Get ready, get set, go cosplay as a gladiator and fight a random stranger in Rome’s torch-lit Colosseum — for free?
Airbnb will start taking booking requests next week for an “exclusive gladiator experience” to be held in the Colosseum next spring, sparking outrage among some Italian officials who say the event degrades the ancient amphitheater to the ranks of a theme park.
“We are not in Disneyland, we are in Rome. Every now and then someone seems to forget it,” Secretary of Rome’s Democratic Party Enzo Foschi said in a statement last week.
Titled “Train for Gladiador II Glory” on the booking website, the experience promotes the new film Gladiator II, starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, and Denzel Washington. The vacation rental site said it will select 16 guests to participate in two private events on May 7 and May 8.
An Airbnb spokesperson told Hyperallergic that the company donated $1.5 million to the Colosseum Archaeological Park for restoration efforts as part of the series. Alfonsina Russo, director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, said in a statement that the site’s agreement to host the gladiator events was intended as a move to “enhance the historical and cultural heritage of the Flavian Amphitheater.”
The sessions are advertised on the Airbnb website in its classic vacation rental booking format, complete with a booking host (Lucius the fictional gladiator, with Mescal’s photo in his profile and “I fought a rhinoceros once” listed under “Pets”) and a list of unusual specs. “Behold the Colosseum: Its doors are forever closed at night … except for this night,” the experience description reads. “Let us open the gates of Rome’s legendary Colosseum to test the limits of your strength and honor.” The advertisement clarifies that “by decree of the Emperor, no guest shall stay the night.”
Participants will be guided by a “patron,” who will lead them into the Colosseum after sunset. The guest will then be escorted into underground chambers to dress up in Roman-inspired armor in preparation to watch “seasoned gladiators” perform a battle before participants attempt their own.
Russo said the event will not interfere with normal visits to the Colosseum because it will take place after hours.
Officials from Italy’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party, to which the country’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni belongs, have defended the private events. “We are absolutely in favor of the agreement between public and private in culture,” said Federico Mollicone, a member of the Brothers of Italy party and parliamentary culture commissioner, in a statement provided to Hyperallergic. Mollicone argued that the gladiator shows would bring “profitability” to the monument while also contributing to “education and scientific exploration.”
Massimiliano Smeriglio, a member of the Democratic Party and Rome’s councilor for Rome, said on Instagram last week that he had written to the CEO of Airbnb asking him to “forfeit the tourist-gladiator show.”
“With this initiative, once again, a principle of commodification and consumption of culture is reaffirmed,” Smeriglio said in his statement, adding that it is over-tourism and not conservation that the park must address.
“The hyper-tourism of our cities means they risk becoming Disneylands for the rich and losing their identities,” Smeriglio wrote on Instagram.
A spokesperson for Airbnb told Hyperallergic that the company has “sensitively recreated” history “by bringing to life the drama and awe of gladiator fights during the time of the Roman empire,” working in collaboration with the park’s archaeological team.
Italian culture officials are scrambling to limit attendance at several iconic sites as tourist numbers surge. Rome officials plan to impose fees for visiting the city’s Trevi Fountain, and in Venice, day-trip tourists are charged a congestion price-like fee during peak seasons to visit the city. Earlier this month, Pompeii restricted daily attendance to 20,000 visitors. Travelers continue to make headlines at European cultural sites for disruptive and destructive behavior, including carving letters into Pompeii ruins and using the Trevi Fountain as a personal water refill station.
“The Colosseum is a symbol of the thousand-year history of Rome, its image must not be debased in the eyes of the world and it cannot become a playground,” Smeriglio wrote on Instagram.
