Colossal Human Power

In my mind, visiting the Coliseum was going to be a big day, something special. I did not get off the subway station that is right in front of the Coliseum because at the previous station there is a church that I wanted to visit. This is quite a different part of the city, with more hills and different architecture. For instance, this church (San Pietro in Vincole) does not look like a church from the outside but rather like a plain rectangular palazzo.

On the way to San Pietro in Vincole: Piazza San Francesco di Paola.

San Pietro in Vincole. Sheer barroque inside.

When walking downhill step by step the impressive, ‘colossal’ structure starts unveiling against the sharp blue sky; it is almost surreal. What an striking, magnificent work of art!

While making my way to the entrance, Italians dressed like emperors beg for pictures (in exchange of a fee or tip- this goes without saying in Italy…). One of them manages to steal a laugh out loud from me when he gets down on his knee and tells me in a theatrical way with his arms wide open: Oh, Cleopatra! My Cleopatra!

Of course, smiles is all he got from me…

I went in the corridor, which is the outer ring of the Coliseum, to get tickets, however while I was walking by the line, I got a knot in my tummy. I know that this was for some time a cultural forum. In spite of this, all the atrocities that took place here came to me, and I had to leave. I could only walk around the building, and still with that knot in my gut, checking out inside the building through the ground-level arches. Thoughts and questions came to me during that walk, of how it would have been for the Cesar to come to the functions, or to the plain people. Until I checked out a trench from the outside, and I got chills from even wondering what the gladiators and Christians would have felt waiting there. Unfortunately, I had seen the movie “Gladiator” and even when this was years ago this did not help in undoing my knot. Then, walking past the other entrance, where some reconstruction is taking place, helped me focus more on the plain architecture and aesthetics of this monumental building. If today it still amazes us, no matter if we had stayed at a 56-storey building and at the 56th floor (this is only like a 4-floor building), or if we had been to the most modern domes with retractable roof and with further higher sitting capacity….this still amazes us and attracts millions of people. Also, the fact that it has survived all sorts of catastrophes, from earthquakes to fires, to wars is quite a strong sensation. I cannot imagine what it would have been like for those at the time when it was in use…sheer magnificence.

Colossal human power for doing good and not-good. Living proof.

 

A look in, from the outside.                                  Old walls, new walls.

Old and new... to keep up the old.

Leaving the Coliseum. A look back from Via dei Fori Imperiali.