Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said Friday that Olympic athletes should receive their medals at the ancient Colosseum "like gladiators" if Italy wins its bid to play host to the 2024 Olympics.
"I have a dream," Marino told International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.
"If we succeed in getting the Olympics in Rome, I would like the prize-giving to take place at the Colosseum," he added.
"We want to reconstruct the Colosseum arena and the athletes could arrive in lifts like the gladiators in the Roman epoch".
Underneath the floor of the ancient arena were holding pens for wild animals as well as a series of winches and lifts to raise both animals and gladiators to the main floor area.
Bach quipped in reply: "It's a beautiful idea, the important thing is that the lions don't arrive".
Archaeologists said the idea could spur better planning for restoration of the historic site, formally know as the Flavian Amphitheatre.
The superintendent for Rome's Archaeological Heritage, Francesco Prosperetti, said he didn't want to comment on the merits of Marino's idea but that it underlines the need for "well-structured" planning of the Colosseum's restoration.
"What it needs is a well-structured project that takes into consideration the historical and structural reality of a grandiose stage machine like the one the Flavian Amphitheatre had".
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