‘My name is Gladiator’

 Today was the day. Our tour of the colosseum 


Roma

First we walked to the Vittoriano  The Italian national monument 

Guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier under the statue goddess Roma Don’t mess with these guys. Haven’t seen them move once











After watching Gladiator about 100 times seeing the colosseum was something you could say I was looking forward to

It did not disappoint 

Although before the grand prize we toured the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Too many pics to show but here’s just a few


Julius Caesar grave site (to be accurate he’s cremated) but people still leave flowers for him to this day


Temple of love  


Finally. It’s time! We enter the colosseum. Omg  I’m about to battle Tigris of Gaul

They brought him out of retirement to fight me





The moment arrived  I had to reveal myself to Commodus  “ My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”

I still think that’s one of the greatest lines in movies ever spoken.

As many times as I’ve seen pictures of this when you finally see it - the size, the vastness of it blows you away








The white seats are for the senators. As long as you live. Seems like everyone was killing everyone to get a seat at the big boy table


Trap doors underground. 
Hidden tigers and lions and bulls await me and my fellow Barbarians 
I tell them. Whatever comes out of these gates, we’ve got a better chance of survival if we work together 







I hope you’re enjoying these posts. 
Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained?
Is this not why you are here?






New trip stat. Regrets. Regret #1 Wish I stayed here til nightfall. Would’ve been beautiful to see it under lights

Tomorrow we leave for Pisa 
Just a few notes about how I feel Italy treats and feels about American tourists 
Maybe a little on the unfriendly side. We’ve encountered more than one unfriendly waiter or an unfriendly hotel staff. Speaking of the hotel - not in perfect condition that we expect or the air conditioning not even possible to adjust to lower than 22*C (in a tiny room with no circulation it becomes a sweat box) Nanc was upset one waiter never gave us our free limoncello (he smirked and said in broken English ‘come-a back-a tomorrow-a’ or the hotel not giving her change for a $20 so we could tip their staff. Small things I know. But it’s the little things that count. I don’t know. Just a different people. Different culture 


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