captioning funded by cbs and ford >> anything you can say, barbara? >> cooper: barbara mancini was charged with helping her 93- year-old terminally ill father kill himself. she says he couldn't have been clearer about how he wanted his life to end. he asked me to hand him the bottle and i did. i had the dosing syringe in my hand. he took the cap off and he drank what was remaining in the bottle. >> cooper: could you have stopped him? >> i could have, i think. i mean, he did it pretty quickly. but no, i didn't try to stop him. >> cooper: should terminally ill people be able to end their own lives? that's our story tonight. >> simon: it all started here in the yukon, and now there's a new gold rush going on that may be worth billions. ( dog barking ) it's not the safest place in the world to work.

but it doesn't bother this man, who may have figured out how to become the richest prospector of them all. what are the odds that there's going to be gold there? >> extremely high. like pretty well, i could almost guarantee gold. >> simon: seven million ounces at today's gold prices, what would that be worth? >> it's probably close to $10 billion. >> safer: italy is home to two- thirds of the world's cultural treasures. the trouble is, the country's too broke to keep its historic ruins, churches, monuments from crumbling to dust. but now, some of its most treasured and endangered landmarks are being saved. not by the government but by a more respected italian institution, the fashion business. >> there is a very famous kennedy speech, no? what is possible for us to do for our country, we need to do now.

>> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm scott pelley. those stores tonight on "60 minutes." the design of the ford escape is clearly intended to grab your eye. ♪ oh, and your foot. ain't that a kick? the ford escape with the foot-activated liftgate. ♪ go open up something interesting.

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whether doctors and caregivers should be allowed to help someone like maynard hasten her own death is the subject of a long-running, state-by-state battle. our story tonight is about a woman who was prosecuted for allegedly helping her 93-year- old father kill himself. barbara mancini lives in pennsylvania, a state that does not have a law like oregon's. her father was terminally ill and in pain and had repeatedly said he wanted to die. one morning while she was caring for him, mancini says he asked her to hand him his bottle of morphine. >> barbara mancini: he asked me to hand him the bottle and i did. i had the dosing syringe in my hand. he took the cap off and he drank what was remaining in the bottle. >> cooper: could you have stopped him? >> mancini: i could have, i think. i mean, he did it pretty quickly. but no, i didn't try to stop him. >> cooper: this is barbara mancini and her father, joe yourshaw, in happier times, at barbara's wedding in 1994.

yourshaw had served in europe during world war ii and earned a bronze star in the battle of the bulge. barbara had always known him to be industrious and strong- minded. he was active well into his 80s. but by last year, he was 93 and suffering from kidney disease, cardiovascular problems, and a host of other ailments. his medical records say doctors expected him to live "six months or less," and he was telling anyone who'd listen he wanted to die. >> mancini: he had very focused convictions about how he wanted to live, and being independent was a big part of that. >> cooper: he didn't want to wind up infirm in a hospital bed on a feeding tube. >> mancini: no. absolutely not. he was adamant that he never wanted to be in a hospital. >> cooper: he put his wishes in writing and made barbara his health care proxy. he stopped taking medications that might prolong his life, and enrolled in a home hospice program that prescribed small doses of morphine he could drink to ease his pain. it was in february 2013, at his home in pottsville,

pennsylvania, that barbara says he asked her to hand him that bottle of morphine. what'd you think when you saw him drink it? >> mancini: i said, "well, i think you just drank a lot of morphine there." and he said, "i want to go to sleep." and i just sat down next to him and i held his hand. and he laid back and we started to talk. >> cooper: did part of you think, "this is him saying good- bye"? >> mancini: yes. >> cooper: did you think at all about calling a hospital or calling a doctor? >> mancini: no. i would not have done that because it was expressly against his wish, and i was... i promised him i would honor his wishes. >> cooper: she did tell a hospice nurse who visited the house that morning what had happened, and the hospice called the police. an officer soon came to the door. >> mancini: he told me i no longer had any say in what happened to my father.

>> cooper: and he was taken to the hospital. >> mancini: he was. >> cooper: what happened to you? >> mancini: i was arrested on the spot. >> cooper: did they tell you why you were under arrest? >> mancini: the police captain said i was being arrested for aiding a suicide. >> cooper: what's the penalty for that? >> mancini: up to ten years in prison. >> cooper: barbara mancini believes that what happened that morning should not be against the law, and in some states, it isn't. >> we love you. we love you, rog. >> cooper: if he'd lived in oregon, joe yourshaw might have been able to end his life as this man did, as captured in a 2011 documentary. >> you have the right to change your mind. >> my mind's not changing. >> cooper: this lethal potion of barbiturates was legally prescribed after two doctors certified he was terminally ill and mentally competent. because all the requirements of oregon's law were followed, no one involved was in danger of prosecution, even though some of them helped him kill himself. >> there's your merchandise. >> cooper: more than 750 people in oregon have used lethal prescriptions to end their lives

since that state enacted its "death with dignity" act 17 years ago. washington and vermont now have similar laws. in montana and new mexico, courts have ruled it's legal under existing law. everywhere else, surveys suggest, the practice goes on very quietly to keep physicians and caregivers out of trouble. >> barbara coombs lee: what happened to barbara mancini was rare, but the risk of what happened to her pervades every bedside of every dying individual. >> cooper: barbara coombs lee is president of compassion and choices, one of the nation's largest advocacy groups on end- of-life issues. she helped write oregon's "death with dignity" act, and believes every state needs a similar law. without it, she argues, doctors still write lethal prescriptions but they do it in secret, without any standards. >> coombs lee: doctors often write prescriptions for life- ending medication for each other, just as they write prescriptions for life-ending medications for their patients

with winks and nods. >> cooper: and it shouldn't be done with winks and nods? >> coombs lee: it should be a transparent, open process. that's how you make a practice safe. >> cooper: there are, of course, all sorts of objections- some religious, some moral, and some from doctors themselves. >> ira byock: anything we can do to just make this day a little better for you? >> cooper: dr. ira byock is a dartmouth professor and head of the providence health care system's institute for human caring. he's been nationally recognized for his efforts to provide terminally ill patients with better care. but he is strongly opposed to laws like oregon's. >> ira byock: there's certain things that people aren't supposed to do to one another, as absolutes. they are not okay. doctors killing patients is not okay. >> cooper: but shouldn't people have the ability to... to determine the... when their life is no longer worth living? >> byock: you know, when a physician is involved in a

suicide, it's a social action. and if you want to look at the societies like belgium and... and netherlands, well, nowadays, people who have just lost interest in living, or are clinically depressed, are being euthanized legally. >> is there anything you can say, barbara? >> cooper: barbara mancini was released on bail, but she was forced to take an unpaid leave from her job as an e.r. nurse. the case against her was complicated by the fact that her father did not die right away when he got to the hospital. his medical records indicate he "responded well" to a drug that reversed the effects of the morphine and he "awoke" in the e.r. >> mancini: my mother and my sister-in-law were with him, and they said they had never seen him so angry in his... in his entire life. he pulled out his i.v. >> cooper: he pulled out his own i.v. >> mancini: yeah, he apparently pulled off the... the wires for the heart monitor, and tried to get up and leave. >> cooper: four days after being taken to the hospital, joe yourshaw died.

though his death certificate lists "morphine toxicity" as the primary cause, hospital records suggest a number of other possible causes including "aspiration pneumonia" and "failure to thrive." the records also show that, because of his daughter's arrest, yourshaw's family allowed the hospital to provide medical treatment he specifically said, in his living will, he didn't want. barbara coombs lee says studies in medical journals indicate that's common, even when there is no arrest. >> coombs lee: i think most people don't realize that an advanced directive, the paper that we fill out and have other people sign as witnesses, it can't mandate. it can't require a doctor or a health care provider to do anything or not to do anything. >> cooper: i think most people think the complete opposite? >> coombs lee: actually, in order for those wishes to have any force, they have to be reduced to a medical order. >> cooper: but only two states have well-established systems to ensure that a medical order regarding life-sustaining treatment will be respected throughout the health care system.

in other states, there's no guarantee. barbara mancini's court case dragged on for months. though compassion and choices helped pay some of her attorneys' fees, the legal bills mounted, and so, she says, did the stress on her family. did you feel that you had aided a suicide? >> mancini: no, i didn't. i felt like what i did was hand my father his medicine. now, he didn't tell me, "i'm going to kill myself today." he asked me for the medicine. >> cooper: you think if pennsylvania had a law like they have in oregon, things would've been different? >> mancini: i do. and i also feel that he should have had the option if he wanted it. >> cooper: but dr. byock, who reviewed joe yourshaw's records at our request, questions whether yourshaw would have needed a "death with dignity" law to end his life if he had simply received better end-of- life care from his hospice. >> byock: if i was his family, i would have been livid. >> cooper: why? >> byock: they were just doing the regulatory minimum for mr.

yourshaw. and they weren't really addressing his suffering to the extent it... it needed to be. >> cooper: in a statement, the hospice of central pennsylvania said, "by law, we are unable to comment on this specific case," but "the care we provide greatly exceeds the regulatory minimum." asked why it called the police to the yourshaw home, the hospice said its nurses "must obey the laws," and state law "makes it a crime for someone to aid another in committing suicide." hospice records reveal joe yourshaw to have been a difficult patient, who at times refused to take any medication. but the records also show yourshaw repeatedly told hospice workers that he suffered from "pain all over," and felt that, "by living, he would be more of a burden to his family." >> byock: i think that this case is emblematic of how we are failing elders, chronically ill people, vulnerable people in america.

>> cooper: failing how? >> byock: in so many ways. we are, you know, not treating people's suffering. we are making them feel undignified. ask any boomer who's cared for their parents, they'll tell you that even for those of us who are doctors and nurses, it's really, really hard to get the basics of care for... for your frail loved one met. >> cooper: barbara mancini would say, "well, if... if pennsylvania had the kind of laws that oregon now has, which would have allowed her father to get some... some medicine that could have ended his life, whether he chose to use it or not, that would have at least given him a sense of... of peace." >> byock: so, what we're saying to mr. yourshaw is, "we're not going to treat your pain. we're not going to train your doctors to counsel you. we're going to basically ignore you. but don't worry, because if the time comes when you're feeling hopeless, we can write that lethal prescription." in... in what world is that a

progressive, positive development? >> cooper: is it possible that your father swallowed that morphine because he was in a lot of pain... >> mancini: yes. >> cooper: ...and he didn't want to be a burden to... to your family, rather than a real desire to end his life? >> mancini: that certainly is quite possible. >> cooper: well, is that an argument for better end-of-life care, as opposed to, you know, death with dignity acts or... >> mancini: i don't know why better end-of-life care and death with dignity can't coexist. why not? >> cooper: a year after barbara mancini was arrested, a state judge dismissed the charges against her, ruling that the prosecution's case "appears to have been based on little independent investigation" and "significant hearsay." >> mancini: good afternoon. my name is barbara mancini... >> cooper: now that she's no longer facing prison time, she's able to testify about her experience in states considering laws similar to oregon's.

she's back at work now, but told us she's still struggling to come to terms with what happened to her father. >> mancini: there are some nights i lie awake in bed and i just relive this whole thing. and less of it has to do with what happened to me. more of it has to do with picturing him lying there in that e.r. crying out, knowing what i read in the... the hospital record. >> cooper: the way he died haunts you? >> mancini: yes. because the way his life ended was exactly the way he didn't want it to end-- with no control, in pain, having things done to him. and i feel terrible about it. introducing a pm pain reliever that dares to work all the way until the am. new aleve pm

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>> simon: the klondike-- it's always been about gold since the first gold rush in the late 19th century when miners stampeded into the yukon, a pristine area in northwest canada just east of alaska. it's been more bust than boom since then, but recently, a new stream of money has been rushing into the yukon, largely because of the discoveries of one prospector. he used to be a penniless trapper and mushroom picker, but the gold he says he's found could be worth billions. and that might be just the beginning, because the government has decided to open a whole new stretch of wilderness to mining. miners and prospectors are a secretive lot, but we decided to take our chances and see what's happening in the yukon, a place that's changed very little since the first gold rush over 100 years ago.

it's one of the most remote stretches of wilderness in north america, home to more caribou than people. thousands cavort over the mountain tops in their annual migration. the canadian territory is bigger than california, but only 36,000 people live here in scattered communities like dawson, a dirt- road town next to the yukon river that was ground zero for the first gold rush. there's an old west feel to the town. they still dance and gamble at diamond tooth gertie's. tourists and locals-- you can tell them apart. the tourists come here for the history and pan like the old timers. a lot of real gold miners still work around town. they bring their discoveries in mason jars and coffee cans to an unmarked shack. that's where simon works, at home.

he buys miners' gold and melts it down. anywhere else, there would be guards and guns, but simon, who asked us not to use his last name or reveal his address, just went about his business, proving that gold doesn't really glitter until you give it a scrubbing and turn it into a dazzling bar worth $200,000. have you ever sort of calculated how much gold has passed through this shed in the last 18 years? >> simon: oh, i wouldn't want to comment on it, but it's been... there's been a bit, yeah. >> bob simon: one guy we've been hanging out with says that he gives you about 10 million bucks' worth a year. that's pretty good, huh? >> simon: yeah, yeah, yeah, he probably does. >> bob simon: but why is everybody so secretive around here? >> simon: well, who knows, you know? and it's like everybody's bank account, you know. you're not going to flop your checkbook out in front of me and show me the balance. >> bob simon: in the last gold rush, 30,000 miners burst into dawson. some struck it rich; many others went broke or died.

dawson looks pretty much the same today. you can still see the old miners' shacks near the aptly named bonanza creek, where the first gold was discovered. it's called "placer gold," the name used for river gold. >> shawn ryan: the old prospectors would put a shaft down under the creek. >> bob simon: shawn ryan, a prospector, says a lot of placer gold has been mined here. >> ryan: they figure, at the turn of the century, there was somewhere between 13 million and 20 million ounces of placer gold taken out of the klondike. >> bob simon: which was worth what then? >> ryan: right now, that'd be worth well over, you know, between $13 billion and $20 billion worth of gold, at today's prices, so... >> bob simon: 100years later, they're still mining the same creeks and riverbanks. the miners use back hoes now, not the gold pans you see in clint eastwood movies. ian thomas is digging dirt that's already been mined once. he's looking for leftovers. his equipment separates rock from dirt, and then gives the

dirt a bath to wash out the gold. how you doing? >> ian thomas: we have good years, we have bad years. >> bob simon: in other words, you don't really want to answer the question. >> thomas: not really. >> bob simon: dave miller also didn't want to tell us how much gold he finds, but he did show us the frisbee-like device he uses to separate his gold from dirt. that... i mean, that looks like gold. >> dave miller: yes, that is gold. that is placer gold. there's about two ounces of gold in there. >> bob simon: okay. >> miller: so,that's $2,400, give or take... >> bob simon: this is 2,400 bucks? >> miller: yep. >> simon: then, miller showed us the most valuable thing his family's found in 40 years, a three-ounce nugget. now that's impressive. he'll let you hold it for a while, but just for a while. there are no free samples in dawson. >> miller: we don't find too many nuggets anymore. this would be big stuff compared to what we find today. >> bob simon: but prospector shawn ryan says he's found a lot of big stuff, and investors have poured money into the yukon because of him. ryan doesn't dig up riverbanks,

he prospects in the mountains- it's more challenging and, if you do it right, he says, infinitely more lucrative. so now, you're a multimillionaire. and look at you-- you don't look like a multimillionaire. >> ryan: well, listen, all i feel like is a squirrel that just found the big acorn patch. ( laughs ) and i got a bunch of acorns in the base of the tree, so you don't really change. >> bob simon: not that long ago, shawn ryan was dead broke. to survive he trapped animals and picked mushrooms. he says you can make $50,000 a season picking these delectable morels. when we heard that mushroom picking helped ryan become a gold prospector, we went to track him down on a steep, burned-out mountainside where he still picks mushrooms for fun. >> ryan: okay, into the mushroom patch. this was last year's fire. >> bob simon: started by lightning? >> ryan: yeah. >> bob simon: how do you know where to look? >> ryan: well, that's where you research it.

these mushrooms come one year after a forest fire. and it only happens for a month. it's kind of like magic.; they magically appear. and it's only in that period of time in history, and then they go dormant for the next 200 or 300 years, or until the next forest fire. >> bob simon: the magic mushrooms got him through some pretty tough times. >> ryan: we lived in a 300-foot square shack, turn-of- the-century cabin with no running water or electricity. >> bob simon: were you warm enough in the wintertime? >> ryan: pretty well. sometimes, your hair would get stuck to the back wall if it was 40 below. ( laughs ) >> bob simon: when there was money to spare, ryan could afford to do aerial surveys of charred forests. he started researching soil quality, topography, and the contour of the land. he found even more mushrooms and discovered that the same research that helped him find the morels could help him find gold. >> ryan: i actually give a lot of credit to my gold discoveries based on the mushroom picking. because i was able to understand, scientifically, the parameters of why these

mushrooms grow up here and roughly how many's going to come out of each different fire. >> bob simon: you say that you come to a place like this and there are no mushrooms, but you have faith that they're going to pop up. >> ryan: that's exactly it. >> bob simon: it must be quite a thrill. >> ryan: well, it is, and that's about the same thrill as predicting where gold is. >> bob simon: shawn ryan says all the gold found in the rivers had to come from somewhere, most likely from the mountains, and that's where he has staked more than 50,000 claims. he and his team walk the ridges and take soil samples they send to a lab for analysis. finding gold is always a long shot, and the unexpected can happen at any time. >> ryan: oh, there's a bear right here. hey! hey! okay. where's your bear spray? where's the bear spray? whoo, yo bear! hey! there he is. look at the dog-- doesn't know. look, the bear is trying to figure out... oh, look at this. >> go get him, ursa!

go get him! >> bob simon: shawn and his team lucked out with the bear. all he has to do now is get lucky with the soil. >> ryan: so the idea is that when we run these ridges... >> bob simon: he taught himself how to study maps and surveys, and how to use a computer to help evaluate his claim and try to find the hot spots. the pinks are where the pay dirt is. >> ryan: yeah. >> bob simon: okay, but what percentage of hotspots actually will give you gold? >> ryan: i'd give that one in 10,000. >> bob simon: are you serious? >> ryan: ( laughs ) i mean, because the probability- - this is the only probability where the norm is to fail. >> bob simon: to better his odds, ryan and his team use a drone that makes a detailed aerial survey of his claim. they also send electrical charges 300 feet into the ground to get more precise physical data on where the gold might be located. >> ryan: whoo! excellent! >> bob simon: the images from the drone and the electric data

help create a three-dimensional underground virtual map, which helps pinpoint where to go digging. what are the odds that there's going to be gold there? >> ryan: extremely high. like pretty well, i could almost guarantee gold. well, they got you with lots of samples. >> bob simon: shawn ryan has become the biggest gold prospector in the yukon, and believes he's found seven million ounces of gold. but he doesn't actually mine the gold himself. he options his claims to larger companies and keeps a royalty. ryan says he expects digging to begin in a few years. seven million ounces at today's gold prices, what would that be worth? >> ryan: it's probably close to $10 billion. >> bob simon: $10 billion? but that's not for you? >> ryan: no. >> bob simon: out of that, you'd only get 1% or 2%. >> ryan: that's right. >> bob simon: and what would that make? >> ryan: might be in close to $100 million range. >> bob simon: yeah, that's... that's our arithmetic as well. >> ryan: that's how your math is working. >> bob simon: it is math, but shawn ryan says it's also a poker game- a game miners like

because it's just another way of playing the odds. >> ryan: if you play one blackjack game, the probability you're going to lose. if you play 20, if i'm lucky, two or three are going to be a winner. >> bob simon: and that's enough? >> ryan: and that'll pay for the... the moose pasture that i walked over and didn't find anything. >> bob simon: moose pasture being where there was nothing? >> ryan: nothing. yeah, just swamp. >> bob simon: but it's actually in the moose pastures and the caribou migration routes north of dawson where the next gold rush could take place. it's the peel watershed and is believed to be rich in minerals. most of the peel is part of the yukon, but you have to take a float plane to get there, to the 26,000 square miles of mountains and lakes that extend up to the arctic circle. the government recently took the first steps to open most of the area to mining. environmentalists were furious. so was wilderness entrepreneur chris widrig. he takes hunters to shoot

caribou and the occasional grizzly. one of those grizzlies nearly killed him and left him scarred for life. how much territory would the miners mine? >> chris widrig: too much. there's a frenzy, basically, you know, a gold frenzy. it's all staked. they can't get across the border right now but, you know, i'd like... they would like to. >> bob simon: to push back the miners, several groups have taken the government to court. what is it about this place? >> widrig: it's wild. there's no roads for 100 miles. there's no development. there's no towns. i think it's special, really. >> bob simon: in a replay of what once happened in america's wild west, native canadians, called the "first nations," are fighting to protect what was originally theirs. ed champion is one of their chiefs. why do you feel so strongly about this? >> ed champion: our people have been using this land, have been traversing it, using it for hunting, fishing, sustenance. and, you know, it... for many of our people it's been their

university, it's been their church, it's been...it's home, has been home. >> bob simon: and once you're opening up, what, 70% of the land to the government and what the government decides, you no longer have any control over what they do? >> champion: that's a major concern. >> bob simon: the biggest concern is that the wilderness would turn from this... into this... an abandoned mine just south of the peel watershed. >> widrig: all it would take would be one road. >> bob simon: the mining companies promise that they'll leave it as pristine as they found it? >> widrig: there's no such thing as a pristine mine that's been abandoned. >> bob simon: shawn ryan hopes the wilderness will be opened up for mining because it would create jobs. but he is not going there. he is too much in love with the

mushrooms around dawson, and believes that this is where he might just find what men have been searching for in the yukon for a hundred years. >> ryan: there's still this elusive source of the klondike. >> bob simon: the mother lode? >> ryan: yeah, and nobody's ever found that yet. i'll tell you what keeps me up at night. i fear to stop a mile short of the next ore deposit, so that's what keeps me going. >> bob simon: and now, after all this time, you still get a thrill? >> ryan: it's... i get so excited sometimes. i feel like an eight-year-old on an easter egg hunt. you know, when you're out there and you find another easter egg, well, there's another easter egg to be found. >> what is it like to come face to face with a bear? go to 60minutesovertime.com. >> bear spray. bear spray! ...the getaway vehicle!

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>> safer: it's estimated that italy is home to two-thirds of

the world's cultural treasures. trouble is, the country's too broke to keep its historic ruins, churches and monuments from crumbling to dust. italy is up to its neck in debt, taxes go unpaid, corruption in an overstuffed bureaucracy is rife. but now, some of its most treasured and endangered landmarks are being saved-- not by the government, but by a more respected italian institution, the fashion business. it's stepped in to rescue some of italy's most iconic sites-- among them, the very symbol of its rich, violent and inventive history, the colosseum in rome. with its stunning, timeless sights, it's justifiably called "the eternal city." a holy place to billions; a vast landscape of the sacred and profane. an architectural delight,

especially when viewed at sunset. and smack in the middle is the colosseum, the greatest surviving wonder of the ancient world, a memorial to the rise, decline and fall of imperial rome, a place truly colossal. >> kimberly bowes: we think it seats about 50,000 people. but this number depends on how wide you think the roman behind was. if you think that they had big behinds, then you calculate less; small behinds, you calculate more. >> safer: backsides aside, professor kimberly bowes is the director of the american academy in rome and an expert on ancient mediterranean history who knows every inch of the colosseum. she's taking us to the very top level, far above where tourists tread, for a sight that, over the centuries, very few people have seen firsthand. >> bowes: the view is terrifying! and the view is extraordinary. look at this, this is where the poor people sat.

you really get the scale of this building here, though. look how big this is. look how big this is! people are ants! >> safer: the place was built by the hands of slaves in just ten years, finished a mere half- century after the crucifixion. the performers here were gladiators, wild animals, even comedians. i gather that this place was the entertainment center, the broadway of its day, yes? >> bowes: in a way. the whole point is to produce marvels, to produce a spectacle that would have amazed the audience. the people with the most power, the senators, are down at the bottom. and the people with the least power, the slaves and the women, are up at the top. >> safer: women? >> bowes: women. like, you don't want women to get too close to gladiators. you have to keep them separate. because your greatest fear... you've two fears if you're a roman man. one is that your slave is going to kill you one day in your bed.

and your second fear is that your wife is going to run off with a slave, like a gladiator. this is what everyone's afraid of, so you've got to put the women up on the top. >> safer: so, even though the gladiators were slaves, they were kind of the movie stars of their day. >> bowes: they were. >> safer: and we turn to hollywood for an idea of how it all might have looked. ( cheers and applause ) >> bowes: there's a moment in "gladiator" where russell crowe walks out to right where we are. >> safer: professor bowes gives the filmmakers high marks for the historical accuracy of their computer recreation of the colosseum. >> bowes: the whole drama is really the re-enactment of roman conquest, the continual expansion of the empire. >> safer: backstage was actually underground-- the basement. >> bowes: until recently, this was just filled with dirt. >> safer: a labyrinth of corridors-- dungeons for slaves, cages for animals, all brought from the far reaches of the empire. and wooden elevators, raised by ropes and pulleys, leading to

trap doors in the stage. >> bowes: there's a wonderful scene in "gladiator" where the tiger pops out of the floor. this is exactly the kind of thing that would have been used to wow the audience. >> safer: since the 18th century, the roman catholic church has venerated the colosseum as a symbol of the early christian martyrs who were put to death for their beliefs. professor bowes tells visitors there were indeed early christians quietly executed elsewhere in rome. but as for the colosseum... >> bowes: we have not one piece of evidence that any christians were ever killed in this building, not one. there are, i think, really interesting reasons for this. if you take a group of people who, by all accounts, are extraordinarily brave in the face of certain death, and you put them in this space and put them on display, who's everyone going to cheer for? they're going to cheer for the christians, right? because they show such extraordinary bravery.

this is not a smart thing to do politically. >> so, i'm in the famous colosseum. >> safer: six million tourists a year visit here, snapping selfies and posing with rent-a- gladiators who pass the time with cigarettes and cell phones. the place has survived fires and earthquakes over the centuries. now, there's a new crisis-- finding the money to manage the crowds and keep up with basic maintenance. the director of the colosseum is rossella rea. >> rossella rea ( translated ): the money isn't there. there's very little, totally inadequate funding. only 5% of what we need. >> safer: too little money, and from the italian parliament, too much red tape. a lot of people say the bureaucracy is so top heavy that that's the reason why things don't get done. >> rea: bureaucracy is not just heavy, it is extremely heavy, and we are the first victims. bureaucracy, for us, is a killer.

>> safer: but that scaffolding you saw earlier is a sign that help is on the way. the colosseum is getting a badly needed facelift, with money from an unlikely source. to prevent further ruin, a benefactor is spending an arm and a leg- $35 million- on a place where, 2,000 years ago, gladiators and slaves literally lost arms, legs and lives, and all in the name of show business. the benefactor is diego della valle, a prominent italian businessman, who knows a lot about the business of showing. della valle is c.e.o. of tod's, the luxury leather goods company. crafting stylish shoes and bags has long been an italian specialty. having made his bundle, della valle decided to give some back to the state. why spend so much of your own money, millons upon millions,

to fix this wreck? >> diego della valle: why not? well, i am italian. i am very proud to be italian. and there is a very famous kennedy speech, no? is the moment that what is possible for us to do for our country, we need to do now. >> safer: the shoes that made della valle's fortune are assembled the old-fashioned way- - by hand, stitch by stitch. and the work he's funding at the colosseum is also about as low- tech as it gets. it's being cleaned literally inch by inch to get rid of centuries of caked-on dust, grime, air and auto pollution. the stone is travertine, a kind of limestone. no chemicals are allowed, only purified water and elbow grease- - days, weeks, months, years on end of scrubbing.

built by hand, saved by hand. how long is it going to take? >> della valle: the colosseum, i think three years from now. >> safer: and what will it look like, do you think, when they're finished? >> della valle: i am very curious. >> safer: to get some idea, we were shown a few sections that have been completely cleaned-- 2,000 years old, and looking almost brand new. and in the world of high style, it's become fashionable to follow della valle's example. an entire parade of fashionistas are bankrolling similar worthy causes. the fendi fashion house donated $3.5 million for some new plumbing for a familiar waterworks. >> safer: it's the trevi fountain... >> marcello, come here! >> safer: ...where, 54 years ago, marcello mastroianni and anita ekberg went wading in fellini's "la dolce vita," "the

sweet life," forever linking rome and romance. >> silvia fendi: this movie helped a lot to build this powerful image of the trevi fountain. cinema has big power. >> safer: silvia fendi's grandfather started the business 90 years ago. and as we spoke, huge crowds had a last chance to throw in a coin before the closing of the site for repairs. >> fendi: it means that you will be in good health in order to come back, so it's very important for us. this country gave us a lot, and so it's nice, at a point, to give back something. >> safer: elsewhere in rome, the bulgari fashion house is paying to clean and repair the spanish steps, where tourists stop to rest their feet. a japanese fashion company with ties to italy is restoring the pyramid of cestius, built to honor a noble roman two decades

before the birth of christ, after the roman conquest of egypt. and in venice, the 400-year-old rialto bridge over the grand canal will be cleaned and strengthened, thanks to $7 million from this man, renzo rosso. is the government too poor, too broke to maintain its treasures? >> renzo rosso: no, i think we have to face with the reality. the reality is that, they don't have money. >> safer: rosso is a farmer's son, a self-made man known as the "jeans genius," as in diesel jeans. he built the brand from the ground up, expanding into other businesses and becoming a billionaire several times over. >> rosso: i want more short. >> safer: his sleek headquarters rival anything in silicon valley, what with the espresso bars and day care, where kids learn the international language of business. >> clap out, clap in.

>> safer: but the fashion industry is a rare bright spot in the stagnant italian economy, and these workers are the lucky ones. elsewhere, fully half the country's young adults are unemployed. there's corruption, public and private, and widespread tax evasion. >> rosso: the italian people are tired of this corruption. because we have too many people that steal, too many people that put the money in his pocket. we have 40% of people who don't pay tax. can you imagine? 40%. it's unbelievable. >> safer: pope francis talks about the problem in scathing terms, saying corrupt politicians, businessmen and priests are everywhere. and the country's young, new prime minister, matteo renzi, has declared war on the political establishment, saying the whole system should be scrapped. diego della valle agrees. >> della valle: i think it's possible now to open a new way.

the old point of view was without any sense. i hope in the new point of view. i push for the new point of view. >> safer: but as della valle's scrubbers continue their work, it's worth noting that his generous offer to restore the country's greatest monument was mired in the bureaucratic mud for nearly three years before work could begin. >> bowes: this is the real challenge that italy has. this is why sites are closed and monuments are falling down. the bureaucracy will have to change in order to actually make it possible for someone to come and say, "here, do you want $25 million?" without the bureaucracy saying, "well, i don't know. i'll have to think about it." >> safer: but time has a way of standing still for italians. past glories are always present. the food remains superb and the noble wines still lubricate the conversation. on the surface, it's still la dolce vita, "the sweet life." as for the future, that's

somebody else's problem. >> welcome to the cbs sports update presented by pacific life. i'm james brown with scores from around the nfl today. indy wins its fifth in the row with a shutout over the bengals who drop to second in the a.f.c. north after baltimore wins. ryan tannenhill keeps chicago winless at home. aaron rodgers makes it four straight with three touchdown passes as the pack rolls. seattle loses its second straight, falling to the rams while kc evens its record with a win over san diego. for more sports news and information, go to cbssports.com. the future to life. for more than 145 years, pacific life has been helping families achieve life-long financial security with innovative tools and strategies.

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>> stahl: in the mail, our story on the cost of cancer drugs drew fire from the community oncology alliance, or c.o.a., an organization of cancer physicians. in the story, we reported that medicare is required to pay prescribing doctors a percentage over and above the price of the medications, creating an incentive, some doctors told us, to use a pricier drug, since it means higher payment for doctors. c.o.a. president bruce gould wrote: "to imply that we knowingly provide care motivated by personal financial gain is simply wrong, and unnecessarily undermines patients dealing with devastating illness." i'm lesley stahl. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes."

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the secretary is so sorry, mr. ambassador. she was called away to a meeting at the white house. hmm, regarding the talks with iran, no doubt. i hear there's a snag. of course, you couldn't say, could you? she did want me to tell you that canada is a very high priority. ah. very nice of her to say. (door closes) man: what you're looking at, mr. president, is an act of war on the part of the islamic republic of iran. i'm looking at a building that could be a walmart. it's the heavy-water production plant, sir. it's the same heavy-water reactor the iranians agreed to halt construction on over a week ago. sir, i've been negotiating. i'm getting nowhere with these people here in vienna for almost 18 months. right now, if you ask me, i need to go in that room and tell them the talking is over. what are you proposing, allen? well, sir, we have a squadron of f-18's on a carrier in the gulf. they can be over that thing in 40, 45 minutes.