Why We Say Milestone: The Forums at Sunset

This walk starts from a claim that turns out to be true: you already know more about ancient Rome than you think, because the language you speak is full of it. Why do all roads lead to Rome, and what was actually true about that. Why the city is called eternal, and who first said so. Why we say milestone, which comes from the stone markers set every Roman mile along the roads, counted from a single point in the Forum. The guide works through several of these and the ordinary life behind them: what people ate, where they washed, how a street was built and drained. The route begins at the Theatre of Marcellus, which first-time visitors regularly mistake for the Colosseum. That is not a foolish mistake: the theatre is around a century older and the Colosseum's architects borrowed its design. Then up to Michelangelo's square on the Capitoline, where everything you can see was designed by him, including the building that holds the oldest museum in the world. From the terrace, the Forum below at sunset, with reconstructions to show what stood where. After that an ancient paved street, the Via dei Fori Imperiali, and Trajan's Forum, the last and largest built, with what is often called the first shopping centre attached to it. Small group, no crowds, walking after the heat has gone.