ROME (AP) — The iconic Colosseum in Rome is showcasing a refreshed appearance after an extensive restoration that utilized the same travertine marble used by the ancient Romans. This restoration effort meticulously recreated sections of columns dating back 2,000 years.

In its heyday, the Colosseum was a bustling venue where thousands of Romans gathered to witness fierce gladiatorial contests and wild animal fights. Even today, it continues to captivate the world’s imagination, standing as Italy’s most visited landmark, attracting nine million tourists in 2025 alone.

The restoration project concentrated on a semicircular piazza outside the Colosseum, an area once thronged with Roman spectators. These crowds would gather beneath two grand arcades, composed of marble columns reaching heights of up to 50 meters (164 feet), as they queued to enter the arena.

Though these arches have long since crumbled, victims of time, earthquakes, and shifting earth, modern-day visitors can now sit on expansive travertine marble slabs positioned where the original columns once stood. They can also view reproductions of the Roman numerals that once marked seating sections.

“These travertine marble blocks are precisely located where the original pillars once stood,” explained Italian architect Stefano Boeri, the designer behind the piazza’s restoration.

“Our vision was to restore to the public the sense of the arcades’ proportions and the grandeur of the vaulted arches that served as entrances to the heart of the Colosseum,” Boeri added.

Over time, the outside area became filled with detritus, including pieces of ruins, and overgrown with weeds.

Restorers began by digging a meter (yard) to where the travertine paving stones once covered the entrance area. They discovered coins, statues, animal bones and a gold ring.

Deeper down is the secret underground passageway where Emperor Commodus used to enter the Colosseum while avoiding the hoi-polloi, and which was opened to the public last year.

Restorers sourced the new slabs of travertine from the same quarries where the ancient Romans retrieved theirs — and that today are used to build a new generation of religious buildings, banks, museums, government buildings and private homes.

“From the beginning we understood only one thing and that was that we wanted to be involved,” Fabrizio Mariotti, head of the Mariotti Carlo stonecutting firm that has been carving travertine to order for four generations in Tivoli, said Tuesday while sitting on a slab of the stone.

“For a family like ours that has been working with travertine for four generations, working at the Colosseum, which is the symbol not only of Rome but also of this material, is so important.”

Earlier this year, the city of Rome opened two new subway stations, one deep beneath the Colosseum, completing a multi-billion euro metro project. The restoration of the Colosseum’s perimeter was done using compensatory funds from the metro, project officials said.