Celebrating our 25th Anniversary in Rome
We went to Rome to celebrate our tenth anniversary, and it was lovely to visit again fifteen years later for our 25th!
During our week stay, we did something every day.
We had a tour of The Colosseum – one of the most recognizable monuments in the world. Here are 5 facts about the Colosseum:
- The Colosseum is also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, named after the dynasty of emperors who built it.
- It is the largest amphitheatre ever built, standing nearly 50 meters tall, and with a perimeter of around 527 meters. It could hold over 50,000 spectators.
- Incredibly, it was constructed in less than a decade by an estimated, 100,000 plus slaves working on the build. These were slaves from various parts of the Roman Empire, many being war prisoners.
- During ancient times, access to the amphitheatre was completely free to all Roman citizens, which meant that people from all social classes could attend events.
- Surprisingly for the time, the Colosseum had a sophisticated velarium system, which was a massive awning that covered the spectators, protecting them from sun and rain. The system was operated by specially trained sailors from the imperial fleet who used ropes and pulleys to extend and retract the awning as needed.
Another visit was to The Forum, another very famous landmark of Rome.
Originally, the area where the Forum is situated, was covered by a swamp, until the late 7th century when the valley was reclaimed.
The Forum was the centre of public life for over a millennium. There are various monuments and buildings erected through the centuries – basilicas, temples; buildings for political, religious and commercial activities.
It’s incredible to walk amongst the ruins, and excavations of a civilisation from so long ago in history. Some buildings remain almost intact, while others are merely ruins, or floor plans of what was there.
On the day we visited Pompeii, the ‘travel gods’ weren’t with us. The train we should have been taking was cancelled, so we had to take buses and share taxis with strangers which limited our time at the site. We ended up having to travel for around eight hours, to have just three hours visiting the site.
However, the stress of the travelling was worth every minute when we got there.
Four facts about Pompeii:
- Pompeii had a population of about 8,000 (about the same size as Malmesbury), and around 40 percent of that population were slaves.
- No-one knew that Vesuvius was a volcano, but there had been earth tremors for weeks, so most of the rich people had already left.
- People were not killed by the lava flow, as it didn’t even reach Pompeii. They were killed by the massive whoosh of toxic gases, and then they were covered by ash – 20 metres thick.
- The figures in Pompeii are casts of real people, though not their actual bodies. In the 19th century, archaeologists found hollow spaces in the ash where people had died. Their bodies had decomposed, but the void in the hardened ash created a shape of their final pose. One of the archaeologists, Giuseppe Fiorelli, filled the voids with liquid plaster, and that’s what are on display in Pompeii.
On other days we visited a local market and took a boat trip on the Tiber. This was a little disappointing, as it’s not looked after well – a missed opportunity, and the banks were inhabited by many homeless which was sad to see.
Unusually for us, we went to the same restaurant every night. Benso was next to our hotel and half the price of the hotel. We liked the food, service and lovely staff.
Rome is full of hawkers and beggars and on one day we were accosted 40 times!
Generally, though, we found people in Rome to be incredibly friendly and very welcoming.
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