Oh god, the heat. Why would any sane person do a gladiator march all over Foro Romano, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum without a hat or water? I am sure Vespasian, Titus, Augustus, and every other sensible person who hung around from the 10th century BC, would have worn a hat and drunk copious amounts of acqua. On my last day of being 59, I really thought I would expire. I did wonder what my dermatologist would have thought with the Grecian tan and now the pounding Roman sun. Thankfully, I don’t have to see her until June, so it will have faded before then.
It has been fabulous doing new things on this trip. The hypogeum, the labyrinth of narrow stone corridors under the Colosseum, has only fairly recently been open to the public. My imagination was in overdrive with exotic animals, gladiators, trap doors, and jumping lions. I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to be down there when the floor covered the Arena. The timber lifts that enabled lions and other wild creatures to jump from great heights into the Arena were fascinating.
I always have such mixed feelings about the Colosseum. The spectacle of magnificent processions, gladiator battles, and chariot races must have been amazing, BUT, estimates of 400,000 people dying there and a million animals are always so sobering.
Sleeping under the stars 