Rome, Italy - The Coliseum

Any view of the Coliseum is awe inspiring to see in person.  We have all seen many, many photos of this famous Roman building but to see that it is real (and not just a movie set) takes your breath away.

This trip gave me a totally different view of the Coliseum from my first trip. When I visited in December 2010, there was a student protest and the traffic was stopped.  No buses could enter so the visitor traffic was very low. We had it all to ourselves, practically.  We took photos from the front and all through the interior.  On this trip, I was going to ride past the Coliseum and we came in from the back, the southern side. This gave me an entirely different perspective.

New plantings are enhancing the grounds surrounding the building.  You can see restored sections, and the fact that one side of the building, what we would consider "the front" is larger and is a sort of overlaid wall.

 Look closer and you can see that portions of the building have been replaced.

 The close-up shows the new brick placed next to the old brick, carefully maintaining the shape of the original.

 My biggest surprise on this trip was the view of the front facade as a leaning wall.  I didn't get to see this perspective in the first trip.

 This closer view allows you to see inside the building. People are standing on one of the upper levels.

 We are rounding the building to the front.

 This is the view that is mostly shown, the front side of the building. Crowds are headed towards the main entrance.

 If you look in the lower right, you can see the crowds queuing to get in to the entrance. It's a moderately warm day, so the shady places feel much nicer. (My air conditioned bus feels pretty nice about now.)

I enjoyed this perspective of the Coliseum.  I researched through my December 2010 posts and see that I forgot to finish the posts on the building.  I will need to do that soon, as the views of the front and interior are worth seeing.