Rome: The Colloseum and Snow

We feel vaguely guilty. Did we bring the snow? Our lunch waiter swears it has not snowed since 1986, but here we are, on our first real day of sightseeing in Rome, and it is definitely snowing. Not just a flurry. A show-stopping snow. We were hustled out of the Colosseum after a bit over an hour inside because snow accumulation had made the ancient wonder a bit treacherous, and by afternoon they had still not reopened the Roman Forum and Palatino. We had to be content to walk the hills around it, glimpsing inside at various opportunities.
The Colosseum is much like other Roman amphitheaters that we visited in Provence (the Orange amphitheater being the best restored) and in Israel. The architectural genius of the Romans is impressive in those places, but this is an order of magnitude more so. I listened to the Rick Steve podcast while wandering around, and found it did not enhance my enjoyment to think of slaying lions and tigers and bears there, much less all the human deaths that occurred.

The Romans controlled the ever expanding masses of people, poor and otherwise with what was called Bread and Circus--no shortage of food, and increasingly brutal entertainment--which apparently worked for them. Shiver. Having watched some end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it movies this past month, it is sobering to think of going back to that time. I think we should pay attention to Roman plumbing techniques, just in case we have to rebuilt cities without the benefit of modern equipment, and making sure everyone gets fed seems appropriate, but the rest of it is unsettling.
Escaping the snow into the metro, we went from the Colosseum to the Spanish Steps and came out to not exactly sunshine, but precipitation had ceased to fall from the sky, or at least what little fell was in the form of rain. I gazed upon the stairs and thought of Keats and romantic poetry. Too bad he came to Rome to die instead of to write, otherwise we might have some fine poetry to read at the foot of the spectacular stairs.
The Palladeum was a spectacular indoor dome (though nothing like the Hagia Sophia), but the Trevi Fountain was a gorgeous fountain, spectacular even in comparison to many other fountains in the city.