Colosseum restoration yields frescoes, graffiti Explore This
Story ROME—A long-delayed restoration of the Colosseum's only
intact internal passageway has yielded ancient traces of red,
black, green and blue frescoes — as well as graffiti and
drawings of phallic symbols — indicating that the arena where
gladiators fought was far more colourful than previously
thought. Officials unveiled the discoveries Friday and said the
passageway — between the second and third levels of the 1st
Century Colosseum — would open to the public starting this
summer, after the $100,000 restoration is completed. The
frescoes were hidden under decades of calcified rock and grime,
and were revealed during a cleaning and restoration project over
the last two months. The traces confirmed that while the
Colosseum today is a fairly monochrome grey travertine rock, red
brick and moss-covered marble, in its day its interior halls
were a rich and expensive Technicolour. “We're used to thinking
that during excavations, archaeological surpris