Rome and the Vatican

The coliseum. This amazing structure is 180 meters long and held up to 50,000 people for special events and gladiator games.

The games went on for one full day with hundreds of exotic animals, prisoners, and eventually gladiators, some of whom were also criminals, being paraded around the internal field area. This field area was located on top of the maze in the center of the picture.  This maze was the basement of the coliseum.   Animals and Gladiators would pop up through the floor using ingenious trapdoors in the field area. The efforts they made to survive each other provided the entertainment to the crowd. 

Outside view

Constantine's arch. Commemorating a roman victory on one of his many campaigns.

He is revered by Christians for finally allowing the religion to exist legally in 334 AD. 

A view of one section of the town of Rome. 

The Victor Emmanuel Monument (first king of Italy) and tomb of the unknown soldier. This monument has the nickname of "wedding cake".

A Jesuit church (typical of paintings in a roman church)

The church ceiling 

There are far too many sites in Rome to show on this small blog. It is truly an amazing city and takes many days to really understand and view. 

Rome is a city blessed with a seemingly infinite amount of good tasting fountain water. The drinking fountains are everywhere and always flowing with good tasting tap water. You never need to purchase bottled water. Just bring a container !

Also there are s number s large public fountains that date back centuries. Many of them are iconic.