Rome: Colosseum

Posted on 4/03/2012

The Colosseum is probably the most iconic Roman ruin in the entire world. It sits right in the middle of Rome, and one day I walked over to check it out. It is INSANELY busy during the day, so I went around 6 at night and it was basically empty.
The Colosseum sat 50,000 people and was built on the site of the super unpopular Emperor Nero's lake house. After he died, it was built there was a gesture of good will to the Roman people-
And... just for fun... let's play a fun game of "then" and "now"... then...
and "now"-
The Colosseum has been a lot of things (after it was used for gladiators and lions) including a church, a castle, house and workshops... and the reason that half of it was missing is because the blocks were used as building tools for other projects in the area throughout the years. 
Now its a political venue as well. Italy is apparently very against the death penalty, and many anti-death penalty demonstrations take place outside the Colosseum. The Colosseum is illuminated at night, and it is lit up in gold whenever a state or nation abolishes the death penalty, or whenever someone who has received the death penalty gets the penalty reversed. The rest of the time it is lit up in white.

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