Modern organisation vs Roman organisation (1st October)

As we head on the 9am bus to go to the Colosseum we decide to get off early and file the police report for our mobile phone. The officer on the front desk in typical Italian style is slowly serving a customer but asks us to tell her what we want. Unfortunately she doesn't understand English so continues with the first dude. Meanwhile more people join the queue and we are left standing there not knowing what is going on. However a sign on the wall says in various languages (including English) Stolen goods level 2. So after humming and haaing we decide to head up the stairs to see if they can help. There is shouting "scusi, scusi" because we have done the wrong thing and we are not supposed to go to the department we need directly. It turns out the big door that was wide open is a security door and she was sick of pressing the button to let people in and out, but because of us it is now firmly closed! Opps - not the impression we wanted to make. Eventually someone who speaks a little bit of English is able to determine that we want to file a stolen goods report. We get given the English version of the form to fill out and escorted to an area inside the police station to complete it. Behind us, 3 other guys eventually appear as they are here to do the same thing as we are. One guy is really nice and he also speaks quite good English, which is helpful when we then get kicked outside because it's cleaning time. Our new friend who was behind us in the queue gets called after about an hour of waiting. He goes to level 2 gets his form stamped and heads away. However he did ask about us English speaking people and told us that someone would come and get us. Finally despite being first there, we are the only ones left and 20 minutes later a guy comes out through the doors puts his hand out for the piece of paper, we pass it to him and he disappears. 5 minutes later he is back with a photocopy and the appropriate stamps on it. Over two hours of waiting for this - it seems as though modern organisation has gone wrong. Oh well it's a job done. Did we mention that we still hadn't had breakfast so before catching the metro in we had brunch - kebab again for Mike, pizza for Shona; the healthy travellers we are. Finally we arrive at our destination for the day - the centre of Roman games, the Colosseum! It's size is ginormous and it is amazing to imagine exactly what it would be like in it's hay day. Thousands of cheering spectators filled this area where hunters would roam around fake sets to kill the amazing animals brought in for the games. It has even been said that 100 lions would be brought to the arena floor at the same time, something impossible to see in any zoo -or anywhere in the world throughout history. Criminals made to star in plays where the final scene is their own death by tiger or lion etc and in the afternoon the most famous event - the gladiators! Just as we are about to go in, a lady says that she has a tour starting right now that we can do and it also includes a tour of the Palatine hill afterwards. It goes for forty minutes and then we have free time to explore the Colosseum as we like. The tour guide is nice, cracks jokes, but it isn't the most interesting tour and we are wondering if we wasted the 10euro (hold that thought). Interesting points to note, that the lower classes who sat at the top had the most shade, whereas the aristocrats who sat in the front rows roasted. In the early years, the whole arena could be flooded to show nautical battles (although only a few of these where held there before a custom built arena was made and the floor was modified to have two levels with elevators built in to put everything in the arena). The whole arena could be emptied in 15 minutes... much more impressive than Eden Park! There is also a temporary display on the Flavian emperors (who built the arena) which is certainly worth a look. we head out and begin pondering what to do for the hour or so before the next tour of palatine hill - when a lady from the same company we bought through told us we can just go on her earlier tour. Maia is wonderful and we both agree that her portion of the tour package was worth the 10euro in itself. Palatine hill is where the roman forum is, which was the heart of the city of Rome and the birthplace of the empire. The start of the city goes back to the time of Romulus and Remus, which is the story of the brothers that were abandoned and raised by a she wolf. You may think it's impossible to be raised by an actual wolf - but the clarification comes from the word 'lupa' which means both she wolf and prostitute! Anyway Romulas became ruler in 753BC and killed his brother, because at that time the state was considered to take priority over the family. Maia has some wonderful bits of information and obviously has a real passion for history. Did you know that the phrase "life begins at 40" comes from the fact that this was the age that the vestial virgins (of which there were usually 8) were allowed to quit the job of tending to the flame of Rome and marry? A lot of them didn't however as they would lose all of their assets to their husband and would no longer be treated like queens as they had become accustomed (i.e. they had their own private box in the Colosseum and were the only women allowed to ride alone in chariots). We're once again amazed by Roman engineering, when they excavated the area they found a bronze door from 300AD, when they turned the key in the lock - it still worked! The main road (Via Scara) to the forum was found by the archaeologists but when they first found it they thought that it was too well built for the time and so they kept digging. They didn't find a road and realised that they had just destroyed the Via Sacra. At least they still had the stones and could relay it. Maia explains the story behind the Temple of Antonimus. After the Romans fell the Christians wanted to knock it down to build a church. Specifically they didn't like the roman style columns, however nothing they did could get them to come down. They went so far as to get a herd of elephants in to pull them down and there are marks left in the marble where the elephants pulled on the rope. But still it would not come down. So for this reason the church was built inside the old building.You all have heard about Roman gods and at the time of Constantine he needed the people's support. Many Romans were beginning to practice Catholicism (as it promised a path to heaven for even the poorest people) and so he made Catholicism the official religion of Rome and legalised everything to do with being a (Roman) catholic. The scripture "a rich man has as much chance of making it to heaven as a camel has of passing through the eye of a needle" brought a lot of people to the church and was a great revenue gatherer as people gave their money to the church to try and buy their salvation (this is how the ridiculously large churches can be funded). It also meant that within 100 years it went from being illegal to be a catholic, to being illegal to be any religion OTHER than catholic. Anyway, with the change to Catholicism the holidays were aligned to the dates of previously celebrated festivals. Easter was matched to a pagan festival (hence the reason for bunny's) and Christmas was aligned to a sun god celebration. Within a few generations Romans had forgotten about the traditional ones.Rome eventually fell, putting all of Europe into the dark ages, because it was too big and there weren't enough countries to conquer and to take the wealth from. The Roman way of life was not sustainable as they were using the winnings found after the battles to fund everything. It was also falling apart from the inside because their lifestyle was not compatible with a lot of the catholic principles. That said they were loved by many conquered nations because they introduced running water, roads to everywhere, games & entertainment and a better way of life. After a lot of discussion we decide to head back to the camp site for dinner -Mike ordering the lasagna again and Shona having the cannelloni. For the first time on the trip we have to send something back to the kitchen as the lasagna pasta is no where near cooked and isn't edible. Italians not being able to cook pasta? What's the world coming to. Instead he has a take out pizza and gets news that the entire metro will be striking tomorrow! No buses or metro in the city outside rush hours so no way to go through our plans to see some more of Rome and the zoo (we love zoos). We book tickets for a day excursion instead...