First we ate our Italian continental breakfast at the Hotel Ponte Sisto and then racked up 61% of our daily recommended steps just walking to our Gladiator tour at The Colosseum in Rome. All toll by the day's end, we took 15,055 steps, approximately 6.28 miles worth of steps.
Travel Note: Most Americans seem to reserve world travels for retirement. Even if retirees in good shape bypass the heavy walking by using only the taxi system, the tours are not ADA compliant. There are many stairs, steep ramps, and uneven cobblestone roads. We are fairly young, and our children are fit and nimble and still, we find ourselves exhausted at the end of a two or three hour tour. Consider this as you plan your travels abroad.
We were fortunate enough to be able to skip the one hour line for tickets + one additional hour for entrance into the iconic Colosseum by booking a tour in advance. Our guide, Paolo, has additional clearance to bring groups through the limited access entrance where the deceased Gladiators were removed after a fight. Unfortunately, and oddly, the fairly new portion of the arena floor was closed off due to "ice," and could only be viewed from above (remember this later into this post).
We were surprised to learn that The Colosseum had been abandoned from 523AD until 1994. Paolo recalled going to The Colosseum as a child to find a stray cat to make a pet out of, as feral cats made their home there. Funny enough, we have not seen one cat in the city so far, unlike the many we found roaming Greece.
Travel Tip: Paulo was gracious enough to let our tour group in on the ways of the Italian taxi system. Only white taxis are official. If the taxi driver fails to turn the meter on, passenger has a right to exit the taxi. The fee is based on the meter only, plus 1 euro for each bag. The fee is not per passenger, as many taxi drivers will tell you, it is for everyone in the car and the distance of travel based on the meter plus the luggage. We wish we had known this in Naples and from the train station to the hotel in Rome.
From The Colosseum to Palotine Hill, we were glad to have been to Greece first to fully understand that it was the ancient Greeks who first settled Rome. Italy would not even become a unified country until 1861. Greece's architectural influences are apparent in every column (even in ancient Pompeii).
The Roman archways seem to be the secret to their lasting architecture. Every structure is massive and seemingly made either by giants or for giants. We felt minuscule traipsing through Rome.
Did the kids appreciate the history lesson? Not to the same degree as adults are capable of, but they each took away the parts that make sense to them based on each of their ages. Ultimately, Madeline gains the most and Fischer the least. By far, they were not the youngest in the group. There were 8 or 9 kids ranging from maybe 4 to 17. In fact, throughout our entire trip we have encountered more family groups and young adults than retirees. The Mediterranean is very youthful.
At lunch, my sister, back in Texas, text about the US conflict in Iran and asked if we are safe. I have been following the news daily, but had not yet heard about the latest developments. I had recalled seeing military presence along the streets in front of monuments in full garb, on duty with military weapons, but Paolo explained that we had nothing to worry about. He said that Rome has never been attacked. Upon returning to the hotel, we found several channels portraying American news. You could watch Trump speak with Italian interpretation overlays or in English. That's when we started thinking about how parts of our day unfolded.
1. On the way to The Colosseum we passed more than one group of military soldiers standing by small tanks inside of barriers in front of monuments (Relevance: Trump authorized and succeeded in killing the Iranian military leader that same day).
2. At the start of the tour, we were told that for the last week, the lines have been longer and the wait for bag checks had been very slow making wait times unusually long. (Relevance: The Colosseum receives approximately 7 million visitors annually. Why would the increased wait time be noticeably longer than any other time? Possibly because the US conflict in Iran had been escalating since December 27th.)
3. Paolo makes a point to note military presence is common since the US 9/11 to make tourists feel safe. He makes a point to add that Rome has never been attacked even in recent times and we should all feel safe. (Relevance: Nobody asked.)
4. Once inside The Colosseum (which was some waiting and bag checking) as Paolo was giving his history, he was interrupted by a guard. They spoke in Italian for a few minutes and then Paolo said the Arena floor is not going to be accessible today because of ice on the floor. Note: It was such an unusually warm day that even Paolo had to remove his jacket at one point. which we had to do even before the tour started. (Relevance: If there was actually an ice problem or the arena was naturally deemed unsafe, the guards would have informed our tour at any point in line for bag check, ticket check, waiting for permission to continue into the structure...not after we entered and were waiting for passage to the floor.)
We now must consider that security has increased due to the U.S. conflict with Iran.
Are we concerned? No. We have no reason to believe there is a potential for danger to Americans in Italy.
Our main concern/focus: We are fatigued and hopeful we will all stay healthy as we trudge along through the rest of our trip abroad.
Well...I'm so glad you are all safe and still feel safe. The increased military presence concerns me, but not as much as the lack of presence probably would. Stay safe, have fun, we love you guys very much!
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