Written by Linton Hutchinson
So think about it for a little while. Who were these ancient Roman people? What were they thinking to have come up the idea to build a Colosseum? Were they perchance sitting around a conference table on a hot summer’s day having a conversation that went something like this?
“You know Julius, We gotta get our ratings up or those upstarts from Athens are going to beat us out of next franchise from the networks. Momma Mia, we gotta come up with a better idea than thin crust pizza or we’ll all be out on the streets selling bottled water to those tourists from Florence.”
OK, probably not, but what WAS going through their minds? I mean, the Colosseum is huge, even by Texas standards. And it was built thousands of years ago without the aid of cranes, bulldozers or any tools requiring electricity.
Did they have a committee to figure out who received contracting permits or what guild got parking rights or food concessions? The whole enterprise must have been big business even back then. And I’m sure that Mark 12:17 came into play back in the day as well. (Come on now – I see you thumpers reaching for the Good Book to look that one up – don’t be shy)
All these thoughts went racing through my mind almost as fast as the taxi man was driving us to the Colosseum. Even miles away the structure is huge on the horizon dwarfing everything around it. The taxi man insists that he let us out on the opposite side of the Colosseum from where we need to be. Wes in his near perfect Italian insists that he keeps driving with the hint that his tip could be in the balance. Ten minutes later we arrive at our destination. We’re happy, the taxi man’s happy and with a chow, we’re on our way.
Now I didn’t mention this before but it’s worth telling you now. The night before Sterling have the brilliant idea of paying online for our tickets to get in to the Colosseum. (Prepaid tickets to the Colosseum – only someone from Rome could come up with an idea like that!) All of us were hot, tired and exhausted from our travels the day before but we reluctantly scoured the internet until we hit upon a service that would serve up tickets to the Colosseum. http://www.tickitaly.com was the URL we came up with and with a few clicks and the use of a Visa card, reservations for 4 was completed.
Being Sunday and reservations made at the last minute for viewing the Colosseum the next day I was less than optimistic that we would receive conformation or our tickets in time. However, in the morning, an email was received giving us directions on how to retrieve our tickets. Sterling massaged the data and finally figured out how to print out our tickets on the archaic system in the downstairs lobby of our Hotel Santini. Was it worth it? Yes, dear yes. The line to buy tickets at the Colosseum was at least a football field long but we sail right to the front of the like VIPs at a Elvis Presley concert in downtown Memphis. Wowie! The looks we got from those hot and sweating tourist that had been standing in line for hours waiting to get in. It was grand and we all agreed that we could get use to this type of treatment in the future. It was worth the price of admission.
When you’re in Rome, don’t pass up the Colosseum and certainly take Sterling’s advice and get your tickets in advance online.
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There and back again 