However, it took me a little bit longer to warm up to the idea of the Colosseum.
Ben Hur got me started, but Ridley Scott had to come along with The Gladiator to seal the deal. The sequence of Russel Crowe as Maximus, challenging Commodus in the gladiator arena, became part of cinematic folklore, won Crowe an Oscar and set me up to add the Colosseum to my life's bucket list.
By now, I have visited Italy (and Rome) many times, but it was in my first trip to Rome that I spent a couple of days in an attempt to uncover the mysteries of the Colosseum. At the very outset, I wanted to step inside that hallowed pantheon and get a sense of 2000 years of history staring down at me.
If you have been to Rome, you will get this distinct feeling that it is a bustling metropolis inside a ruin. Modern architecture jostles for, and shares space amicably with thousand year old historical ruins. Roman's are proud of their heritage and the city has done everything to protect and promote its cultural spectacle.
Like any tourist I had done my online due diligence, bought a couple of tickets and checked out reviews of previous travellers. I was staying in a hotel near the Vatican, so the trip wasn't that much of a hassle. I had to take the underground from Ottaviano to Colosseo. I prefer to explore cities using public transport and most European cities have a pattern which is similar. There is an Old Town or historical city centre ( Alstadt) which is surrounded by newer suburbs which came up as these cities expanded into their modern avatars. Most of the city centres can and should be explored on foot, because it truly gives you a sense of space, culture and find hidden gems tucked away in obsolete corners.
Rome is no different. If you keep the Trevi Fountain at the centre and draw a circular arc then popular places of interest like the Vatican, Villa Borghese, Spanish Steps, Termini Station and the Colosseum will be at circumference points of this semi circle. If you decided to walk to each one of these from the other, the whole journey would take you anywhere between ninety minutes to three hours, depending on your urgency and pace.
So if you enjoy walking, this is a fantastic way of exploring Rome's city centre. Almost everything is worth photographing and you get this weird charm of walking amongst manicured ruins, enclosed by beautifully asphalted wide boulevards. It's quite the experience.
However, if long walking explorations are not your cup of tea, the subway is the perfect solution. The Rome metro is neither the best nor the cleanest, but its does cover the historical areas of interest pretty effectively, and it's incredibly affordable.
I had decided to keep two days to explore the city centre in earnest and I wanted to start with the Colosseum. Day one started with rain. Now unlike most people, I love rain, because few things create better drama in photography than an overcast sky. It also keeps the crowds at bay ! So I actually felt pretty good about my prospects. I had wanted to explore the entrance and perspective of the Colosseum from the Roman Forum. So by about ten in the morning, I had made my way in. The rain had minimised tourists, so I had a peaceful time walking aimlessly amidst the ruins of The Palatine without having to encounter a million people. By late morning though, the skies had started to clear up.
After spending some time in a curio shop and picking up a few local souvenirs, it was time for me to explore the Colosseum. My idea was simple. Start with walking the entire circumference of the amphitheatre from the outside and try and find different vantage points which provided unique views. Experience over time had taught me, that the best way to get good views of any architectural monument was always from a distance, on the outside. From the inside the perspective always became way too big and too unmanageable to effectively capture any good frame.
It was a leisurely walk. I had no real urgency to be anywhere, so I observed everything my eyes rested upon. Cafes, street fountains and massive amounts of restoration work on the outer walls of the Colosseum. It was remarkable to see the sheer number of tourists who came and queued up from every walk of life. The field outside had become a bit muddy with all the rain, but that did not deter anyone. Amidst selfie stick hawkers, ice cream vans and tons of parked cars, it was a like this crowded carnival where everyone had been invited. Sure you could not get a single picture of anything without someone's head coming in your field of vision - but even amidst all that chaos and a sea of tourists who made walking feel like fine art, you could feel a sense of awe and grandeur.
The weather held up for the rest of the day and I had spent most of it exploring the Colosseum from the outside amidst copious cups of coffee and the occasional cigarette. By the time I took the metro from Coloseo to Ottaviano at night, I was ready to crash.