Day 6: Colosseum

Only 2 minutes from our apartment we cross the Ponte Palatino and a short walk took us to the Circus Maximus where chariot races, games, athletics and commerce were undertaken. Apparently one day a year all rules were relaxed and gambling on the races was officially allowed. On other days I am sure there would have been covert gambling. As it dates from at least 500 BCE and was used to 523 CE it is close to the oldest organised racing and betting track!

Around the corner from the Circus Maximus is the imposing Arch of Constantine and magnificent Colosseum. We made an afternoon with an audio guide listening to the history of the Colosseum. Virtually the whole outer wall on the south side was taken for other building projects and there was lots of damage from the many earthquakes over the centuries. It seems everyone took stones from old buildings for their project including the Popes (some of Colosseum used in foundations for St Peters) but they also helped protect the site. In 1749, Pope Benedetto XIV declared the monument a public church, consecrated to the memory of the Passion of Christ and His Martyrs; so at least the removal of the stones was stopped. 


We have spotted some of the worst hawking jobs in history here but a fun one is burly blokes dressed up as Roman soldiers who will take your money for a photo with them.  They have a Julius Caesar as well and seem to in abundance outside the Colosseum.  They had great fun dressing up tourists and the ladies as Cleopatra!  Maureen is trying to get a photo on one of them on a mobile phone. 

 On our way back from the Colosseum we passed the giant monument to Victor Emanualle II and the the establishment of modern Italy. Part of the complex took us through Piazza del Campidoglio.(Capitol Hill) which was redesigned by Michalangelo and the famous bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback placed here. Unfortunately the original has deteriorated and so is in the National Museum close by - on our list to visit! The statue (copy) is the most famous and wonderful of a horse. It could easily come off the pedestal to you and is placed in the centre of the Piazza. I could look at it for hours.  Another example of the power of art and sculpture to inform and influence.  As famous art critic Robert Hughes states such sights and even aspirations are devoid in Australian public places.


To get back across the Tiber we crossed the oldest bridge in Rome (Ponte Fabricio 52 BCE) to Tiber Island where the Church of Saint Bartholomew and a hospital now sit.  St Bartholomew is  depicted as a major figure in Michelangelo's 'Last Judgement' and was supposedly skinned alive and beheaded in Turkey in the first century.  The church was dedicated by JPII to 20th Century martyrs with many being named eg from Nazi era etc.  It was moving to read their names listed in the side altars focusing on each continent of the church and to reflect on their faith.