Il Colosseo

We visited my favorite spot in Rome last week, il Colosseo. Seriously, I love this structure. It's beautiful, magnificent, imposing, and overwhelming...no matter how many times I've seen it. 

As always, it was packed! We were smart and bought our tickets online in advance because nobody wants to wait in a line that seems to be 200 miles long. As you make your way into the Colosseum you are often accosted by people selling cheap tourist garbage, men dressed as gladiators, and annoying tour operators who want to sell you a tour that may or may not be historically accurate. It drives me nuts. 

The day we visited was no exception. Lynda was walking in front of me when an American guy, roughly about 22-25 years old, asked her if she wanted a tour of the Colosseum. She said no and he then said to her: "Don't you want to know what you're looking at?" (I might add here that his tone was fairly condescending.)  Riiiggghhhhttt.....as if this 'kid' knows more about the Colosseum than Lynda. It's laughable, which I did do by the way. Annoying!

So, later on she and I were talking about what had happened and laughed about the possible retorts we could have used had we been quicker on our feet. There was one in particular that I wished I would have thought of earlier...little did I know... 

Anyways, we met back up with our students in front of the Colosseum a while later and guess who was there as well? (Still accosting tourists I might add.) That's right, our "friend" from before. He looked over at us and gave me a 'look'. I am not one to let those types of things go by. I know I should be that person. I should be more mature, more graceful, more merciful....but I'm not. Instead, I turned to Lynda and in a voice loud enough for him to hear I said: "I'm confused. I thought this was where Jesus was crucified?" He started to laugh. I don't know if he was laughing because he knew what I was doing or if he thought I was being serious--which I was not. (May I just interject here that I know that Jesus wasn't crucified here, but this is actually a question that a lot of people pose in Rome because for some odd reason they really think that Christ actually visited Rome while He was alive. I am not one of those people. I was merely being a brat....) Victory! My small-minded comment made me feel less annoyed and somewhat smug. I know, I know. This is not good....but still....sometimes being a bit snotty can feel oh so good. :)