The Roman Forum & Colosseum

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Toured the Colosseum, including the tunnel the gladiators traveled through from the training building that they lived in to the arena. Fun fact: it’s called arena because that means sand. The floor was covered in sand to soak up the blood. We were the first group to enter the underground for the day so it wasn’t too busy but it sure was cold. It’s amazing the engineering it took to build the roof system, the arena floor, elevators, drainage system, let alone the colosseum.

Palatine hill is filled with too many places to list them all. The city was founded on this hill by Romulus and also where he murdered his brother. The rich originally lived in this hill before the empire started. They made huge palaces and eventually expanded the hill. At the base were many government buildings including the senate house.Read more