A new hi-tech floor will bring tourists to Italy's Roman Colosseum closer than ever to its history.

The country's culture minister, Dario Franceschini, on Sunday unveiled plans to build a new flexible floor that will enable visitors to walk straight into the center of the 2,000-year-old monument and see the arena "in the same way as visitors used to up to the end of the 19th century," giving them a clearer idea of how the site would have looked when gladiators fought to the death there.

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"It is an extraordinary project," said Franceschini, presenting the design of Italian engineering firm Milan Ingegneria, which won the $22.2 million contract to design the new flooring, expected to be completed by 2023.

The plan will involve the construction of a wooden platform made up of hundreds of slats that can be rotated to bring natural light into the subterranean chambers where gladiators and animals used to wait before their brutal combat.

Before the pandemic, the Colosseum drew more than 7 million visitors a year, establishing itself as Italy's most popular attraction. At the moment, the monument, built between 72 AD and 80 AD under Emperor Vespasian, has no floor, after archeologists removed it to be able to have a better view of the underground chambers.