Day 20 TUE: 2/26: Trajan's Forum

Tuesday I woke up early again (which I have to do every day this week). We went to visit Trajan’s Market and the Imperial Fora. We met at Trajan’s Column and it started to rain. The museum was nearby and was very cold. The ancient market building was big, but then after I saw the computer rendering of the area reconstructed it became massive. The Romans built structures (other than the Colosseum) that are mammoth even by today’s scale. The fact that they are all structural masonary and not steel makes them even more unbelievable. We were allowed to take pictures here (unlike yesterday) so I’ll post those soon! After the tour we went to this restaurant on Corso Vittorio that’s near the school. Some of the guys recommended it and so did one of our professors. However, upon entering in a big loud English speaking group we were greeted with “tourist prices”- 8E for a plate of pasta. Some people left until our very Italian professor Davide came in and set things straight with the manager. Now we have cards to get fair prices, but I still feel slighted by the restaurant. The food was mediocre, but the coffee (like everywhere in Italy) was superb. The weather was really wet and cold and I was tired so I didn’t go out that night.