First stop, the Coliseum. Here it is from the outside. See the way the top appears to be chopped up rather than eroded from weather and time. Well that is what happened. When the Sistine Chapel was built, the Pope decided he liked the marble on the Coliseum so he had the marble workers just chop up the Coliseum. Because the artisans were not getting very much money for their work, the decided to just take an extra pieces of marble for their own homes.

Inside the Coliseum. Now you can see the very large area, on the very top that was chopped off to use in the Sistine Chapel.

The top of the entire Coliseum was covered by a canvas. The same material that were on sailboats to protect the spectators from the intense hot sun.

Inside you can see that the building has totally deteriorated. From each of those doorways were wooden bleachers. Not much left of the original arena.

Here you see the pits. This is where the wild animals were kept before they were brought out to fight to the death, men or other beast. There were many tunnels down here that also housed the slaves that awaited their chance to come up to fight other slaves as gladiators or animals. This pit was covered by a wooden floor where all the activity occurred.

This is just one of three areas where Caesar was supposed to have been killed. On those steps to the right.

Now there are over 250 cats in this area. How many can you find?

Trevi Fountain

This is only one section of this very large fountain. It is three times as large. If you throw 2 coins over your shoulder into the fountain, you will return again next year to the "eternal city." This was my favorite place in Rome. It was very hot by the time we got there and it cooled off all the people that were there. A very calming area in a very hectic city.