ROMA!!! April 29 2019

Jan and I arrived on schedule in Rome on April 29.  We were met at the airport by a Road Scholar representative and connected with some other Road Scholars before being taken to the Hotel Pace Helvetia.  There we were met by the group leader, Fabio, and more of our fellow Road Scholars.  We were there fairly early in the day and so there was time to go to the rooftop of the hotel and to take a short walk in the neighborhood.  The picture above is from the roof of the hotel.  The imposing structure behind the dome is the Monumento Victor Emmanuel II and it commemorates the first king of Italy, which I was surprised to realize was only unified in 1861.

On our walk, we went through the ancient Fora of Rome.  No, that isn't a typo...Fora is the plural of Forum..  There were actually many Fora in this area.  I am just beginning to realize how much I don't know....and hope I will learn more.  Here's some pictures that I took on the walk:

The column is Trajan's column.  He was Emperor from 98-117 AD.  The column has detailed carvings that tell the story of his conquests. There was also a huge Trajan Market and he expanded the Roman Forum to the extent that it became the largest forum ever.  I could go on and on about him.  This column used to have a statue of Trajan on top, but it was replaced by a statue of St. Peter.  My apologies that my photo doesn't show that.

Nearby there is a statue of Julius Caesar:

...and then there was this statue:

which isn't a statue at all.  It is an actor and I had to give him a tip for taking this photo.  When I took the picture, he paused and pointed at his basket, which isn't shown in the photo and I hadn't noticed before.

We went to dinner and then were ready for bed.  I didn't sleep well, even though I hadn't slept on the train.  Too excited to be in Rome!