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When you sneak into the garden gate, you see an excavation immediately in front of you. If you walk around to the opposite side and peer in, you see this. It's part of the understructure - the part that was used to bring animals, gladiators and condemned criminals into the arena itself. You sure wish you can sneak into there!
But you can't because you realize that the old man Italian church gardner (OMICG) is staring at you and then... he speaks! And luckily, you do not (wish to) understand him because you know he is saying something like, "Hey! You don't belong in here! Get out!" And so, if you understood him you'd feel obligated to leave, which you don't want to do, because you are betting that if you get a few more photos and publish them on your web page you'll be the only site in the world that actually has photos from the interior of the Amphitheater Castrense. And, in your small, lame, little mind, that's important.
After you encounter the OMICG and shrug your shoulders as your good Italian friends have taught you so very well, you jog down the center of the garden and look to your right at about 2 o'clock. You see this, which is just about the only superstructure remaining. At ground level, directly below this, there is another excavation with more arches and steps.
When you get to the opposite wall, you turn around and take this shot. The superstructure in the photo above is almost directly at your back and the garden gate is to you left... oh shit, it's closed! Now what?!?!
This is a section of the Aurelian Wall looking back towards Santa Croce in Gerusalemme - that's its campanile in the background. This gives an idea of it's scale -Honorius really went all out with this thing!
Same wall section, oppostite direction, looking towards San Giovanni in Laterano
This is the Porta San Giovanni. It was fenced off, unfortunately, and yes, I did try to get in anyway, but no luck. The towers above the gate are obvious and the gate opening is nicely faced with marble.
This is the entrance to the portico. It's a three-dimensional porch-like entry. There are several rows of columns behind the front row. You can see this thing is in pretty bad shape.
These are a few interior entrance columns, which are also in bad shape. Note the apartment window in the upper left and the doorway in the lower right.
Some recycled temple columns in a building located in what was once the interior of the portico.
This is the lintle that has been incorporated into some old shops/apartment building. You can see the ancient Latin carved into the stone.
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