CHAMBER FOUND UNDER NERO'S PALACE WITH DAZZLING FRESCOES OF GODS AND BEASTS

EXPERTS have found a secret chamber underneath Nero's famous palace with dazzling frescoes which have been unseen by human eyes for nearly 2,000 years.

The discovery was made during restoration work at the Domus Aurea or "Golden House" built by the Roman emperor. 

It is a large underground room decorated with pictures depicting both real and mythical creatures.

The red and ocher hues had a glint of gilding. Archaeologists noticed centaurs dancing across the walls along with depictions of the goat-legged god Pan.

Pan is known as the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, rustic music and impromptus and companion of the nymphs.

The wall paintings also include birds and aquatic creatures like hippocampus (half-horse, half fish). 

The researchers also found the depiction of a warrior armed with bow, shield and sword fighting against a panther.

In addition, they found the image of a "silent and solitary sphinx" on a sacred plinth called a, Baetylus. and because of that, the chamber was named as Sphinx Room. 

This room was discovered by accident as part of the ongoing restoration of the palace while working on the adjoining room in the section on the Oppian Hill.

After two-thirds of Rome was destroyed by the great fire in 64 AD, Nero used fire-ravaged land between the Esquiline and Palatine Hills as the site for his new palace. 

It was not so much a palace as a "party villa" … a series of buildings scattered over a landscaped "countryside in the city" (rus in urbe) which included an artificial lake.

The main building was extravagantly crafted, and boasted rooms and hallways decorated almost entirely in gold, with marble and ivory encrusted ornamentation.

The architects in charge of the project, Severus and Celer, designed two of the principal dining rooms to flank an octagonal court, surmounted by a dome with a giant central oculus to let in light. 

It was a design element which Emperor Hadrian would expand upon in his design for the Pantheon.

The Domus Aurea had more than one banqueting hall, according to the Ancient Roman historian Suetonius. 

But the most extravagant one was a vast circular room which featured a "rotating ceiling."

Celer and Severus devised an ingenious mechanism, either cranked by slaves or perhaps powered by flowing water, which made the ceiling within the dome of the main banqueting hall rotate like the heavens, while perfume was sprayed and rose petals were dropped on the assembled diners. 

The rotating ceiling was painted with the stars and the planets by the artist Fabullus.

In his book De Vita Caesarum ("The Lives of the Caesars", best known in English as "The Twelve Caesars"), Suetonius describes the banqueting hall in detail:

"The main banqueting hall was circular, and its ceiling rotated slowly, day and night, in time with the heavens."

Suetonius goes on to write that when the lavish Domus Aurea was finally completed, Nero said, "Good, now I can at last begin to live like a human being!"

However, Nero did not enjoy the frescoed halls and gold-encrusted ceilings for too long. It was completed in AD 68 -- the year he committed suicide amid a revolt.

But for all its splendor, the Domus Aurea has been closed since 2005 for safety reasons … and a ceiling vault collapsed in 2010. Persistent problems with drainage and moisture threaten both its structural stability and its decorations. 

Recently, the archaeological superintendency of Rome embarked on the last phase of an ambitious restoration project. 

"We hope,” says superintendent Mariarosaira Barbera, “that the Domus Aurea can be visited again, and that it will last another 2,000 years."

Click here for a tour of Nero's Domus Aurea:

COLOSSEUM OPENS ITS TOP LEVELS TO TOURISTS FOR FIRST TIME IN DECADES

PLEBS may have been the lowliest of the low, but they had a stupendous view of ancient Rome.

For the first time in decades, visitors can have a plebeian's eye view of the Colosseum, the oval amphitheatre where gladiators fought wild animals - and each other.

From November 1, tourists will be able to climb to the fifth and highest level of the arena, which was reserved for Rome's plebeian classes.

Groups of up to 25 people will be led up to the highest reaches of the amphitheatre by guides.

The "plebs" sat on wooden benches, unlike the senators and imperial officials on lower levels, who parked their behinds on marble benches.

"The noise and the smell would have been hellish," Rossella Rea, the director of the Colosseum, told The Telegraph of London from the top level of the Colosseum, which rises more than 120 feet (30 meters) above the ground.

"The wild animals were kept in underground tunnels. They were not fed for days. So when they were hoisted up from the darkness to the arena in cages, they would have been terrified. The carnage was terrible."

While the first level of the Colosseum was reserved for the emperor and his senators, the second was occupied by imperial functionaries.

The third was given over to the middle-class, while the fourth ... which will also be opened to the public next month ... was the realm of traders, merchants and shopkeepers.

Ordinary people had to clamber up steep flights of stone steps and walk along dimly-lit tunnels to reach the fifth and final level.

"It was tiring to get all the way up there," said Professor Rea. "A lot of the plebeians brought food from home ... pieces of chicken, cereals, that kind of thing.

"You have to remember that the games lasted all day so they and their families needed some sustenance."

The poor were at least compensated with expansive views not only of the 50,000 other people crammed into the Colosseum, but of the nearby Forum and the Palatine Hill, where emperors built their palaces.

Spectators received tickets which indicated their seat numbers and which entrance to use, much as in modern stadiums.

ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD

INVITES YOU TO TAKE HIS HAND

AND FLY WITH HIM OVER THE CITY OF ROME

AT THE HEIGHT OF HIS RELIGION

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY A.D.

TARRY A MOMENT WITH ANTINOUS IN HADRIAN's PANTHEON (4:00 min.)

ROME'S COLOSSEUM MAKEOVER REWINDS 2,000 YEARS OF HISTORY

ROME's landmark Colosseum is gleaming after a three-year external makeover funded by an Italian luxury goods company. But not all are happy that the upkeep of the historic building is being outsourced to private business in return for commercial merchandising rights.

Italy's most famous monument, the Colosseum, will look "almost" as it did 2,000 years ago upon next week's completion of the first stage of a 25-million-euro (28-million-dollar) makeover project.

The travertine surfaces of the open air stadium, where gladiators once fought lions, had been blackened by decades of home heating and traffic smog.

Over the last three years, the limestone has been gradually returned to its glorious white, using water sprays and gentle brushing.

"This facade is now almost the same as it was in ancient times," Colosseum Director Rossella Rea told German Press Agency dpa, as she stood outside the northern side of the monument ... the best preserved ... amid a throng of tourists, ticket touts and workmen.

The archeologist said outside clean-up works, which cost 6.5 million euros, will be over on April 22 ... a day after Rome celebrates the 2,769 anniversary of its foundation. As Rea was speaking, the last pieces of scaffolding were being taken down.

Time has robbed the monument of adornments such as decorative statues and metal shields ... which, bouncing off sun beams, acted as luminous signposts for the Colosseum. An indelible patina is left on the stones in their place, but otherwise it is in good shape, Rea said.

The clean-up has revealed new details of the monument, including the numbers marking its stands and signs of 3rd century AD repairs made to the upper levels of the Colosseum following a great fire, the director said.

Built between 70 and 80 AD, the amphitheatre was used by ancient Roman emperors as a venue for public executions and bloody spectator sports, such as gladiatorial battles and wild animal fights, in front of crowds of up to 50,000 people.

It fell into disuse with the fall of the Roman Empire and was partly dismantled at the southern end in the 6th Century AD after quake damage.

Thus its distinctive appearance today as an incomplete arena.

Along with the nearby Roman Forum, the Colosseum is Italy's most popular tourist site, attracting more than 6.5 million visitors last year and raising 50 million euros in ticket sales.

The facade was cleaned in small installments, to allow the monument to remain open throughout the works. In the next stages, restorers will work on underground passages and inside corridors, and there are also plans to build a new ticket office and bookstore.

Attempts so far to spruce up the area have produced mixed results. The avenue cutting across the Forum has been pedestrianized, and fake gladiators and ugly street food vans have been banished. But the area still looks messy, partly due to subway construction.

The Colosseum project was funded by luxury goods maker Tod's, in what is Italy's biggest private sponsorship deal for art. Other notable examples include the 2.2-million-euro restoration of the Trevi Fountain, completed in November thanks to fashion house Fendi.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini has been keen to raise money in this way, but some academics have denounced the practice as a cynical sell-out by Italy's cash-strapped government, opening the door to the commercial exploitation of national heritage sites.

ROME'S POLICE FIGHTING IN THE STREETS WITH ANCIENT ROMAN CENTURIONS

IF you assumed Italy had long seen the last of Ancient Rome’s legions, think again.

More than 1,500 years after the Roman Empire’s reign over the West, its foot soldiers have returned to fight in the streets again ... but this time they're fighting with Rome's police force. 

Outside the Colosseum last week, authorities conducted an undercover operation intended to tackle a league of centurion pretenders, who have become a serious nuisance to tourists.

In recent years, the space outside Rome's Colosseum (the Flavian Ampitheatre) has increasingly been thronged by men dressed in ancient Roman military garb, posing with tourists for tips. 

People enacting kitschy re-runs of Rome’s history for the non-local crowd seems a pretty harmless addition to the usual gamut of tourist industry hangers-on, but visitors have been complaining.

The centurions (so named because they were officers each responsible for 100 legionaries) have been hustling tourists pretty hard, only taking the third or fourth "no" for an answer when offering their posing skills. 

They have occasionally been aggressive, a behavior their costumes only amplify. 

It can be pretty intimidating being roared at by a plumed, breast-plated man armed with a GLADIUS, even if the weapon turns out on closer inspection to be made of papier-mâché. 

Getting rid of them has proved tough. Uniformed police officers are no less visible than legionaries, and the centurions have always succeeded in making a tactical, if not especially courageous retreat, warned off by scouts via that essential bit of Ancient Roman military hardware ... the cell phone.

It seems the slightly fearful impression the fake soldiers give isn't entirely misplaced.

When plain-clothes officers swooped on a clutch of them this week, they fought back, with one centurion charged with punching a police officer.

While the Colosseum's Roman re-enactors might have been more aggressive than most, this sort of clampdown is a growing trend across Europe. 

In 2014, Berlin barred street performers from the area around the Brandenburg Gate, successfully making what is an imposing but still dull space even duller.

The director of London's National Gallery is also currently trying to shoo the assembled Yodas and Wookies from off its front steps. 

A tiny minority of these performers are indeed a bad lot. 

In 2011, a living statue performer in London was given four and a half years in prison for hitting a rival with a bagful of bricks. Most, however, do little harm, and even help spread a little visitor money away from major chains and institutions and toward individuals.

It's understandable that Rome doesn't want the ghosts of its past to hector tourists for their spare euros — but a city where no anarchic performance is allowed at all could be a pretty dull place.

STEPS TO SAVE NERO'S CRUMBLING PALACE TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE, EXPERT WARNS

IT may be too late to save Nero's famous "Domus Aurea" (Golden House) and its fabled octagonal dining room with "rotating ceiling" ... before it crumbles completely.

Earlier this year, the Italian government earmarked part of a 300-million-euro funding bill for EMERGENCY RESTORATION efforts.

But in an interview, Superintendent Francesco Prosperetti said it may be too late to prevent rising ground water from destroying everything. But he said efforts are ongoing.

It is hoped that the site can be re-opened to tourists by 2018 ... if indeed the repairs don't prove to be too little, too late.

After two-thirds of Rome was destroyed by the great fire in 64 AD, Nero used fire-ravaged land between the Esquiline and Palatine Hills as the site for his new palace. 

It was not so much a palace as a "party villa" … a series of buildings scattered over a landscaped "countryside in the city" (rus in urbe) which included an artificial lake.

The main building was extravagantly crafted, and boasted rooms and hallways decorated almost entirely in gold, with marble and ivory encrusted ornamentation.

The architects in charge of the project, Severus and Celer, designed two of the principal dining rooms to flank an octagonal court, surmounted by a dome with a giant central oculus to let in light. 

It was a design element which Emperor Hadrian would expand upon in his design for the Pantheon.

The Domus Aurea had more than one banqueting hall, according to the Ancient Roman historian Suetonius. 

But the most extravagant one was a vast circular room which featured a "rotating ceiling."

Celer and Severus devised an ingenious mechanism, either cranked by slaves or perhaps powered by flowing water, which made the ceiling within the dome of the main banqueting hall rotate like the heavens, while perfume was sprayed and rose petals were dropped on the assembled diners. 

The rotating ceiling was painted with the stars and the planets by the artist Fabullus.

In his book De Vita Caesarum ("The Lives of the Caesars", best known in English as "The Twelve Caesars"), Suetonius describes the banqueting hall in detail:

"The main banqueting hall was circular, and its ceiling rotated slowly, day and night, in time with the heavens."

Suetonius goes on to write that when the lavish Domus Aurea was finally completed, Nero said, "Good, now I can at last begin to live like a human being!"

However, Nero did not enjoy the frescoed halls and gold-encrusted ceilings for too long. It was completed in AD 68 -- the year he committed suicide amid a revolt.

But for all its splendor, the Domus Aurea has been closed since 2005 for safety reasons … and a ceiling vault collapsed in 2010. Persistent problems with drainage and moisture threaten both its structural stability and its decorations. 

Recently, the archaeological superintendency of Rome embarked on the last phase of an ambitious restoration project. 

"We hope,” says superintendent Mariarosaira Barbera, “that the Domus Aurea can be visited again by 2018, and that it will last another 2,000 years."

Click here for a tour of Nero's Domus Aurea:

AS THE BEES MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEAR WE REMEMBER ANTINOUS-ARISTAEUS

A mysterious malady seems to have expanded drastically, wiping out as many as half of the beehives needed to pollinate much of produce in North America and many other parts of the world.

This is a crisis of mythic proportions ... in the truest sense of the word. In Classical Mythology the world's bees all vanished ... and it took the daring plunge of a brave Hero to find the divine powers to bring the bees back ... and to save mankind.

It is all there in Virgil's version of the story of Aristaeus (Aristée/Aristaios).

As this statue in the Louvre shows, Antinous was identified by the Ancients with Aristaeus ... they both descended into a river and emerged with godly powers.

Aristaeus was the son of Apollo and the river-nymph Cyrene and his assignment on the earthly plane was to teach mortal humans the art of farming and cultivating crops and tending livestock and keeping bees.

Honey was practically a form of ambrosia, or at least the nearest thing to ambrosia that mortal men had. It was the job of Aristaios to teach men how to cunningly harvest honey without being stung.

But Aristaeus had inadvertently caused the death of Eurydice by causing her to tread upon a venomous serpent. Her death and Orpheus's attempt to bring her back to the earthly plane were the origins of the Orphic Mysteries.

Shortly after Eurydice died, the bees which Aristaeus had been nurturing all began dying of a unexplainable cause. Nothing he could do seemed to prevent them from dying and soon they were all gone and humans were deprived of honey, beeswax, mead and the many other products which bees provide to man, not to mention the fact that, without bees, there was nobody to pollinate plants. The situation was dire.

Here's what Bulfinch writes, quoting Virgil:

"Aristæus, who first taught the management of bees, was the son of the water-nymph Cyrene. His bees had perished, and he resorted for aid to his mother. He stood at the river side and thus addressed her: 'O mother, the pride of my life is taken from me! I have lost my precious bees. My care and skill have availed me nothing, and you my mother have not warded off from me the blow of misfortune.'

"His mother heard these complaints as she sat in her palace at the bottom of the river, with her attendant nymphs around her. They were engaged in female occupations, spinning and weaving, while one told stories to amuse the rest. The sad voice of Aristæus interrupting their occupation, one of them put her head above the water and seeing him, returned and gave information to his mother, who ordered that he should be brought into her presence.

"The river at her command opened itself and let him pass in, while it stood curled like a mountain on either side. He descended to the region where the fountains of the great rivers lie; he saw the enormous receptacles of waters and was almost deafened with the roar, while he surveyed them hurrying off in various directions to water the face of the earth.

"Arriving at his mother’s apartment, he was hospitably received by Cyrene and her nymphs, who spread their table with the richest dainties. They first poured out libations to Neptune, then regaled themselves with the feast, and after that Cyrene thus addressed him: 'There is an old prophet named Proteus, who dwells in the sea and is a favorite of Neptune, whose herd of sea-calves he pastures. We nymphs hold him in great respect, for he is a learned sage and knows all things, past, present, and to come. He can tell you, my son, the cause of the mortality among your bees, and how you may remedy it.'"

The story goes on to say a river nymph escorted Aristaeus to the cave of Proteus where he subdued the cantankerous old prophet (who was a shape-shifter and tried unsuccessfully to elude Aristaeus by changing form). Aristaeus told him of his plight and wanted to know the cause of this misfortune and how to remedy it. Bulfinch writes:

"At these words the prophet, fixing on him his gray eyes with a piercing look, thus spoke: 'You receive the merited reward of your deeds, by which Eurydice met her death, for in flying from you she trod upon a serpent, of whose bite she died. To avenge her death, the nymphs, her companions, have sent this destruction to your bees. You have to appease their anger, and thus it must be done: Select four bulls, of perfect form and size, and four cows of equal beauty, build four altars to the nymphs, and sacrifice the animals, leaving their carcasses in the leafy grove. To Orpheus and Eurydice you shall pay such funeral honors as may allay their resentment. Returning after nine days, you will examine the bodies of the cattle slain and see what will befall.'

"Aristæus faithfully obeyed these directions. He sacrificed the cattle, he left their bodies in the grove, he offered funeral honors to the shades of Orpheus and Eurydice; then returning on the ninth day he examined the bodies of the animals, and, wonderful to relate! a swarm of bees had taken possession of one of the carcasses and were pursuing their labors there as in a hive."

So there we have it! Even the most illiterate and ignorant peasant would know the story of Aristaeus and the bees and the plunge into the river to unravel a Sacred Mystery. Aristaeus survived the plunge and emerged with Secret Knowledge which was of a great service to mankind.

For without bees to pollinate orchards and crops, mankind can scarcely survive ... a fact which has come home to haunt us today as bee populations dwindle worldwide and food riots rage in developing countries.

Ancient peoples, even those who could not read or write, could look at the statue of Antinous-Aristaeus and immediately see the Sacred Symbolism ... Like Aristaios, Antinous is a god who took the plunge into a river and who emerged with knowledge of Sacred Mysteries.

Wearing a sun hat, carrying a farm tool and holding an olive sprig, Antinous-Aristaeus symbolizes the union of sunshine and water (Apollo/Cyrene) combined with ingenuity and hard work and the ability to dive into the spiritual depths ... defying death ... and to emerge with a miracle which benefits all humankind.

COLOSSEUM'S STRICT SEATING PLAN KEPT PLEBS AWAY FROM PATRICIANS

AN ongoing $33 million restoration project at the Colosseum in Rome has led to the startling discovery of painted red numbers on the seats of the 2,000-year-old gladiatorial arena, indicating that it likely used a seating system not unlike those found in modern sporting venues.

Earlier it had been learned that the Colosseum had at times been painted in bright colors, and painted graffiti was rife ... but the new discovery of the seating plan came as a surprise.

According to the website Wanted In Rome, the newly discovered traces of Roman numerals painted red on the arches, apparently marking different sections of the amphitheatre. They would have guided people to the areas dedicated for their respective social classes.

The numbers were first carved in travertine stones, and then painted in red so that people could see them from a distance, Discovery News explained. 

There were a total of 76 numbered entrances for use by the general public, as well as four special gates that were not numbered.

Two gates were reserved for the emperor, the senators, the magistrates, wealthy patricians and the Vestal Virgins, (priestesses that maintained the sacred fire within the Temple of Vesta). 

One gate was used for gladiators parading prior to the start of battle, while the fourth was used for the dead gladiators and wild beasts that fell during combat, the website added.

While entrance to the Colosseum was free for anyone who wanted to come, a strict seating plan was in place that restricted where different groups could go to watch the events. 

The equivalent of modern-day luxury boxes went to the emperor, who sat in his own special section in the first tier, while the rest of the first level was reserved for senators, magistrates and Vestal Virgins.

The second tier belonged to the upper class, while ordinary Roman citizens were seated in the third level and women and the poor either sat on wooden benches in the “nosebleed” seats or had “standing room only” access to the arena.

The Roman numerals measure 13 inches (34 centimeters) tall and over 3/4 inches (2 centimeters) wide, according to International Business Times. The numbers read “ XXXVIIII – XLII” (39-42) and were engraved in such a way that they would have been visible from a great distance.

Rea called the discovery of the numbers an “exceptional finding,” telling Discovery News that the restoration team did not believe that the paint would have survived at all.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL TREASURES CRUMBLINGAS ITALY SLIDES INTO FINANCIAL CHAOS

THE Colosseum, Pompeii and other ancient monuments in Italy are crumbling due to budget cutbacks caused by the country's financial crisis, the UNESCO warns in an urgent appeal.

The lack of funds is having a disastrous affect on the country's archaeological treasures, with many sites closed due to fears of rock collapses and others sporadically shut by protests and strikes.

Giovanni Puglisi, head of the UNESCO National Commission in Italy, warns the government to act fast to adopt suitable measures for Pompeii, which has long been a sponge for funds then used poorly or syphoned off by criminal organisations.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization documented structural shortcomings and light damage at the 44-hectare (110-acre) site in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, where collapsing walls and houses have sparked international concern.

The giant eruption devastated Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago in 79 AD but the ash and rock helped preserve many buildings almost in their original state, as well as the curled-up corpses of victims.

The hugely popular site near Naples has come to symbolise decades of mismanagement of many of Italy's cultural treasures, as well as the fallout from austerity cuts in the recession-hit country.

Puglisi warned of "irregular buildings not included in the previous plan and a lack of personnel" at Pompeii and called for "a new observance zone" around the site to protect it from illegal construction encroaching upon the area.

Italy, which is relying heavily on tourism to help boost the economy, moved quickly to reassure UNESCO it was doing its utmost to get the repairs made.

"Over the last five years, the culture budget has been reduced by two thirds," Culture Minister Massimo Bray complained in an interview in Italian newspapers.

Italy is now lagging well behind its European counterparts: the country allocates just 1.1 percent of its budget to culture, compared to 7.4 percent in Ireland, 3.3 percent in Spain and 2.5 percent in France.

"Our highly symbolic monuments are our best calling cards throughout the world," Bray said.

"Pompeii is a symbol for our country. UNESCO's reprimand is an alarm which I take very seriously and we are already working to overcome the site's urgent problems."

Twice in the past year, torrential rains have caused irreplaceable walls at Pompeii to collapse (photo right) because there was no money to shore them up.

As well as problems with upkeep, however, a lack of staff at the sites has sparked trade union strikes.

Tourists eager to visit Rome's Colosseum, Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper in Milan or the Uffizi Gallery in Florence last week were met with closed doors.

"Heritage management is in a comatose state," archaeologist Salvatore Settis told La Repubblica daily.

"We are paying the price of disastrous policies over the last few years," he said.

The number of visitors to the Colosseum, the biggest Roman amphitheatre ever built, has increased from a million to around six million a year over the past decade or so thanks mainly to the 2000 blockbuster film "Gladiator".

But it has also fallen into disrepair in recent years: bits of stone, blackened by pollution, have fallen off and some experts have voiced concern that the foundations are sinking, giving the amphitheatre a lean.

Long-delayed repairs to the 2,000-year-old monument, funded by Italian billionaire Diego Della Valle, are in the pipeline -- but problems with red tape mean they have yet to get off the ground.

In the case of Pompeii, Italy is relying on additional funding from the EU.

Conservation experts began a 105-million euro ($136-million) makeover of the site in February -- funded to the tune of 41.8 million euros from the EU -- to be completed by 2015.

The repairs are aimed at reducing the risk of exposure to the elements, reinforcing the ancient Roman buildings, restoring Pompeii's famous frescoes and increasing video surveillance at the site where security is often lax.

The "Grand Pompeii Project", as it is known, aims to improve facilities for visitors and the European Commission estimates tourist numbers could increase from around 2.3 million a year to 2.6 million by 2017.

COLOSSEUM GETTING A FACELIFT

THE COLOSSEUM is getting its first major facelift in more than seven decades. 

This month, construction starts on a two-year project to build a protective cast iron barrier around Rome's 2,000-year-old Colosseum, where rocks and wall fragments have been falling for years.

A ring of metal columns will be placed between 5 and 15 meters (15 and 50 feet) from the amphitheater, and the privately funded project also includes removing grime from its massive facade. 

The restoration will take place in phases so the Colosseum stays open to an estimated 5 million visitors a year. 

Crumbling walls aren't the only troubles facing Italy's iconic attraction. An October report noted that the structure is leaning 16 inches to the south, and Roman authorities, who've fought an unsuccessful battle against aggressive "gladiators and centurions" posing for pictures with tourists, are trying to comply with a ministerial order to clean up the Colosseum's surroundings from illegal street vendors.

"It is not something that can be done in one day, because we also have to consider the families that are behind these people," city council superintendent Umberto Broccoli told reporters, adding that authorities had until May to resolve the issue.

And "in a separate measure to safeguard decorum," says the Australian Associated Press, Rome's mayor signed "a long-delayed decree allowing the closure of bars and restaurants which occupy too much outside space in Rome's historic streets and squares."