Italy Day 2 (The Colosseum)

We were lucky to be here in ancient Rome on a holiday. Well, maybe it didn't take much luck since they have 200 holidays a year! And I was happy that at HP I get 10 holidays a year and personal day. So, since it's a holiday we went to the colosseum for the show.

Since we aren't friends with the emperor (knew I should have accepted his friend request on MySpace) we couldn't sit on the first level. Since we're not in the senate nor are we Vestal virgins we couldn't sit on the second level either. So we settled into a spot in the hot Roman sun on level three.

The first show was a leopard fighting a tiger. I couldn't decide who to root for. I liked Tiger a lot, but am loving Leopard and am anxiously awaiting Snow Leopard.

During lunch they executed some prisoners. And I thought Singapore was hard on graffiti artists. They are just trying to make their mark on the world. They just don't how to do it except by literally making a mark on the world. [1] Our food was a welcome distraction. We brought some dead chickens and rabbits along with us for lunch (when in Rome...). After lunch we had fun throwing the chicken and rabbit bones down onto the sand along with all the other spectators.

Finally, the main attraction - the gladiators! Let's just say that those Hollywood fight scenes that go on for 20 minutes aren't very realistic. I wanted to get my picture taken with the victor, but he wanted 3000 denarii (about 50 euros)! Outrageous. I didn't pay it. But I sure am glad Italy joined the EU because I wouldn't want to carry around a backpack full of denarii just to buy a capuccino.

Notes

[1] This description of graffiti artists is stolen from Paul Graham's essay, "Trolls".