The forum

Sign posting around here is appalling. If you're lucky enough to find a signpost it's tiny, half a kilometre away and in microfiche. We took a wrong turn for the forum entrance and ended by by some basilica. We sat in the shade to rest and watched all the other tourists make the same mistake and look lost. A bunch of Italian kids also seemed to take pleasure in laughing at the confused tourists. We eventually got in and once again it's both impressive and sad what we have left. I read that some eastern emperor in the sixth century removed all the iron supports for all these monuments to make weapons for war. When a tremor next hit Rome it was then that all the buildings and monuments fell. They were eventually scavenged for church building.

We took another three hours and had to shelter frequently from the sun. The temperature in the shade was fine but the sun was tiring. Thankfully there were plenty of fountains to fill our bottles. Katarina did well even if the pace was very slow.