Hi Everyone, this week we head to one of Rome’s well-known treasures. Hope you enjoy the visit to the hidden Passage of Commodus. And if you like the newsletter ask your pals to sign up at ladolceviaitaly.com. Buona settimana and see you next week!

If you are willing to brave the crowds of tourists lining up at the Colosseum, there is something new to see on your next visit to Rome.

Now you can walk in the footsteps of Roman emperors and explore the ancient passage where one was nearly murdered.

The Passage of Commodus, is named after the Roman emperor who ruled between 180 A.D. and 192 A.D. According to one historian, Herodian, he was targeted in an unsuccessful assassination attempt on his life as he passed through the secret tunnel.

The narrow passage on the south side of the arena is about 55-metres long and was once richly decorated in luxurious marble and stucco scenes of gladiatorial fighting and wild animals.

In one scene, still faintly visible, a panther lunges at a man, while a wolf attacks an acrobat in another.

Barbara Nazzaro, the architect who oversaw the restoration, says visitors can now have a real taste of what it was like to be an emperor entering the arena.

“What we see is a wonderful passage that was for the emperors, so something very, very exclusive,” she says.

Like modern day rock stars, Roman emperors took the secret entrance to make their way to their reserved box where they watched gladiators wrestle with wild animals or fight to the death in a bloody spectacle.

The emperors were looking for a grand entrance and were probably keen to avoid their critics or political rivals. They had to show they were a cut above the mere mortals they served.

You might remember Commodus who was portrayed by Academy Award winning actor, Joaquin Phoenix, as a violent and impulsive villain in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator.

Commodus was widely regarded as an unhinged megalomaniac. He had a passion for taking part in gladiatorial fights himself - unusual for an emperor - and dressed up as the god Mercury. 

He was eventually strangled in his bathtub by his personal gladiator and slave, Narcissus, after upsetting many of his Roman citizens.

Colosseum is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is the largest amphitheatre still standing in the world.

Construction began under the Emperor Vespasian in 72 AD and was completed in 80 AD.

When it opened, it was a big deal. Romans were entertained with 100 days of gladiator fights and mock naval battles that were staged by flooding the arena. But as the empire crumbled at the end of the fifth century the fights ended and the Colosseum fell into ruin.

The sand-covered wooden arena floor rotted away and the basement, where the gladiators and wild beasts were once kept before their legendary battles, filled with earth. Now you can explore that area too.

Today the Colosseum is one of Italy’s top tourist attractions with round 7 million visitors a year.

The tunnel was abandoned with the fall of the Roman Empire, only to be discovered in the late 1800s under the French occupation of Rome. 

After a years-long restoration effort by archeologists, it opened in October last year.

Only eight people at a time can visit the passage but large groups now visit, the hypogeum, the complex network of tunnels and chambers beneath the Colosseum's arena floor, once used to hold gladiators, animals, and stage machinery. 

It was added to the original structure by Emperor Domitian and served as the "backstage" for the spectacles above, utilizing elaborate systems of elevators and trapdoors to move participants and props to the arena.  

Its construction was crucial for staging the more elaborate and surprising events for which the Colosseum is famous, such as using the lifts to make animals and fighters appear "as if by magic