🪶 Review: The Colosseum Experience
It’s hard to exactly describe what you feel when you first approach the Colosseum. It’s a strange emotion, as if you are simultaneously a tourist, a witness, and a character in an ancient film. Massive, silent, yet alive through the millions of footsteps that have touched it. Built two millennia ago, it still stands — not only in stone but in our collective imagination.
I felt small. And that was a good feeling. Sometimes it’s good to feel small. The Colosseum is not just a beautiful ruin; it’s a lesson about time, about ephemerality, about what a civilization leaves behind. When you walk its inner alleys, if you manage to detach yourself from the modern buzz, it’s like hearing the echo of battles, of cheers from the stands, of death turned into spectacle.
But here appears the first crack. The crowds. Everything seems rushed, like in a theme park: check it off, photograph it, move to the next site. People everywhere, guides speaking over other guides. Sometimes you feel more like you’re in a tourist circuit than in a contemplative experience.
And then, that faint but real feeling: disappointment. Not with the Colosseum itself, but with the way we relate to it. I expected a deep connection, but sometimes everything feels diluted. Restricted areas, lack of space for silence, for questions, for simplicity — all these make the emotion come in waves, not as a steady flow.
And yet, I can’t say it’s not worth it. Even among selfies and raised voices, even if you are only 10% truly present, the Colosseum leaves a mark on you. Something inside you understands better how fragile everything is. And how great a human can be.
Final thought?
The Colosseum is like life: it’s not perfect, not comfortable, but it’s memorable. If you know how to see it, it gives you everything. If not, it’s just a ruin with expensive tickets.
