ITALY!!!: Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill...

It's a life changing event when you walk upon a historical site that is 2,000+ years old and is one of the most famous of all time -- the Colosseum (I got choked up a few times). The Colosseum's main purpose was, per our guide, for propaganda. It is speculated that the emperor(s) built the Colosseum to distract and spoil the masses -- distract from political deficiencies and sway the favor of the masses' perceptions. Our guide joked about how the Romans were smart enough to build the Colosseum next to the subway and Hannah thought that was hilarious!

The events to the Colosseum were free (and included food and wine) to all but seating was based on social status and gender. The Colosseum events were for "entertainment". "Entertainment" that included the fighting of wild animals vs. wild animals, wild animals vs. Gladiators and Gladiators vs. Gladiators. Senators/politicians had special seating with their names engraved in marble. The poor, slaves, beggars and women were placed in the top-tier seating. Women were kept far away from the gladiators as they often fell in love with them.

The Gladiators were strong men that varied from slaves, men who had debts to men who wanted to be the glorified fighters. They were paid to train and were very expensive assets, which sometimes their lives were spared for another day to fight. Many, many, many men died in the Colossum and it sent chills up my spine knowing that we were standing in that very place. 

From the Colosseum we walked through the Forum. The (2^nd) Forum was the center of political, commercial and judicial life. Upon massive amounts of rubble and fallen columns, there are two well preserved arches, the Arch of Titus and Arch of Septimius Severus. The arch of Titus Hannah really enjoyed because of the story of the Goddess Nike, the Goddess of Victory. The interesting part that caught Hannah’s attention was that Nike’s role was to remind the Emperor Titus that, even though he was a great victor, he was still mortal until death. And after death the senators could decide if Titus could become a God.

Lastly, we ended up at Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill is where the Roman aristocracy lived and emperors built their villas or better known as palaces. It is speculated that the word palace or palazzo, in Italian, was derived from the word Palatine. The view was incredible and it was obvious why the aristocrats lived and built there.

Our day was long and hot but absolutely and undeniably the best adventure yet!! We have been in Italy for only two days now and just getting started but are IN LOVE with Rome and looking forward to more adventures wandering through ancient time.

As always, to be continued….