Europe - Day Three

We got "snookered" into taking our picture with this Roman soldier -- only to have to turn around and pay 10 Euros (about $14). Boy are we stupid tourists :) Later we see several of these "Roman Soldiers" and with our tour group we were allowed to take pictures with them for free.

Europe Day 3

Not much sleep last night – had trouble going to sleep. Hmm – that is vaguely reminiscent of what I do at home all the time.

Still, I forced myself to get up and off we went to a fun day of sight-seeing.

The Coliseum – what an incredible piece of architecture that was built for man’s totally depraved nature. They say that almost 400 people a day were murdered there (and also torture and killing of animals) – all for man’s “enjoyment.” And by the way – that was “man’s” not mankind. Women were not allowed in the Coliseum – except at the very top level with the slaves and the lowest of the low, and those women were most likely the prostitutes. It wasn’t considered proper for a woman to go to the Coliseum. And for good reason. Wicked men devised wicked things to watch and cheer for. The good news is that Christianity came in and gradually changed all that. Think where we would be now if Jesus had not come to change our way of thinking and to change our hearts to want to do right. Thank you, Lord.

Arch of Constantine

I added this picture because I thought it was interesting. It's the Arch of Constantine which was built to celebrate Constantine's destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. He used all the wealth found in the temple in Jerusalem to build this arch as well as the Coliseum. Notice the menora here. The slaves are carrying the treasures from the temple. Interesting and sad.

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I like this picture because it shows these cute little cars that the Italians drive. You don't see any big gas-guzzling SUVs over here. They are so little that you can park them in either direction :)