months. There are also quite a lot of ticket check areas before and during the tour – I was told that this was to try and prevent the petty crime around the Colosseum area where people had had items, such as bags, stolen. Most places within Rome can easily be reached within about half an hour of walking, unless you have any mobility issues, of course. There are also quite a lot of cobbled path areas to engineer at times.
So, a short walk soon saw me arriving at the Colosseum ready for my tour. It is certainly a breathtaking piece of engineering and seeing both the outside and inside provide you with two different perspectives of the Colosseum. This iconic piece of Rome’s engineering was once used to host many brutal events, such as public executions, wild animal displays and gladiator contests. People would flock here for a day of entertainment that included free food and drink. The amphitheatre is the largest ever built and could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators. It also had 80 entrances to deal with crowd control.
This seventh wonder of the world and UNESCO World Heritage site began construction under Emperor Vespasian. Standing on the arena floor gives you a great view of the internal area of the amphitheatre and enables you to experience the exact spot where gladiators once fought, including the Gladiator’s Gate and dungeons. There was plenty of time here to admire the views and take lots of photographs and videos. The tour guide also gave us an in-depth view of how the amphitheatre was set out more than 2,000 years ago. We then had to climb up some quite steep steps, although there was apparently a lift, too, to access a higher position of the Colosseum. The higher elevation provided an even better view of the whole area. It was not long after this that I, and a couple of other people, actually lost the tour guide and found out that our headsets had tuned into a different tour guide’s commentary! Anyway, fortunately we did eventually manage to locate the guide again back down on the lower level.
Our next stop was Palatine Hill which is only a short walk from the Colosseum and is the centremost of Rome’s Seven Hills. It is the legendary birthplace of where Romulus is said to have founded Rome in 753 BC. The area features a number of ruins and is now an open-air museum and key archaeological site. Palatine Hill is at a slightly elevated level above the Roman Forum and allows for great views of the Forum from above.
