Update: I also never got around to posting this one about visiting the Colosseum on our honeymoon! One of my favorite parts!
We ate lunch right outside the Colosseum that day. Yes, it was very touristy and overpriced. But sometimes you just need to do all the touristy things.
After lunch we headed to explore the Colosseum. Jeremy is super-responsible and an incredible planner (that's one of the many reasons he's perfect for my unorganized self :) ) He ordered our tickets to everything way in advance. I was so grateful because the line for tickets to the Colosseum was super long. We just got to bypass everyone :) Think Fast Pass at Disney World :) So if you ever visit Italy, order your tickets in advance!
The Colosseum is so much more than I imagined. It's huge. Huge! It's amazing to think of how incredible the Romans were. They were WAY before their time. It could hold between 50,000 to 80,000 spectators. That's as large as most football stadiums.
The Colosseum served as a source of horrendous entertainment for the Romans. They would hold gladiator contests, mock sea battles, executions, animal hunts and classical mythology. Aqua-ducts ran to the Colosseum not only to provide public restrooms, but also to flood the stage for the mock sea battles. Can you imagine? When they would do animal hunts they would bring in vegetation to portray the animal's natural habitat as the hunters would hunt them.
Beneath the stage, they housed prisoners and fierce animals who would participate in the events. A series of pulleys and levers would bring the animals up to the unsuspecting captives to fight them off.
Later on, the Colosseum served as the scene of the re-enactment of the Passion of the Christ. Ironic, isn't it? There are drawings on the walls of scenes of Christ's death. If you look very closely, you can see the place of the three crosses etched in the wall.
In it's splendor, the Colosseum and the rest of the buildings of Rome were covered in marble. These buildings were later stripped of their marble to finance costly wars. The holes that cover much of the building surface serve as a reminder of the marble that once graced the exterior.
The stairs were extremely steep! They were a workout to walk up and down. I picture the ancient Roman women walking up and down them in their long dresses and sandals. I don't know how they did!
We could have easily spent multiple days walking around the Colosseum, there is so much to explore. It's a shame that a large portion of it has been destroyed by natural disasters and wars. I'm sure it was beautiful in its time.
A friend had studied abroad for a summer in Rome and urged us to visit the Colosseum at sunset. We made sure to make our way back near the end of the day and were so glad we did. If the Colosseum is beautiful in the day, it is purely magical at nighttime.
Photographers line up in droves, hoping to catch the perfect image. This will probably forever be my favorite picture of our honeymoon. I love this man!
Although it was and still is beautiful, there is a feeling of eeriness that surrounds the Colosseum. It's impossible to walk around a not feel it. A place of splendor, representing the greatest Rome had to offer that was also the scene of such torture, such barbarism is hard to imagine. Christians were martyred there. Innocent lives were taken from them, all for the pleasure of the entertainment of the Romans. A cross now stands were paganism once ruled. Part of the beauty of God's grace.
What type of society existed, so shortly after Christ walked the Earth that found pleasure out of murder, out of torture, of misery? Found entertainment in other's meaningless deaths. It is hard to picture such a time, but I feel it is a part of what led to their demise.
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