Powell

We returned from a great trip to Rome in July. It is a wonderful city with friendly people.

Two exceptions are the clowns dressed as gladiators outside the Colisseum who, holding swords, arrogantly grab you, take a photo and charge 10 euros for your trouble. Pass them all by.

Also, we had a tour organized inside the Colisseum for english-speaking tourists. First,the guide's mike did not work. She then continually quoted from a history book like she had boned up the night before. When I innocently mentioned that many of the gladiators were prisoners of war she looked at me astonished. Later, she pulled me aside and asked "If I was a professor?"

Best to arrange your Colisseum tour through your hotel or with some professional organization that can guaranty a decent experience.

sandi_travelnut

Again, it's like anywhere you goes these days...in both of those situations no one is forcing you to pay for the photo or to take the tour. Hopefully they didn't spoil your trip or your opinion of such a wonderful city.

sandi_travelnut

one last thing, your hotel cannot guarentee any kind of experience with an organized tour. Usually there is some sort of business arrangement made between the tour company and the hotel, so the hotel would promote one tour group over the other. There's no way to know what to really expect unless your get personal opinions from people before hand, with a tour guide's name.

PalenqueBob

Yes what a circus outside the Coliseum - these fake gladiators who if you dare point a camera at them will threaten you if not giving them their 'tip' but a panoply of various tacky commercial interlopers selling tacky tourist junk - and then the city of Rome has the gall to post a sign that says something like: This is a historic area and proper behavior is requested - and then they allow this Schlock - the Ersatz gladiators were there two years ago when i was there and still there - can only exist with tacit cooperation of authorities. As for the tours, there are tours you buy at the ticket window and there are tours that you buy outside the ticket window - these are of dubious quality perhaps and maybe the official ones are too - but the unofficial one i was on was very good - erudite rendition of Colisum events, including the unforgettable fact that there were no bathrooms for women in the structure and that they simply when up to the top row and squatted over the edge during the often all-day bloody spectacles! Suppose it depends on tour guide but quality control may be lacking. Our guide said she was an archaelogical student but who knows? Anyway the way officials allow the Colisum to be denigrated by this type of bogus gladiators out front is hard to believe!

tcreath

My husband and I took one of the English-speaking tours of the Coliseum and were very pleased. We were approached for a tour and decided to take them up on their offer and were glad we did. Our tour guide was funny and very knowledgeable, and we learned quite a bit.

Yes, definitely steer clear of the "gladiators"!

Tracy

willit

we paid about 3 euro at the ticket office for the guided tour. The guide was a very pleasant young woman who explained that she was employed mostly to teach groups of local school children, but also did a few adult tours.

She was excellent, and the hour tour was money well spent.

Patrick

There have been reports here and elsewhere that those "gladiators" become very aggressive. They very well may grab unsuspecting tourists and tell them to take their pictures. The pictures are taken by the unsuspecting tourists who are then shaken down for the money, often never realizing there was going to be a charge. US visitors may have no reason to think it's any different than having a free picture taken with Goofy at Disneyworld.

sandi_travelnut

In 2000, during our first family trip to Italy, we were walking by the colisseum with our 12 yr.old. One of the "guards" walked up to us and within a second had his cap around my son, his hat and sword on my son's head and in his hand. I immediately took a picture, really without thinking and gave him the 5 euro he requested. It turned out to be a great image because of Caesar's statue in the background and how incredibly stupid the "guard" looked with his football short showing under his costume, his comb-over and in his undershirt. Take a look...

http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoVie...d=856569227205

PalenqueBob

Sandi - yes could be a good thing - the only problem i have is that they do shake down tourists - i had a camcorder and was taking pictures of the area with them in it and they threateningly asked me for money - and not a little but yes i think ten euro - let them be institutionalized with a sign saying X euro for a picture with a gladiator - but like above says some unknowing tourists don't know what's going on - they grab someone, put their arm around them and say take a picture, etc. This is a disgrace to the city of Rome - not that they shouldn't be there but the way they operate. And these gladiators also look kind of tough - not unusual for a gladiator but kind of threatening in appearance alone.

SeaUrchin

I think a teen or a child would like to have a photo with a gladiator. I would have. I wouldn't mind paying five or ten euro out of my traveling expenses for a fun photo.

I would want it to be my own option though. Altho you must realize that they are not standing out in the sun with full costumes for their health or to treat a tourist.

sandi_travelnut

when we were there in December we saw them but were never approached by them at all even though (among all in my party) there were 4 cameras hard at work. There was, however, many tourists approaching the gladiators to get their picture taken with them, very happily I might add. I think it just depends on the person in the costume...some people are aggressive, some are not.

Patrick

But Sea Urchin, I think you missed my point. US tourists are used to Goofy standing out in the sun in and even hotter costume and posing for free pictures. It doesn't occur to the average tourist that these guys aren't being paid to be there or that they are "hustling" for money.

I'd rather stand out in the sun in a Gladiator costume than dressed as Goofy, but I don't think anyone would want to pay me money for my picture in the gladiator costume -- well, maybe they would -- for laughs.

rex

<<US tourists are used to Goofy standing out in the sun in and even hotter costume and posing for free pictures. It doesn't occur to the average tourist that these guys aren't being paid to be there ...>>

I guess it's all about stopping to think where you are. Even "the average tourist" can plainly tell that s/he has not walked through a gate (yet), and paid an admission into "Colosseum World".

Best wishes,

Rex

ParadiseLost

I took the official Colosseum guided tour a few years ago and have taken a couple of other official (meaning city employee) tours in Rome.

Zero enthusiasm and a textbook memorized speech.
Ancient history isn't an exact science and they are other versions of events. Ask about another version to these guides and it's wrong.

I questioned the Colosseum guide when she claimed that the Colosseum was never flooded for a mock naval battle. And she said it was impossible. There is one account that it was done during the reign of Titus before the underground passageways were built beneath the arena.
The Colosseum had water from an aqueduct servicing it for drinking, bathrooms and other things. And modern archaeologists say the 2 main arena gates and any other smaller entrances could have been easily blocked off and the arena flooded to ~1m. Which would easily float flat
bottomed boats.

PalenqueBob: Women, common poor and slaves were only allowed in the very top section.
And public Roman bathrooms were unisex, so there would be no Ladies Room in the Colosseum.
Plus that section would be *within* the topmost ring around the Colosseum. Which is a solid wall with ~40 windows and above that a roof. It was either standing room or had steep wooden benches.
Either way the *only* choice would have been to squat out that open window 40+ meters high!
I think your guide was wrong but told a really cool story . Regards, Walter

Patrick

Gee, Rex, I've often seen Goofy and his friends standing OUTSIDE the gates at Disneyworld too, to help entertain people as they are about to go in. Approaching the colliseum is not so different from approaching the Magic Kingdom, in a way. Getting ready to enter a tourist attraction, why would one be so crazy to think that the costumed gladiators aren't part of the attraction, helping to entice people to pay their admission and see more inside. I've even seen guys dressed like pizzas or bottles of wine enticing people into restaurants or businesses in Italy. Most people wouldn't expect them to charge you if you wanted a picture with them. I've never tried. Do they?

SeaUrchin

Patrick, I think I would rather see you dressed as a Gladiator than as Goofy too. Maybe they should go all the way and have Caesars and Bruti all over the forum, ha.

BTW, do you think the Caesar haircut will ever return to vogue? I liked it in the 70's.

Walter, didn't they have the area that is now P. Navona flooded for mock navy battles too? And talk about the ultimate squat toilet.....what about the people walking to their loge seats?

Patrick

"BTW, do you think the Caesar haircut will ever return to vogue?"

Huh? It isn't in vogue? Uh-oh.

SeaUrchin

You have one!! (haircut that is) Awesome as the kids would say. I always thought they were sexy. Maybe I was a Caesar groupie in another life. I don't think I was a vestal virgin....

Madison

Buckingham Palace, pictures can be taken, no charge, At the Tower of London you can have your picture taken with the guards - no charge, and they look civilized, not like that "gladiator" that Sandi took a picture of, which by the way is a hoot.

sandi_travelnut

there could not have been a more GOOFY gladiator to have posed for my picture!