Well then we actually got to the forum

So we started walking around the forum. The scale is just hard to imagine until you get there. The thing is huge.

We saw the place where Marc Antony burnt Julius Caesar (he was dead at the time) and left his tomb there for people to throw coins on.

From a historical perspective, I guess Marc Antony was expecting to succeed Caesar, but Caesar apparently had a secret son who succeed him instead. Not sure how he managed to enforce that after he was dead, but it worked out okay I guess, at least for a couple of centuries (for you kids out there, that's even enough time to catch up on Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, and maybe even watch all of the Harry Potter and Twilight movies again).

So from there we moved up to Palatine Hill, where first Augustus lived (since supposedly that was where Romulus founded Rome after being raised by a she-wolf and before being foiled by Captain Kirk) in a regular size mansion and then other emperors built larger and larger houses until they started to spill off the hill and onto the plains down below. Nero had a country estate created for himself in the middle of the city. It was around this time that we started to hear our guide use the world megalomaniac with increasing frequency and accuracy.

Not much left of these houses, especially Nero's. Some brick work and small sections of the marble floors.

After all of this it was time for lunch. Yes, all of that before lunch. Four hours of walking around. I had a very nice tuna salad at a place across the street.

After lunch, it was time to move on to the Colosseum. We had the kind of VIP thing where you can go onto a private viewing area, then down into the lower level, then all the way up top. I have to say, of for all its faults (countless acts of bloody cruelty, and it's full of holes) it's a pretty impressive piece of business. I had not realized, for example, that it had a retractable roof. Okay, it was more an awning than a roof, but I'm sure the people staying out of the rain or heat because of it didn't complain. 

Downstairs was dark and strange and vaguely frightening. I also learned about the existence of the flat arch. Not quite as strong as a rounded arch or a solid beam, but it fits better in some circumstances and cost less in others.

 

Then up to the top, which was pretty frigging amazing.

And that was the day. Then back to the room for a rest and eventually to dinner. More commentary later.