Last day in Rome

Well the Pope was in town so things were a bit constrained as to where we could vist.  We did get to the Colosseum and got to visit several of the hills of Rome.  

Tuesday morning I started the day with an early walk to the Spanish Steps

at the bottom of which I got to preparations for the Pope's arrival later that day. One lucky fireman was chosen to place a wreath on Mary's statue.  He was quite pleased with himself when he got down. 

 Then I heard chanting and saw a crowd forming so of I went.

No Pope - just a prelude

Got to commune with a bird and caught a few other sites before heading off to the main event of the day. 

One of ghte smart things we did was hire a driver for a few hours before we met our guide for the Colliseum.  He drove us around various parts of Rome hitting 4 of the 7 hills checking out some of the gardens,  and vistas and, yeah, a few more churches.

So much of Rome was about creating a legacy.  The afterlife itself seemed to be predicated in being remember. So lets build a cool tomb in Rome for myself. 

Or how about we create a space where we can entertain 50,000-80,000 spectators - they may hate me - but they'll have a good time and that's what they will remember. 

 In the following photo, the level where the people are standing was the floor of the colosseum.  The white stones you see behind them at about 10:00 oclock are the seats.  They had to be high enough up the that roaming lion wouldn't jump up and take a bite of you or your lunch.  When you came to the colosseum, you came for the day.   Now all the stuff that exposed in front of the floor was the where the magic happened.  They had trap doors and elevators so that elephants or gladiators could arrive in a poof through the floor..   The spectable must have been mind boggling. And where else would you get to see these mythical creatures from around the world.  Oh, yeah, and the gladiators and stuff.......

When it was built, it was covered in marble.  After the fall of Rome, anyone that was buidling their own place would send a few workers over and then scavange.  I forget the number of buildings it supplied, but can you imagine how this thing gleamed?

This is what it is believed it had looked like.

Oh yeah, and you need facilities for those 80,000 people - behold the latrine:

Then it was back to the hotel to start packing.

With a couple other stops:

 

Then off to dinner where the owner of the resaurant tried to trade my meal for my wife.  Hmm.