no place like rome, part tre: the coliseum
We hired a guide at the Coliseum (be warned: their are a great deal of fake tour guides that gather outside places like the Coliseum, and they always, always say that theirs is the last English speaking tour of the day. ‘Tis not true.). I spent the morning wandering Rome with two girls I met in the hostel. It was raining, we’d left our guidebooks behind for the day, and we figured that going to the Coliseum with out an info on it would have been foolish. We were right. It would have been.
So we dropped something like 8 Euro for a “real, authentic archaeologist” to pilot us around. Now, I wouldn’t know if this guy was an archaeologist or a plumber, but he knew his stuff. He had pictures and diagrams and amazing stories, a dry, sarcastic sense of humor, and loads of respect for Chuck Norris. Who could ask for more in a guide?
At any rate, now I know a whole bunch of useful stuff about the Coliseum. And most of it is pretty horrible. Like, that there are no bears left in Scotland because the Romans trekked up there to steal them all for Coliseum amusement. And like, that before they brought the exotic animals out to fight, they starved them for 15 days and kept them in total darkness. Yeah, I’d be in the mood to maul a Christian after that, too.
Got a favorite Coliseum factoid? Share it! I’d be interested in your Roman Forum knowledge, too. I didn’t have a guide for that…
Evidently, women who were fans of a particular gladiator kept glass vials in which to collect his sweat…This my sister and my mother were told when they visited the Coliseum four years ago.