we went to the Tour of the Collosseum Underground.  Unfortunately, the headphones didn’t work well and it was very static-y so I didn’t learn much.  There were lifts made that would lift the animals and gladiators to the floor level where they would fight.  Men and women fought each other and fought with the animals.  The thumbs up and thumbs down to signify who would die or be spared was a myth from Hollywood!  Also, there was never a river battle on ships fought in the Colloseum as legend would tell.  Only once was part of the Colloseum  flooded, and women swam during that water event.  The Coloseum is still being excavated and new finds  are being discovered.  At one time, the Colloseum, inside and out was covered with beautiful marble, but that was torn out and used to build St. Peter’s.  An early form of recycling. 

While near the Colloseum this week, there has been a lot of activity building bleachers from the Vittorio Emmanuele building to,the Colloseum, for the June 2 festivities. This is the day that the people of Italy voted to kick the Savoy King to the curb and establish a Republic.  The King and family went into exile in Sicily.  Now, they are buried in the Pantheon.  

We are just trying to stay cool in the hot and humid weather.  It is pleasant when the sun goes down, but pretty grim during the day for those of us used to air conditioned houses and cars.  

My friend, Diane from Dallas left for home yesterday.  Very quiet around the old Villa.  We appreciated her visit and for introducing us to Father Joe and Mallorca and to Brother Mark here in Rome. We went to Santa Maranella to the beach again on Tuesday and ate at our favorite seafood place there.  It was our ‘last hurrah’ with Diane.  Now we await Jame and Rhoades from Maryland on Monday.  Tuesday, we start another 10 days of fun travel. And probably another bit of exhaustion thrown in for good measure.

Hope all of my TEXAS friends have not had any flooding and hope the rain has stopped for awhile!