CHAPTER THREE

Their route to the Colosseum took them along via Cavour, a long wide street with houses and shops on either side.

'The Romans were very keen on straight, wide main roads,' said Abigail. 'They liked to move the Roman army quickly from place to place. That's why so many of our major roads in Britain are like that, the product of the Roman occupation.'

Their walk took them past two ornate churches - 'Santa Maria Maggiore', Abigail informed him of the first; then 'San Pietro in Vincoli' as they passed the second.

'They look very old,' said Daniel.

'They are, but compared to what you'll see when we get to the Colosseum and the Forum, they're relatively modern. San Pietro is about a thousand and a half years old.'

They turned off the main wide road at the church of San Pietro and made their way along a narrower street, and saw directly ahead of them the magnificence of the Colosseum towering high into the air above.

'My God, it's huge!' said Daniel, awed as he looked at the ancient, high brown stone circular walls, with what appeared to be the spaces for open windows every few feet along the bottom three levels, and smaller window spaces running at intervals all the way along the highest section.

'It's the largest amphitheatre in the world,' said Abigail. 'Construction began under the Emperor Vespasian in 72 ad and it was finally completed in 80 ad. It held up to eighty thousand spectators.'

'And this is where the gladiators fought?'

'Gladiators, and animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles. What makes it special is that many Roman theatres were built into hillsides. The Colosseum is entirely free-standing, which makes it a masterpiece of building construction. Come with me and I'll show you the arena.'

Daniel followed her through one of the many arches and found himself in an enormous open space of sandy ground surrounded by ascending rows where the audience must have sat, or stood. The area was filled with people milling around, many of them tourists, but there was one small group being addressed energetically by a stout middle-aged man, with lots of gestures, pointing at various aspects of the enormous ruined building.

'I think that might be Giuseppe Saredo,' said Abigail.

'You don't recognise him?'

'It's fifteen years since I saw him, and people change. The Giuseppe I knew was tall, thin and clean-shaven. If it is Giuseppe, he's certainly put on weight and developed a bushy beard.'

The man she was talking about swung round to point to another part of the ruins and suddenly saw Daniel and Abigail. Immediately he hurried towards them, his arms outstretched in welcome, shouting, 'Abigail!'

'I think we can conclude it is him,' murmured Daniel.

Giuseppe Saredo's face bore a huge, happy smile as he neared them.

'Abigail!' he boomed. 'And this must be Daniel, il marito!'

'He is indeed,' said Abigail as Giuseppe swamped her in an affectionate bear hug. Stepping back from Giuseppe, she introduced them. 'Giuseppe, this is Daniel Wilson, my husband. Daniel, this is Giuseppe Saredo, whom I worked with at this place fifteen years ago and who's organising this festival.'

'Buongiorno,' said Daniel, shaking Giuseppe's hand, to which the delighted Giuseppe responded with a long burst of excited Italian.

'Forgive me,' said Daniel apologetically. 'Currently my Italian is limited to a few basic phrases such as buongiorno, grazie and arrivederci, but I'm determined to improve while I'm here.'

'Then we converse in English,' smiled Giuseppe. He turned to Abigail and asked, 'How does it feel to be here again after fifteen years?'

'In fact, I was here some eight years ago. I stopped over while on my way back from Egypt. I wanted to catch up with Sarah and Giovanni.' She turned to Daniel. 'Remember, I told you about them?'

'Indeed. Sarah, the young woman you were here with in 1885.'

'Who fell in love with a young Italian archaeology student on the same dig, Giovanni Maduro, and married him and still lives in Italy.' She turned to Giuseppe and said, 'As Giovanni's in your programme, I assume you still see them.'

'Of course!' said Giuseppe. 'The past few years they have been busy at the Forum, which Giovanni will be giving a talk about at the Festival. I told them you would be arriving today and Sarah particularly was very excited to see you. She said they would make a point of coming here today.'

'That will be wonderful!' said Abigail.

Giuseppe looked around them, then asked: 'Where is your luggage?'

'We left it at the Roma Termini left luggage office so we could walk here unencumbered. If you tell us where we'll be staying, we'll collect it later.'

'We can do better than that,' said Giuseppe. 'We'll walk together to the Termini later and I'll come with you to the hotel. It's the Miazzo, very close to the Termini.'

'That will be ideal,' said Abigail.

Giuseppe gestured towards the group of people he'd been addressing. 'I have to talk to these people. They will be acting as stewards at the Festival and I need them to know what their duties are, and where they will be located. Do you have everything you need for your talk tomorrow afternoon? If there's anything I can get for you .'

'No, thank you.' She waved a hand at the vast ruined site. 'These are all the illustrations I'll need.'

'In that case, I'll see you at the Forum later. We have an office there for administrating the Festival. I'm about to take these stewards there to hand out details for them.' He sighed. 'Paperwork, always paperwork.' Giuseppe shook hands with them, then rejoined his small crowd of stewards and led them away.

'He's very energetic,' commented Daniel.

'He always was,' said Abigail. 'He's passionate about archaeology and classical Rome. He's the perfect person to be in charge of organising this festival. Now, let me show you the Colosseum. A guided tour.'

'Are you sure?' asked Daniel. 'Wouldn't you rather save yourself for tomorrow?'

'No. For one thing, it's been many years since I was last here. I need to see what's changed so I'm not caught unprepared when I take the people around. And I'll be giving tomorrow's talk in Italian, so you won't be able to understand a word.'

From their position in the middle of the arena, Abigail pointed to the ascending tiers which rose up.

'The seating at arena level is where the most important people sat. The senatorial class, who were allowed to bring their own chairs. The level above that was for the non-senatorial nobles, and the next level up was for ordinary Roman citizens, but even that was subdivided according to class. The lower part was for wealthy citizens, and the upper part was where the poor sat. Roman society was rigidly organised according to rank and wealth. The seats were made of stone for the poorest, and marble for the elite, who would bring their own cushions. The highest level of all was a separate gallery for the common poor, slaves and women. That would have been standing only, no seats.'

'It doesn't sound much different to the arrangements in London theatres,' commented Daniel.

'Interestingly, some people were banned from the Colosseum completely,' added Abigail. 'That included actors, gravediggers and former gladiators.' She gestured at the sandy ground they were standing on. 'Beneath the sand is a wooden floor, and beneath that is a two-level network of tunnels where gladiators and wild animals were kept. You can imagine how large the tunnels were when the animals included elephants. Incidentally, the Latin word for sand is harena, or arena.'

'Abigail!'

They turned and saw a woman in her late thirties waving at them. She was accompanied by a man in his forties and a young woman who looked to be in her teens.

'It's Sarah and Giovanni,' exclaimed Abigail delightedly.

'Who's the girl?' asked Daniel.

'I've no idea,' said Abigail.

'Their daughter?' suggested Daniel.

'No,' said Abigail. 'Sarah and Giovanni did have a daughter, but sadly she died some years ago. This is possibly a relative of Giovanni's. I'll leave the rest of our tour for...