Colosseum

I went to Roma this past weekend and since there was so so so much packed into two short days, I have to split up these posts or you will be sitting here forever!

So after we checked into our somewhat weird hotel (I guess I am just not used to non-American ones) we went to the Colosseum.  That place is pretty amazing. 

 History lesson: The Colosseum was built in 80 AD and it took 8 years to complete.  I could hold 50,000 people and could be emptied in under 15 minutes.  It was originally covered in marble but the Romans realized that it was a lot easier to strip the marble off the colosseum to build churches and statues than it was to bring it in.  That is why it is now brownish.

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The Colosseum is pretty darn big.  Not as big as the Swamp or Bobby Bowden Field, but it still big especially considering it was build by hand.  That is still so crazy to me.

Back in it's heyday, there was a large canvas covering that would be pulled over the top to bring some shade.  The seats in the sun would be more expensive than the ones in the shade, duh.  They held all sorts of competitions and bloody battles here not to mention they used to be able to fill and drain it with WATER! That's crazy.

As most of us know, they would kill Christians here by letting them be fed to the wild animals.  The lions and tigers would be starved for a couple of days to make sure that they would attack.  They took these animals from North Africa and that is why you no longer see animals like this there because they are now extinct.  Somewhat funny note- when they were building tunnels under the city, they came across a huge vat of dead but NOT decayed animals that was a couple of miles long because they were packed in there so tightly. Gross.

So the Colosseum was very beautiful and very neat to see.  I am sure I learned more, but I don't remember right now. And I am sure you don't really want to hear it.  So enjoy your early afternoon and I will enjoy my night :)