The Colosseum

For those of you that are new around here Travel Wednesday is a weekly series I started to share my past travel stories in chronological order. My travels these past few years have played a large role in how I ended up living in Iceland with H. I hope you enjoy and follow along with my travel story.

When H and I arrived into Rome it was late at night and we were exhausted and wet from our day in Pisa. When we arrived to our hostel we found ourselves walking into a dive bar thinking for sure we were lost. When the man working the bar said follow me as he closed up the bar H and I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The guy walked us up the block and down a completely different street than the hostel address had said.

When our assumed hostel manager walked into what looked like an apartment building with dark halls and creaky stairs H and I couldn’t help but start laughing at the situation we were in. For those of you that have seen the movie Just Married when they stay in the hostel this was exactly how it went for us. Luckily we were shown into a renovated studio apartment room so we could breathe a bit easier.

That is until the police knocked on our doors the second morning there but that story is for a different day…

The next morning we woke up and headed off to our first destination.

I don’t know where I was expecting to find the Colosseum but it seemed like we were just walking along a busy street and turned the corner and there the Colosseum was.

When you walk up the the entrance to the Colosseum you can see some ruins just outside. The ruins were the remains of the cells that were used to keep the “beasts” before releasing them into the Colosseum with the gladiators.

We arrived quite early to the Colosseum so our wait to get in wasn’t to long. I recommend arriving first thing in the morning to the Colosseum, when we left around noon the line was over an hour wait in the very hot sun. Trust me though the wait to get inside, no matter how long, is worth it.

I could have only imagined what the Colosseum was like when they were holding events with the gladiators! We didn’t take a guided tour through the Colosseum but got stuck in the middle of a group for awhile and it was really interesting hearing the different stories from the guide. The Colosseum was one wild and ruthless place but it sure is beautiful to explore now!

Question of the Day?
Have you ever been to the Colosseum?