09 and 10 May 2011. ROME,Italy.

There was a time when Rome, Italy conjured  the visions of Sofia Loren , Gina Lolobrigida, Requel Welch etc. Now the times have changed . This time Rome evoked the pictures of Colosseum, Vatican City and Trevi Fountain.But that is life !!!!
Fiumicino International Airport,is the airport for Rome. It is about 40 to 45 Kms from the city centre and on the western sea coast . Descend circuit and approach to the runway in use was over the sea and it had some beautiful views . Sorry no photos :( 
At this point in time even though the visit is only few months old, I can not recollect how the airport looked like or other details .No photos as well . I think it may have some thing to do with the psychology  of reaching the end of the journey , the destination.Things and details are noticed when one has time . At the end of the journey one is in a hurry to collect the baggage and get on with early exit from the airport. 
Landed at  Fiumicino International Airport,Rome at 20:15 local time . Our Thomas Cook rep , Citing late arrival as a reason , instead of taking us to Trevi Fountain and "Time Elevator show" as per the itinerary , took us  straight to Gourm India restaurant for dinner. This did cause , and justifiably so,some grumbling .We had next days lunch also at the same place.

Restaurant entry from main street.

Even at 20:30 local time there was sufficient light .Our group at Gourm India .

Gourm India Dining hall .

After dinner was over, we went to our hotel, Best Western . We were given room no 425.  

10 May 2011, Morning.

The morning was  nice and sunny ,excellent for sight seeing!

The programme was : Guided tour of Colosseum, Vatican City .There was no guide for Trevi Fountain.visit. Approximately one and a half to two hours which we took at these places , rest of the time was "panorama visit" of Rome , which really means that we ride around in the coach and look around the city sights !!!Except for the photos taken at these three places ALL other photos were taken when on panorama visit , that is to say from the moving coach.!!!

COLOSSEUM. 

(Throughout the blog wiki has been used extensively as source of info.)




Click to see full size photo.

Approaching the Colosseum. Photo taken from the coach.

The Colosseum is a major tourist attraction in Rome with thousands of tourists visiting it each year.  It is elliptical in plan and is 189 meters (615 ft) long, and 156 meters (510 ft ) wide, with a base area of 6 acres . The surviving part of the outer wall's comprises three stories.There are  windows interspersed at regular intervals.The height of the outer wall is 48 meters (157 ft). The perimeter originally measured 545 meters (1,788 ft ). The central Colosseum arena, where all the action took place, is an oval 87 m (287 ft) long and 55 m (180 ft) wide, surrounded by a wall 5 m (15 ft) high, above which rose tiers of seating.It was on this arena that all the gladiator fights or any other public functions were performed.The wooden flooring of Colosseum  arena has been destroyed due to earthquakes , stone robbers and ravages of time & fire , A wooden platform to show  the arena  as it existed in ancient times has been partially constructed and is visible at the far end in the photo below.

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Partially constructed wooden platform to give an idea of original oval.
The ruins visible below the arena were called hypogeum.

The ruins visible below the arena were underground cellars called hypogeum and housed gladiators , beasts before their fights It also housed apparatus used in public shows like dramas and enactment of mock battles..Access to these cellars was through tunnels from outside the great walls.

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Another view of  hypogeum or underground cells.
Extreme left , arch of one of the main entry tunnel can be seen.

.It is estimated that outer walls required over 100,000 cubic meters of travertine stone which were set without mortar held together by 300 tons of iron/bronz clamps .Later builders used the Colosseum as an quarry and source for stones and iron/bronz.Stone and metal robbers also contributed in ruining the structure. Gaping holes left after removal of these metal clamps and is all that can be seen today of what were once iron/bronz clamps , see  Photo below.

Gaping holes which held  iron clamps at one time in the past..

Brick work Repairs to missing stone arches.

Seating was on stone steps/seats sloping up wards from the arena. All the seating arrangements have been destroyed over time . To give some idea of where these how these sloping seating steps / seats were provided is given today by sloping surfaces which can be seen in following photos.

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The areas where seating arrangements was provided is shown as slopes.

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The holes in the slopes are the entry gates for seats from the tunnelled approaches.

Priti  &  Ukalkar from our group .

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Seating was strictly as per social status . Emperors seating was at 12 O'Clock in the above photo,(marked by white stripes) . On the Northern side .

As said , seating was strictly as per social status and standing . Closer and at same level as that of the Emperor were his aides , senators , legislators and people of status and wealth . Furthest and at the highest levels was space for "standing Only" spectators comprising the poorest of the Rome and beggars etc. Rest of the population fitted in between!!.Some more photos and views of the Colosseum :-

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Internal tunnelled passages leading to flight of stairs and higher levels . Here it is not looking like "tunnelled passage " as roof has collapsed!!

Couple of more photos :-

Upper stories.

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All the floor/ Stories of Colosseum.

The Colosseum is an engineering and architectural marvel. Your mind boggles when you consider that it was constructed and completed between 72 to76 .It has withstood earthquakes , fires , vandalism, renovations , changes in usage of structure it self and in spite of that it is still in fairly OK condition.Even though in the city centre it still stands and the land Mafia has not grabbed it to raise multi storied malls :)
That is the only reason I have really devoted so much time and effort to the Colosseum.