The colosseum, Forum and Palentine Hill

After a lazy morning spent catching up on the blogs, emails and just relaxing, we set out to catch the tram and bus to our guided tour of the colosseum (underground level (hypogeum) and upper level).

There were some other children on the tour, so Matthew had someone else to walk with and talk to (what a coincidence, the boy's name was also Matthew and is only a month younger than our Matthew).

We went down to the underground area, where the animals were kept and the gladiators appeared from. There was a spot behind us, where they used to throw all the bodies of both the animals and the people killed.

We then went up to the top tier where the poor people and the women were able to watch the events, not a very good view of the arena (or maybe it was just because I was too short), but a good view of the whole colosseum.

We said goodbye to Matthew and his family and wandered off to see the 2nd floor of the Colosseum and the exhibition that was showing.

Included with our tickets were entrances to Palentine Hill and the Roman  Forum, which we visited on Thursday. We also bought a fantastic book that showed us what the ruins looked like in their heyday.

Amazing to think that these structures have survived for 2000 years.