This must happen to everyone a couple of days into their first visit to Rome:  You’re having breakfast, turning your mind to the day ahead, when you think… “I’m going to see <insert famous historical site here> today” and you’re aware that it feels oddly normal yet still surreal to be heading out to visit another 2,000+ year old site of historical significance.   On our fourth day in Rome, I have a memory of asking my wife rather nonchalantly, “So, what do you want to do after we visit the Forum?”  That’s always been something special about traveling to me – the juxtaposition of rapidly becoming comfortable in a foreign place (was I really  asking about what to do after the Forum???) running up against the anticipation of experiencing something enormous for which you don’t have any adequate frame of reference.

On yet another perfect weather day, we made the short walk from our hotel to the Roman Forum.    I could have been perfectly happy to just stand at one end to look out over the site and imagine the scene more than 2,000 years ago:

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