You push your way with difficulty into the upper gallery of seats (maenianum secundum summum) since it is already packed with spectators whose dark clothes indicate that they belong to the lowest classes. If you are a woman, you must proceed even higher, into the colonnade with its wooden bleachers (maenianum summum in ligneis); the shaded porch protects you from the gaze of other spectators but also limits your own view of the exciting action taking place in the arena so far below you. From the roof above your head you can hear the footsteps and grunts of the sailors keeping the heavy folds of the huge awning in place in the stiff wind. To see where you are, look at this cross-sectional plan of the Colosseum or this navigational plan of the virtual site.
Second-Level Concentric Corridor