Visiting the Colosseum & Ancient Rome with LivItaly Tours

LivItaly Tours

When I booked a tour with LivItaly Tours, I didn’t realize it was the morning after we would be attending a birthday party for our good friend Linda from the Beehive. We decided we would walk across town to and from the party on a barge on the Tiber. Getting back to our room early in the morning and getting up a few hours later seems to be getting harder as the years go by. Mix in a little jet lag and a cold and you are verging on the impossible but the excitement of Rome and travel can give you superhuman strength when needed.

Colosseum

With a couple of hours of sleep under our belt, we jumped on a subway to the Colosseum to meet our guide, Eva. An enthusiastic trained historian, her cheerful eagerness perked us up and got us ready for the three-hour tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum.

Pointing out details

As we stood in line to pass through security the tour began and Eva spontaneously started pointing out little details in the architecture that were fascinating to her and in turn to us. It was obvious that her mind was brimming with information about a subject she truly loves.

Official tour guide

In fact, as she explained, during the time she wrote the exam to be an official tour guide; out of the more than 1000 people who applied only 4% passed the exam. Making her one bright young woman and more than qualified to transport us back in time with her descriptive explanations of ancient times around the colosseum.

Far more in depth

Using books that she had brought with her she showed us depictions of the areas we visited to help us envision the atmosphere of the time. Her expertise also lead us quickly and efficiently to each area of interest and our small 4 person group helped in keeping the continuity of the experience alive. Not having to yell or wait for stragglers. Continually I found myself saying “wow”, “you’re kidding” or “that’s unbelievable” as she revealed the Roman times far more in depth and real than any movie could recreate. 

The Colosseum

Not only isolated to the famous gladiator fights of Roman time, the colosseum, and surrounding palaces underwent incredible changes over the years. Before its construction Nero built his astounding palace, Domus Aurea, covering parts of three of the seven hills of Rome and included a lake within the palace with a ship floating in the middle for him to entertain guests (Between 50 and 68AD). This insane kind of no holds barred architecture continued afterward with truly incredible feats of construction included in the colosseum and surrounding palaces. Considering themselves almost equal to gods, emperors strove towards creating effects that would make them appear magical. No idea was too big or audacious and with tens of thousands of slaves and skilled laborers at their disposal they could make amazing things happen.

Flavian Amphitheatre

The Colosseum, originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, was commissioned by Emperor Vespasian around AD70 for the Roman people. His son Titus, opened the Colosseum in 80AD with 100 days of games, which included gladiator combats and wild animal fights. Not completely barbaric, the shows were open to children in the morning where animals would fight and less gory activities would take place. In the afternoons children were forbidden as the gladiators made their entrance to fight, sometimes to their deaths.
Gladiators themselves, Eva explained, had no resemblance to the movie stars who portrayed them and were usually more massive and fat than bulging with muscles, since a fat gut protected the organs to being wounded. There was even a period when facial hair was undesired by gladiators so they would scar their faces with hot swords to end shaving forever, not pretty.

A few facts

So many stories and facts were relayed that many have escaped us but here are a few we remember.
The Colosseum has 80 entrances, took 20,000 workers, read slaves, 8 years to build, is 55 meters high and 86 meters long.
If Nat was alive during those days she would have been considered of normal height at 5’2”.
Gladiators were not all slaves, some were free men (and women) looking for fame and money.
There were 36 trap doors in the arena allowing for special effects that could include exotic animals leaping out or a change of scenery with exotic plants or trees changing the set.
Many parts of the Colosseum including its marble were pilfered to build St Peter’s Basilica and other monuments.
The Colosseum underwent several changes in use during the medieval period, even being used as communal housing and workshops in the 6th century.

Palatine Hill

Walking over to Palatine Hill, we were told that the emperor had a tunnel that would lead from his home to the Colosseum. This way he could appear from nowhere in front of a full stadium of 50 000 people like magic, enforcing his god-like status with the public. Again Eva painted a mental picture from the ruins that we stood within which brought the opulence and trends of the times to life. Things like walled gardens that would hold many of the emperors coveted art pieces because they would have the best light in order to view them or the great room where the emperor would greet his guests surrounded by statues of the gods further enforcing his god-like status.

Caesar’s tomb

At the end of our tour, Eva left us in the heart of what would have been Ancient Rome, next to Caesar’s tomb. Our heads spinning with an alternate reality of a time almost too fantastic to imagine.
I won’t give everything away safe to say that LivItaly’s tour of the Colosseum and Ancient Rome was very in depth. LivItaly’s small groups make it easy to ask questions and are conducive to a more personal and enjoyable tour, we highly recommend them.

Virtual reality

Additionally, since November 7th the LivItaly’s Colosseum and Ancient Rome tour incorporates virtual reality to bring the ancient city to life using 3D glasses. We hope to be able to take this new tour, the first of its kind being offered before we leave Italy and are sure it will be amazing.

Disclosure: LivItaly Tours asked us to take a tour with them. We’re glad they did because we loved it. All opinions in this post are our own.