We started at the Colosseum for a long tour that would include the basements and top floor and, which we hadn't known, the Roman Forum and Palantine Hill.
There isn't a lot I can say about the Colosseum you probably haven't heard. It took 8 years to build, starting in the year 72 A.D. after the emperor Titus conquered Jerusalem (if I got my timeline correct). Until the 'barbarian hordes' conquered Rome in the 400s, (when the people on the west coast fled to the Venice area) it was used for 'games', usually hunts, executions, and the gladiator fights. Then it was used for building materials; pieces of stone taken away, used to build churches and other buildings across the city, holes punched in the concrete to get to the metal staves, those were pulled out and melted down. Later the building was converted into a church, and is still sacred (the Pope visited a couple weeks ago). It was public playing land until about the 1980s, when it became a protected site and tourist attraction. A few interesting things we learned on our tour:
The name is actually the Flavian Amphitheater. Or, it was. But there was a great statue, a 'colossal' statue in front, so both statue and amphitheater took on the name; the statue was later pulled down, but the Colosseum remained.
The games were sponsored by wealthy individuals... probably for promotional purposes, for their military or political campaign, or just to impress the neighbors. When a gladiator was defeated by exhaustion or just unable to fight (i.e. when he was not killed) his 'owner' (the guide called them 'auditors'?) made the end decision whether he was to be killed or spared; same case for a winner, if he should be freed or not. When a gladiator was killed they had to pay for the funeral and pay a pension to the family; plus they lost someone they had been training, so it wasn't really a good move. Letting someone go free was almost as bad. So neither probably happened often.
The 'thumbs up' thing was invented by the French and was probably not the signal used, as from one end of the building you can not see anyone's thumbs, let alone if they are up or down; however, there was some signal involving the thumb, we just don't know what it was.
There is some evidence to suggest that for the first 10 years, before they built the underground network beneath the arena, the Colosseum was also used for mock naval battles (but this is controversial).
While in the basement tour, we were actually guided by a different guide; I guess only official tour guides can give those special tours. But she was better than our other guide so I had no problems with it, except we had to juggle two sets of radios (it was so loud, the guides used a microphone to speak to our radios and we all wore headphones).
Once the tour finished, we were passed back to our original guide, who was an archeologist with a very soft voice and very strong accent, and we walked to the Roman Forums. The Forums are mostly ruins, more so than the Colosseum, so rather than 'this painting means this' and 'this room was that' the tour is 'this used to be' and 'imagine if it looked like this picture' but it was fun to see such an important spot in Roman history. The only buildings that remained were churches (as instead of being destroyed they were converted to.. churches). Later, our Segway tour guide would tell us that 'all roads lead to Rome' referred literally to one specific spot in the Forum that is now just a round platform.
Near the Forum was the old Imperial Palace—or, ruins of, naturally. It must have been massive.
I honestly can't remember much of this part of the tour. I was busy being hot, tired, and sunburnt.
The tour ran late, so when it finished WE ran so we would not be late for our Segway tour. We made it early, and found to our delight it was just the 3 of us and our guide, Dea, a Bulgarian turned Roman. After Terra learned how to control the Segway (this being her first time, bucket list check!) we set off on a 3 tour of Ancient Rome... rather right back where we had been, but with more involved, and of course on Segways which was much more fun than walking the distance.
After riding through the Jewish quarter and seeing the synagogue that looks like a church, we started at the top of Aventine?? Hill, where we peeked through a keyhole to see 3 countries: Italy, on this side of course; Malta, because the knights of Malta for some reason have this land here and it's not counted as part of Italy; and the Vatican, the dome of St Paul, framed by the trees in the Maltese garden, giving the illusion that the dome is much larger than it is. Quite a fun view.
Next was an orange garden, unfortunately no oranges within reach to pick (we hadn't had time to grab lunch so we really would have picked one), but the view was lovely. Next to it was a church from the 1500s that looked dilapidated on the outside but was striking on the inside... partly because of the unkept parts and the lack of tourists... but it really was a lovely church.
Then a rose garden that used to be a Jewish cemetery, with over 1000 varieties of rose, we didn't sniff them all.
Next, the Circus Maximus, where once—for 1000 years—could sit 300,000 people to watch chariot racing. The largest stadium in the world. Now it's use for concerts. (There isn't much of the building left.)
Then we saw the outsides of some lovely museums, a nice view of the Colosseum, an upper view of the Forum, maybe some other things, then it was the end of the tour. Dea recommended a certain area across the river—Trastavere—to eat food and experience the night life. Everyone assumes because we are young we like the night life, but oh well. So we went there for dinner, found a restaurant with a stern waitress we got to smile maybe twice, had good food, then made our way home with sore feet but fond memories.
Oh, the blogpost title, I almost forgot.
On the way back to the metro station we got to enjoy Rome just before dark, when the lights were coming on. Also we encountered more of the street vendors, and this time we had a moment to see what prices they wanted. Early we had been bombarded with 'selfie-stick?' 'Water?' etc. but had no interest. Now, on the way home, things were different.
Myra bought some scarves, and Terra insisted she could have gotten a lower price—so the next vendor she vowed to try 2.50. "8 euro" he said, and she laughed and we walked away. "5 euro. How much? 4?" She turned and said "I have 2.50!" Without a word, he handed her the scarf, she handed him 2.50.
Next, not intending to buy any more scarves but hoping for a little figurine, Myra kept 1 euro in hand, and 2.20 in her back pocket just in case. Well apparently all the figurine guys go home early. But she saw another scarf guy and thought, well, she could try. So she said 'how about 2 euro?' And he objected, said no way we got scarf for 2.5, as that's 'without profit', and she said that was all the cash she had. Then she dug in her pocket for the .20 euro coin and offered that as well. After some convincing he took it, because Terra was also looking and he thought maybe he could get another sale; this time for the more expensive scarf. But she only had 3 euro and she told him so; at last he accepted, she pulled it from her pocket and a glint of silver caught his eye. "Aha, you do have more!" he accused. Terra held up an empty keyring she had found. "Do you want it?" she asked. Never mind. She took the scarf, he took the money, and we left.
These are the stories we must tell so others understand Rome!
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