This morning I read an article from the March-April issue of Departures, a magazine that chronicles fashion, travel destinations, culture, and luxury goods of all kinds. The article, written by David Margolick, was called Can This Man (And His Loafers) Save the Colosseum?, and told the story of Diego Della Valle, the CEO of Tod's, a luxury Italian leather brand, and his underwriting, about $34 million, of the cleaning/restoring of the great Flavian amphitheatre in Rome. Mr. Della Valle has set an example for philanthropists throughout Italy, if not Europe; perhaps other philanthropists will provide contributions to stop the crumbling of the extraordinary ruins at Pompeii, and sites that have been closed for years, because the Italian government did not have the money, will be open.
I encourage you to find out more about the colossal restorations to this great symbol of Rome and Roman influence. The project has been ongoing since 2013, and the first stage of the restoration is to be completed in February 2016. Here is the kind of work that is being done:
The Colosseum takes its name from one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Colossus at Rhodes, a huge statue of Helios, a sun god, once located in the harbor at the island of Rhodes. Near the Colosseum in Rome, there was also once a large statue of the emperor Nero; the name Colosseum really stands for the place near the colossus, the great statue. In English we have the words colossus (a larger-than-life person), colossal (really big), and coliseum, a variant spelling of colosseum (an amphitheatre or stadium).
