rome colosseum picturesT

The Colossium is actually extremely difficult to photograph well, because it is so vast, and its 'best side', the relatively unruined front, is quite hard up against a main road and an urban 'cliff'. You just can't get far enough away from it to fit it all in easily, not without making some hard artistic decisions and compositional compromises.

Local Italian guys dress up in moderately authentic home-made
Roman soldiers uniforms, and hang around the Colosseum
all day posing for photos with and for tourists, for a buck or two.
Some of them are from the nearby Gladiator School, where
for around fifty dollars, you can have a short crash course
in gladiatorial combat... Good value, but your travelling medical
insurance is unlikely to cover this kind of activity.

Italian wedding photographers are possibly the finest in the world - certainly those based in Rome have no shortage of absolutely rocktastic backdrops to choose from, and the Colossium is no exception. However, wedding photographers usually favour the more ruinous back-side of the monument, for two reasons - firstly, as mentioned above, you can't fit it all in, and if you do, you'd be so far away that the happy couple would be too small to see. Also, after midday, when most weddings are held, the front of the Colisseum is actually in shadow. Further, the front area is usually teeming with tourists and messy souvenir stalls.

Souvenir stalls and refreshment kiosks dominate the Colosseum
site. But to be fair, many souvenirs in Rome are pretty good quality -
Tasteful plaster or marble replicas of notable statues and
monuments, and well illustrated guidebooks of a high
educational value, available in most languages.

However, most tourists never venture around the back of the Coliseum, where it's quiet and peaceful, if not quite as grand. So at the risk of incurring the wrath of a thousand Roman wedding photographers, I shall give away their secret and say unto you now, the best place to pose in peace near the Colosseum is round the back, on the little patch of grass there that's away from all the crowds around the front. Watch this space for a typical shot of this area, coming soon...

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