Rome’s incredible gladiatorial arena is the most amazing of the city's sights and Italy's most visited tourist attraction. Initiated in AD 80, the 50,000-seat Colosseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheater, was initially clad in travertine and secured by a tremendous canvas shade. Inside, layered seating surrounded the field, itself worked over an underground intricate where animals were confined and stage sets arranged. Games included gladiators battling wild animals or one another. The field had a wooden floor shrouded in sand – harena in Latin, consequently the word 'field' – to keep the combatants from slipping and to soak up spilt blood.