After getting through security, we walked out onto the floor of the Colosseum which was a truly mesmerising moment. It’s easy to let your imagination run amok as you picture baying crowds, the Emperor in his royal box and blood-spilling carnage ongoing around you. How mad is it, that they were able to flood the arena to host spectacular naval battles? We were also able to take a look down into the Hypogeum, which put a stop to that spectacle when inaugurated in 80AD. This was a maze of hallways and channels, storing weapons, caged animals and machinery; unbelievably, they even had 80 winch-operated lifts that raised men, stage-sets and wild animals up to arena-level via trap doors and inclines. Sheer madness! I was loving every second.

There’s a great atmosphere throughout the place; you get a sense that for all of Rome’s incredible historic buildings and artefacts, it is the Colosseum that is truly held in the highest regard. After exiting the floor underneath what would have been the royal box, we made our way upstairs to a higher level of the structure. As we climbed the stairs, our guide continued to provide an excellent insight into the detail of the building, pointing out the original sewage channels that ran down openly alongside where patrons would be coming and going.