Our last day.

Today is sadly our last day in Rome. We slept in and took our time packing and getting the room organized. After lunch, we headed out to the Colosseum. It's hard to believe that this building is over 2,000 years old. It is quite obvious that the ancient Romans were engineers and not artists. Although very functional, there is not a lot of flare involved in this structure. It was a venue dedicated strictly to entertaining the masses - whether that was by gladiator contests or Christian killings. It was built when Rome was at its grandest in 80 A.D. Today only about 1/3 of it remains because much of the stone used in the structure was hauled out and used for other buildings around Rome as building materials became scarce. The engineering of the structure is quite a sight for construction geeks like us. The arches were built up and supported by falsework until the last keystone at the top of the arch was set creating a tension in the stones that was not only sound enough to hold its intended form (the arch) but also strong enough to carry weight on top of it. The exterior is a skeleton of 3.5 million cubic feet of travertine stone. Each column flanking the ground level arches weighs about 5 tons. It took 200 ox-drawn wagons shuttling back and forth every day for four years just to bring the stone here from Tivoli.

Once inside, you see what used to be the underground passages beneath the playing surface. The oval arena was originally covered with a wooden floor then sprinkled with sand. The stadium held about 50,000 spectators in its day. Just adjacent to the Colosseum is the Arch of Constantine. Emporer Constantine legalized Christianity in 312 A.D. This arch is decorated entirely with recycled carvings made originally for other buildings. By covering it with exquisite carvings of high Roman art - works that glorified previous emperors - Constantine put himself in their league. This arch has been recently restored and is very beautiful.

We spent a little more time wandering around the Forum and Palantine Hill near the Colosseum, but the day was so hot, we soon gave up and headed back to the room to change our clothes and venture back out to finish up some last minute shopping. We went back to the area where the Trevi Fountain is located and ended up having an early dinner as the skies darkened and the thunder started. We found a quaint little restaurant in which two ancient waiters were tending the tables. The one who seated us did not speak English, but still managed to flirt with us (much to Riley's chagrin - he says it creeps him out when guys flirt with his mom). At one point a gentleman who was staggering a bit and missing several teeth wandered into the restaurant. He was immediately escorted back outside by the other ancient waiter, but when his back was turned outside, the man staggered right back in and headed straight back to the kitchen. After a brief exchange of words, he was once again escorted out. We found this whole scene comical because it almost seemed like something out of a Charlie Chaplin movie. There was no yelling involved, just a brief exchange and a stern dismissal. The staggering guy wandered by the restaurant a few more times during our dinner and seemed very annoyed because he couldn't get back in. Each time he would simply raise his finger to his lips and say "shhhhh," to anyone who was looking. We found it all to be funny, but then again Ange and I had just shared a bottle of wine, so...

The rain quickly cleared and after dinner we continued wandering from shop to shop before finding ourselves back over by the Pantheon. In the plaza, there was a tenor belting out opera like a pro. He drew quite a crowd with his incredible voice. I'm sure there were some flaws in his singing (why else would he be singing at the Pantheon for "tips?") but to my untrained ear, he sounded amazing. He was a wonderful ending to a wonderful trip! Tomorrow morning we head to the airport where we will sadly have to say "arrivederci!" to Roma.