Tourists are being offered the chance to visit the Colosseum in the cool of the evening as an alternative to the heat and the crowds that swarm around one of Italy’s most popular tourist sites during the day.
Temperatures in Rome reached 40C on several days last month and there is likely to be more of the same this month and next, testing the stamina of visitors queueing under the sun.
The hour-long visits to the world’s largest ancient amphitheatre began last week for groups of up to 25 people.
The tours, with English and Italian-speaking guides, are available on Thursdays between 8pm and midnight, with the last group entering at 10.30pm. Tickets cost €50.
Alfonsina Russo, the director of the Colosseum’s archaeological park, said the visits offered a unique opportunity to walk through the galleries under what used to be the sand-covered floor of the arena, see “the backstage of the gladiator shows”, and admire a new exhibition on their protagonists.
Advertisement
A highlight of the exhibition is a hologram showing gladiators advancing through the underground tunnel that linked their training arena, the Ludus Magnus, with the arena of the Colosseum itself.
Visitors can watch it from the outlet of the original tunnel, witnessing the approach of a referee in a white tunic followed by different types of gladiators, including a murmillo, with his large rectangular shield and short stabbing sword, a provocator, a hoplomachus and a secutor, all with their distinctive weapons.
The scene is illuminated by flaming torches placed along the wall of the tunnel although guides admit they would not have been present in the original Colosseum. The presence of wood and ropes to power the mechanical lifts that transported animals and men into the arena meant the fire risk condemned the backstage operators to work mainly in the dark.
The exhibition also contains weapons and armour recreated from ancient literary texts and archaeological discoveries.
The massive bronze helmets and plumes were worn for show when the fighters paraded into the arena, so that they could be seen by people sitting at the top of the amphitheatre. Archaeologists believe they changed into more practical headgear when they actually started fighting.
Advertisement
The Colosseum has benefited from Italy’s tourism boom, with more than 7 million visitors in the first half of this year. In June the number of daily visitors reached 27,000, up from 24,000 in the same month the previous year.
