Rome's Imperial Rome Architecture is a three hour walk in the archaeological core of the city. Your walk will focus on the history and development of Rome during the Imperial period. We will start our discussion with one of the most impressive monuments from antiquity—the Colosseum. After visiting the amphitheater and discussing its role in Rome, we will continue on the via dei Fori Imperiali, looking over the Roman Fora and pointing out some of its distinctive aspects. The second part of the walk will focus on the emperor Trajan and his development of the city, with the markets and the monumental column of Trajan. We will linger among the ruins for a while, examining the fantastic details of the Basilica Ulpia and possibly entering it (the site is open on special occasion). Your docent will explain the relationship between some of the surrounding Medieval structures and the Imperial buildings, creating a narrative that will link the different historical periods. There are tens of thousands of fascinating details to focus upon and based on how our conversation has developed to that point our docent will pick apart a few salient ones to help the group get a perspective on the history of this area.

From Trajan's markets we will continue on to see the Roman houses at the bottom of the Capitoline Hill (Aracoeli), the only remains of Roman apartments visible above ground. This will give a nice addition to all the large-scale public buildings visited earlier in the walk and will provide insight in the daily life of the Romans. If time allows, we could continue towards the theater of Marcellus, where we could talk quickly through the temples ending the walk at the Porticus of Octavia, another building that tells us about the daily life of the Romans, as it was a type of building the Romans used for leisure walking, education and exhibiting art pieces.