Jun 07, 2018
Final Day in Rome – May 25th
I did not sleep well as if I rolled over onto my right side my wound pressed into the pillow. Church bells woke me at 8AM so I only had 4.5 hours of sleep. Despite not being able to wet my wound for 48 hours I just had to have a shower and wash my hair as it had been seven days since I last washed it. We covered the steri strips with three heavy bandages and I did my best to not wet my forehead and when I did Colin was there to hand me a towel to dab at the area.
The next morning, about 5 1/2 hours later.
So we started to pack in the morning. Fortunately we supplies to make eggs, toast and coffee for breakfast which filled us somewhat after a non food day yesterday. You might remember that because of the rain we changed our Colosseum tour to today from 2 – 5 PM. It was described as slightly strenuous but I was going no matter what as I really wanted to do this tour and it had cost us a ton of money in the end. We were in in group of between 20 – 25 and we had headsets in order to hear every detail.
Colin stitched five photos together to get this panoramic photo. The Colosseum was built in just eight months, an amazing feat.
We made it to the top. Well Colin climbed while I took the wheelchair elevator. Try to imagine a canopy over the entire area. They had an intricate way of holding a cloth canopy. Amazing technology way back then.
The tour was great in that we heard many details that we might have missed otherwise. The oval area at the base of the seats was covered with a floor. What you see here are a series of narrow tunnels under the floor which had had openings like a trap door raised with an intricate pulley system placed randomly. The entire floor was covered by straw so the audience never saw where the next door hatch would open.
There were games scheduled perhaps monthly ( I can’t remember ) and the public was invited to come with the incentive of free meat. Gladiators fought against gladiator often not fairly matched, they also fought animals and exotic animals were brought in to fight each other and so on. The highlight was at noon, it the time to kill criminals or those that had been falsely accused. The methods included burning, hanging and beheading. Hence the reason for the straw floor covering, an easy way to clean up the blood.
We are now in the Forum which are buildings built over buildings over the centuries. Remarkably the buildings in the Forum are well persevered. Note the door of the church so high up. During excavations they discovered that there were ruins below at ground level.
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I was proud of myself but I have to admit that my left knee area was sticking out 3 inches with a huge hematoma. A PT specialist on the tour asked me what had happened to me and was shocked that I was on the tour when I should have been in bed. I had no pain and despite being tired and slow moving I was doing well. I had come to Rome to see this and I saw it.
The new way of selling tours.
We got back to our lovely huge apartment where I rested, finished packed and we headed down the street for a quick dinner which I mostly did not eat. The wine was great though.
So ended our time in Rome.
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SO GLAD YOU WERE ABLE TO DO THE TOUR. ALTHOUGH YOU WERE TIRED AND SORE, I KNOW YOU’LL LOOK BACK AND BE GRATEFUL THAT YOU DID IT. THE ARCHITECTURE IS ABSOLUTELY ASTOUNDING IN MOST OF EUROPE AND THE MEDIEVAL COUNTRIES, ESPECIALLY WITHOUT ALL THE TECHNOLOGY AND EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE NOW. EIGHT MONTHS IS INDEED A VERY SHORT TIME TO BUILD THE COLISEUM.
What wonderful tour and great photos thanks for taking us along.
Fabulous pictures. But I sure hope you are resting now and taking care of yourself. You’ve been through enough.
A beautiful day, great pictures! But seriously, you have to eat Contessa, you can’t do a trip like this on wine alone…
Did you end up doing the overome tour of the Colosseum? We enjoyed it. Glad you made it through all your injuries, although I would have probably called a halt to further sight seeing for a couple of days. Hard to do though when you have limited time there. Hope everything is healing up for you
Contessa, you are one of those people I hear about who live by the adage “Where there is a will, there is a way.” I applaud you as you are the Duracell Bunny. Loved the pictures of the Collosseum, and how lucky you and Colin were to get in the midst of sunny Nice’s centro.
…we are in Florence’s Centro…haven’t made it to Nice yet.
Colin’s Mom, Mommio has always called me the the Energizer Bunny.
No we cancelled that one and went with Dark Rome Tours.