A tale of Emperors, Popes and Gladiators

Friday Sept 9th, 2016

We were gladiators for a day! We went to the Scola de Gladiators en Roma. 

This is a group that is dedicated to preserving the history of gladiators. Our training was at 11am. When we arrive in our UBER, we were greeted by our instructor for the day, Alexandra. She was awesome! We were part of a group of 11. All the kids were significantly younger than mine. 😉 
We got our gladiator uniforms – not customes- since being a gladiator is a real job and we started our training.

Kids wanted me to make a mean face but i kept laughing! 

We got a history lesson on the life of the gladiators. Apparently gladiators were short (5’6″ avg) not as tall as portraied in the movies. Our instructor decided that Bibo was too tall to be a gladiator so instead he was a Barbarian. Barbarians were tall, fierce and fair skinned. So Bibo is now known as Baby Bibo the Barbarian! Lol

Some other interesting facts about gladiators: they didn’t always fight to death. The “promoters” had too much money and training invested to lose it all. There were female gladiators or gladiatrix. Sounds like the name of a porn movie…Anyways, the gladiatrix would fight with dwarfs or other gladiatrixes. I guess these were the Divas of ancient Rome. 🙂 A gladiator could become a celebrity and in some cases they were sex symbols. Wow! Imagine if they could get endorsements like Rusell Wilson. 

After our history lesson the real training started. We did training in the courtyard. It was freaking hot and those red robes did not help. Then we were ready for battle. 

Nani and Bibo fought each other and Bibo won. And then I fought Bibo and…he won too! We got our certificates for completing the training

Damn! These kids and their mean faces.

I recommend this experience to anyone that is visiting Rome. After this, we went back to our hotel to change and eat before heading out to Vatican City. 

VCity is absolutely beautiful. ❤ Yesterday they had the square set up for the Wed and Sun masses since the Pope is in residence so we could not walk freely around. 

Panoramic of St. Peter Square

Baby Bibo the Barbarian in front of St. Peter’s Basilica

Did you know that it took 120 years to build the Basilica as it is today? The real work started after the original basilica was demolished and this one started in 1506. Construction ended in 1626. Most of the construction was financed by Popes selling indulgences for contributions. OMG! This abuse of power eventually lead to the Protestant Reformation. 
Regardless the Basilica is breathtaking! 

It was absolutely packed the day we went but the lines to get in were not bad.

Main altar

Sun setting on Vatican City

After visiting the Basilica, it was almost time for our tour of the Vatican Museum. 

It is a beautiful place but I think you need to know what you want to see or you can be there forever. We took a tour and ended up ditching them to get to the Sistine Chapel faster 😉 no pics allowed in there. The kids loved it! Michaelangelo was a genius and his representation of the Genesis is awesome. 

The moon and St Peters on the background

It was a pretty long and fun day for us. That day they had a concert of classical music in one of the gardens inside the museum.  

We are having a great time in our european adventure. Until next post! 

Molto amore, Ana ❤