Gladiators !

Another early start to the day ... I'm off to play Gladiators !
I've been very excited about this tour as the one I have chosen (which was a little more expensive, but lots of great reviews) takes you to special parts of the Colossem that the general public doesn't get to go.
There were 11 of us in the group and the first part of the tour is given by a full on Archiologist that has been working in the Colosseum for 20 years. 
As you enter, you are kinda of overwhelmed by the shear size of the structure.  The seating would have held around 30k people in total.  Most of the seating areas have collapsed over the years due to thieves (from early Roman times through to the 1800 stealing the marble seats which exposed the pourus structure below to the elements.  Also, much of the building was constructed of Limestone, which I didn't know actually melts under high heat ... this would account for much of the damage that would have been caused by fires over the years (including the one in Nero's time).
There is currently some restoration being done to the Senators seating area as they were able to find many of the original marble seat buried in the rubble.  They have rebuilt this section to give the public a better visual of what it may have looked like.  Each Senator has his name inscribed on the marble seat when was scratched out when he died to be reused by the next elected Senator.
The first part we explored was the arena floor.  They have laid a wooden floor over 1/4 of entire area ... it would have all been covered in wood during those times.  There were about 10 trapped doors in the original floor where you could see what would have been the 'elevator' shafts from the lower (basement) level.   These elevators would have been used to lift the exotic animals from the lower cages directly to the area floor.
The next section we visited was the lower (basement) level.  Back in the day, it would have been dark, lit by oil lamps and contained hundreds of prisoners, animals and the slaves that worked there.  The Gladiators were housed just outside the Colosseum and would walk in through the main entrance.  It's a maze of hallways and would have been dark, wet and stinky.
The final section we went to was the 4th level stands.  Here was the place where all the women, children and commoners would sit.  From here you get a full view of the structure and the surrounding areas of the Forum and Trachen's Market.
Fantastic tour
Only two more 'must see' items to do and I'll have crammed all I can into these last 4 days. 
The Trevi Fountain was beautiful ... through my coin in so hopefully will come back.  The place was packed with people so I'm impressed that my photos look like there's no one there !
The final site was the The Spanish Steps ... that was a madhouse ! ... time for some pictures clogged with people and then headed back to the hotel to do some packing.
Tomorrow I'm off to Venice !