Rome Pictures 3: Coliseum

This is from across the street. This place is so large that it's hard to get a picture of the entire structure. It was amazing to be here.
I'm standing on stones that were laid in the days of Caesar Augustus. Pretty amazing stuff. The wall behind me actually extended all the way around the original arena.Here's Aubrey inside the Coliseum. If the arena was in it's original state, there would be stands on top of the gaps where her head is, and stands above the tiny people in the background. It's pretty amazing to think that they even rigged up a way to give shade to the crowd on really hot days.
This is the chamber area below the original floor of the coliseum. This is where they kept the animals and gladiators. The picture makes it look so small, and it was smaller than I imagined, but bigger than this picture. The acoustics in the place were great. We could hear people's conversations from across the way.The catholic church puts crosses like this one (if you can make it out) everywhere in Rome, somehow signifying the triumph of the church. Somewhat annoying, but cool at the same time. We actually found out that they have a service here every year to remember the martyrs who died here.