Rome — The Colosseum has a bright new look after restoration using the same travertine marble from ancient Rome to recreate parts of the columns dating back 2,000 years.
Thousands of Romans once flocked to this arena to watch gladiators fight each other and wild animals. The structure still captures the imagination of the public; It is the most popular tourist destination in Italy, with 9 million visitors in 2025 alone.
The plan centered on a semicircular piazza outside the arena, where Roman spectators crowded under two arcades consisting of 50-meter (164 ft) high marble columns. People stood in these arcades as they waited to pass through the entrances and take their seats.
Those arches are long gone, crumbling over centuries from earthquakes and unstable ground. But now, visitors are able to sit on the large travertine marble slabs where their columns once stood and read reproductions of the Roman numerals denoting the seating sections.
“These blocks of travertine marble are placed, precisely where the pillars, the original pillars, are located,” said Stefano Bori, the Italian architect who designed the piazza. “Our idea is to give back to the public a perception of the proportions of the arcades and the arches of the arches used to enter the center of the Colosseum.”
Over time, the outer area became filled with detritus, including debris fragments, and overgrown with weeds.
Restorers began by excavating meters (yards) to where travertine paving stones once covered the entry area. They found coins, statues, animal bones and a gold ring. Deep below is a secret underground passage where Emperor Commodus used to enter the Colosseum while avoiding the hoi-polloi, and it was opened to the public last year.
Restorers obtained new slabs of travertine from the same quarries from which the ancient Romans retrieved theirs – and today are used to build a new generation of religious buildings, banks, museums, government buildings and private homes.
“From the beginning we understood only one thing, and we wanted to be involved,” said Fabrizio Mariotti, head of the Mariotti Carlo stonecutting firm, which has been carving travertine to order in Tivoli for four generations, sitting on a slab of stone on Tuesday.
“For a family like ours, who have been working with travertine for four generations, it is very important to work in the Colosseum, which is a symbol not only of Rome but of this material.”
Earlier this year, the city of Rome opened two new subway stations, completing a multi-billion euro metro project beneath the Colosseum. Project officials said the restoration of the Colosseum’s perimeter was done using compensation funds from the Metro.
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