“I would haunt the fuck out of these people.”

This was a direct quote from myself as we stood on the second level of the Colosseum. Phil and I were discussing how many people were brutally murdered in that very place when it was still used for gladiator fights back in the first century AD. It was used for this purpose for nearly 400 years, and, upon looking it up at a later time, more than 400,000 people were killed there as well over one million animals.

I felt like I could feel their souls as I stood and looked over the ledge into the system of tunnels below where the slaves and animals were kept. I think it might have been windy, but to me the air was still. I was speechless. The thought of so much pain happening in one place was enough to make my breath short.

When the tour guide began to move on to a different location, I moved from the wall and said to Phil, “it’s crazy to think how many people were killed here.”

He nodded in agreement and responded, “I wonder if it’s haunted.”

“Oh,” I said loudly, “I would haunt the fuck out of these people. Standing around here in awe, talking about how beautiful this place is? This place where I was murdered? Like no, fuck you, I’d definitely be haunting you.” I shrugged as he laughed and wrote what I said down in his notebook.

I was serious, though. The Colosseum has tens of thousands of visitors every day and I know that most, if not all, of those visitors have the immediate thought of wow, this place is gorgeous. And they’re not wrong. When I stepped out of the metro station and suddenly (and unexpectedly) into the view of the Colosseum, my jaw actually dropped and I felt all the air leave my lungs. I could not believe such a magnificent structure existed, and especially one built in 80 AD that was still (mostly) standing today.

But the Colosseum is about more than beauty. There are pieces of every warrior and every animal ever raised into that arena floor. Every creature, big and small, who fought for their lives, whether they won or lost. Nearly 1.5 million souls left their bodies in the same place.

There is an old Latin saying: in vinum veritas. In wine there is truth. And while wine is a very important part of life in Italy (and too much of it does make you tell the truth), I believe the crux of it is the culture and the way the people preserve and embrace the past. I think it’s imperative to not just look at the ancient Roman ruins, but really look at them and not just appreciate their physical beauty but also what they represent and why they were built. To visualize the hands that carved them and feel the emotions felt by the people who were present at their peak. I can’t imagine how spectacular it would have been to live in ancient Rome and to have been one of the citizens seeing and using these buildings on a daily basis.

But I’d definitely be haunting the fuck out of people now.